2024年全国英语竞赛《B类英语专业》决赛试题（网友回忆版）
B类英语专业
历年真题
共 59 题
2875 次浏览
更新于 2026-09-26
二、Part Ⅱ Vocabulary
15 marks
1
Both parties must agree to abide by the _____ of the agreement.
- A.texts
- B.terms
- C.methods
- D.means
2
The parcel containing glassware was marked “_____”.
- A.fragile
- B.frail
- C.delicate
- D.vulnerable
3
A recent Ministry of Defence document paints a picture of _____ reality for the future.It warns that if present consumption patterns continue, by 2045, two-thirds of the world’s population will _____ living in ‘water-stressed’ conditions.
- A.ruthless; break out
- B.grim; end up
- C.severe; come round
- D.cruel; set down
4
It is the quaint white-washed houses that _____ the Cyclades islands of Greece.
- A.set aside
- B.set in
- C.set off
- D.set apart
5
As humans develop through the various life stages _____ the period from birth to death, they acquire knowledge about the world around them through, _____ other things, sensory perception.
- A.joining; within
- B.bridging; midst
- C.spanning; among
- D.linking; between
6
A number of students were _____ after the school science lab burnt down.However, the police were unable to gather enough evidence to press charges.
- A.prosecuted
- B.interrogated
- C.revoked
- D.penalized
7
The consonant [f] in English can be correctly described as having the following phonetic features: _____.
- A.voiced, bilabial, stop
- B.voiced, labiodental, fricative
- C.voiceless, bilabial, stop
- D.voiceless, labiodental, fricative
8
You may not like the play, but when you are given a complimentary ticket to the theatre you shouldn’t _____.
- A.throw the baby out with the bathwater
- B.take the rough with the smooth
- C.look a gift horse in the mouth
- D.look for a needle in a haystack
9
Verulamium has established _____ as one of the most popular museums of Roman life in the country.Since it was redisplayed in 1991 the number of visitors has _____ to 90,000 a year.
- A.itself; risen
- B.oneself; risen
- C.itself; raised
- D.oneself; raised
10
Aylesbury is a _____ market town whose modern shopping facilities include the _____ opened Friars Square shopping centre.
- A.foreign; frequently
- B.deserted; likely
- C.bustling; recently
- D.permanent; rarely
11
I chose literature as my major because I wasn’t really cut out for science subjects._____, I failed in maths and physics quite a few times.
- A.As I see it
- B.Despite this
- C.Nonetheless
- D.As a matter of fact
12
_____ remote working is becoming the norm, companies are investing more in high-tech tools.
- A.Owning to
- B.On condition that
- C.Given the fact that
- D.Due to
13
There _____ nothing more for discussion, the meeting came to an end half an hour earlier.
- A.being
- B.was
- C.to be
- D.had been
14
Mia: You thought the zoo was great, didn’t you?
Vincent: Yeah, much better than the last trip we went on.That museum was so boring.The insect house was amazing—definitely my favourite bit.I just love things like that.
Mia: _____—All those bugs and creepy crawlies—a bit scary if you ask me.No, I like furry things—monkeys or meerkats.They’re so cute.
Vincent: Yeah, much better than the last trip we went on.That museum was so boring.The insect house was amazing—definitely my favourite bit.I just love things like that.
Mia: _____—All those bugs and creepy crawlies—a bit scary if you ask me.No, I like furry things—monkeys or meerkats.They’re so cute.
- A.Well, it’s up to you really.
- B.Really? I thought it was horrible.
- C.Yes, I suppose you are right.
- D.We actually see eye to eye on this.
15
Helen: Do you remember me telling you that I was thinking of moving abroad?
Matthew: Yes, but I didn’t think you were being serious.
Helen: I probably wasn’t at the time, but now I am.I’ve already applied for three jobs.
Matthew: Well, good luck and don’t forget to invite me over if you do move.
Helen: _____
Matthew: Yes, but I didn’t think you were being serious.
Helen: I probably wasn’t at the time, but now I am.I’ve already applied for three jobs.
Matthew: Well, good luck and don’t forget to invite me over if you do move.
Helen: _____
- A.Don’t worry.I won’t.
- B.I promise I will.
- C.I’m looking forward to a reply.
- D.I’m not sure about that.
三、Part Ⅲ Cloze
10 marks
Section A (5 marks)
Read the following passage and fill in the blanks with the correct forms of 5 words or phrases out of the 7 given in the box.Write the answers on the answer sheet.
Lake Titicaca, which is situated between Peru and Bolivia, (41) _____ an area of approximately 58,000 square kilometres and lies 3,800 metres above sea level.As it has a maximum (42) _____ of nearly 300 metres, large vessels can sail on the lake, making it the highest navigable stretch of water in the world.The water required to maintain its massive volume comes from rainfall and snow that has melted near some of the major mountain peaks in the Andes.In all, there are twenty-five rivers that flow into Lake Titicaca, and as their (43) _____ are so high up in the mountains, the water that reaches the lake is rather cold.
Despite being so (44) _____, Lake Titicaca and its forty-one islands is a popular holiday destination.The spectacular scenery, including the lake itself which turns from gray to blue when the sun comes out, the gold museum (45) _____ Inca treasures, good food and the hospitable locals all make it a must-visit place for the intrepid traveller.
Read the following passage and fill in the blanks with the correct forms of 5 words or phrases out of the 7 given in the box.Write the answers on the answer sheet.
Lake Titicaca, which is situated between Peru and Bolivia, (41) _____ an area of approximately 58,000 square kilometres and lies 3,800 metres above sea level.As it has a maximum (42) _____ of nearly 300 metres, large vessels can sail on the lake, making it the highest navigable stretch of water in the world.The water required to maintain its massive volume comes from rainfall and snow that has melted near some of the major mountain peaks in the Andes.In all, there are twenty-five rivers that flow into Lake Titicaca, and as their (43) _____ are so high up in the mountains, the water that reaches the lake is rather cold.Despite being so (44) _____, Lake Titicaca and its forty-one islands is a popular holiday destination.The spectacular scenery, including the lake itself which turns from gray to blue when the sun comes out, the gold museum (45) _____ Inca treasures, good food and the hospitable locals all make it a must-visit place for the intrepid traveller.
16
_____.
17
_____.
18
_____.
19
_____.
20
_____.
Section B (5 marks)
Read the following passage and fill in each blank with one word in one of the following three ways: according to the context, by using the correct form of the given word(s), or by using the given letter(s) of the word.Write the answers on the answer sheet.
Although Kew Gardens is often overlooked by many overseas visitors to London, it is regarded by some (46) vis_____ as a place worth seeing over and over again.Now over 250 years old, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to the world’s largest single collection of (47) _____ (live) plants.As there are more than seven million specimens to care for and study, a large proportion of employees at Kew are gardening staff and scientists.
For those who are not adventurous enough to explore the gardens alone, there are other staff who give guided walks (48) _____ (two) a day.Highlights of the walk usually include a visit to the hot and humid Waterlily House and the treetop walkway which offers spectacular views from eighteen metres (49) _____ ground.
If walking long distances is out of the question, Kew Gardens provides an excellent alternative in the form of road trains which are powered by gas so that pollution is minimal.The (50) jou_____ is accompanied by a commentary given by the driver who makes sure his passengers are kept fully informed about the incredible diversity of the plant life on view.
Read the following passage and fill in each blank with one word in one of the following three ways: according to the context, by using the correct form of the given word(s), or by using the given letter(s) of the word.Write the answers on the answer sheet.
Although Kew Gardens is often overlooked by many overseas visitors to London, it is regarded by some (46) vis_____ as a place worth seeing over and over again.Now over 250 years old, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to the world’s largest single collection of (47) _____ (live) plants.As there are more than seven million specimens to care for and study, a large proportion of employees at Kew are gardening staff and scientists.
For those who are not adventurous enough to explore the gardens alone, there are other staff who give guided walks (48) _____ (two) a day.Highlights of the walk usually include a visit to the hot and humid Waterlily House and the treetop walkway which offers spectacular views from eighteen metres (49) _____ ground.
If walking long distances is out of the question, Kew Gardens provides an excellent alternative in the form of road trains which are powered by gas so that pollution is minimal.The (50) jou_____ is accompanied by a commentary given by the driver who makes sure his passengers are kept fully informed about the incredible diversity of the plant life on view.
21
_____.
22
_____.
23
_____.
24
_____.
25
_____.
四、Part Ⅳ RC
30 marks（Reading Comprehension）
There are three passages in this part.Each passage is followed by several questions.Respond to the questions using information from the passage.Remember to write the answers on the answer sheet.
Section A (10 marks)
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Performing a search on the computer is something we do without giving a thought to the consequences.Yet, according to one study, performing just two searches can require approximately the same amount of energy as boiling water for a cup of tea.As a result, those two searches can release about 14g of CO2 into the atmosphere.Unfortunately, this is only one half of the story as those companies which operate search engines also pollute the atmosphere.
In a recent report, it was estimated that the global IT industry generated around 2% of worldwide CO2 emissions.(51) _____ The reason why internet search providers use so much electricity is that the data centres are incredibly energy intensive since they each contain banks that store billions of web pages, all of which require power to function correctly.
Although the leading internet search providers claim they are trying to make computing as environmentally friendly as possible, search engines generate high levels of CO2 because of the way they operate.(52) _____ It goes to several that are competing with each other to provide the data required.Such servers may be thousands of miles apart.Google, for example, has servers in the US, Europe and Japan.
(53) _____ Therefore, the system they adopt minimises delays and becomes more attractive to the person at the computer.The drawback, though, is that by satisfying the demands of the individual who typed in the search, energy consumption increases.
As regards individual users, there have been several other studies carried out to determine the quantity of CO2 they release into the atmosphere.(54) _____ For example, viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2, while viewing a site with complex images or videos generates ten times as much.Despite the fact that the studies reach different conclusions, it has been generally agreed that on average, running a PC generates between 40g and 80g of CO2 per hour.
Such figures have led to comparisons between power consumption for entertainment by westerners and energy poverty in other countries.For instance, the amount of electricity required to maintain a character in the Second Life virtual reality game is 1752 kilowatt hours per year.This may not seem excessive in itself.However, when compared to individual power consumption in poorer regions it clearly is as it is just a little lower than what the average Brazilian uses in total over the same period of time.
Since the energy consumption by computers is apparently growing out of a demand for speed, the only way it can be reduced is by examining when and how the internet is used.(55) _____ If it replaces those that require less or no energy consumption, it is harmful.Likewise, using Twitter to generate unimportant information to stay in touch with friends is not just fun; it is also environmentally unfriendly.
Questions 51—55
Choose from the sentences A—G the one which best fits each gap of 51—55.There are two extra sentences which you do not need to use.
Section A (10 marks)
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Performing a search on the computer is something we do without giving a thought to the consequences.Yet, according to one study, performing just two searches can require approximately the same amount of energy as boiling water for a cup of tea.As a result, those two searches can release about 14g of CO2 into the atmosphere.Unfortunately, this is only one half of the story as those companies which operate search engines also pollute the atmosphere.
In a recent report, it was estimated that the global IT industry generated around 2% of worldwide CO2 emissions.(51) _____ The reason why internet search providers use so much electricity is that the data centres are incredibly energy intensive since they each contain banks that store billions of web pages, all of which require power to function correctly.
Although the leading internet search providers claim they are trying to make computing as environmentally friendly as possible, search engines generate high levels of CO2 because of the way they operate.(52) _____ It goes to several that are competing with each other to provide the data required.Such servers may be thousands of miles apart.Google, for example, has servers in the US, Europe and Japan.
(53) _____ Therefore, the system they adopt minimises delays and becomes more attractive to the person at the computer.The drawback, though, is that by satisfying the demands of the individual who typed in the search, energy consumption increases.
As regards individual users, there have been several other studies carried out to determine the quantity of CO2 they release into the atmosphere.(54) _____ For example, viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2, while viewing a site with complex images or videos generates ten times as much.Despite the fact that the studies reach different conclusions, it has been generally agreed that on average, running a PC generates between 40g and 80g of CO2 per hour.
Such figures have led to comparisons between power consumption for entertainment by westerners and energy poverty in other countries.For instance, the amount of electricity required to maintain a character in the Second Life virtual reality game is 1752 kilowatt hours per year.This may not seem excessive in itself.However, when compared to individual power consumption in poorer regions it clearly is as it is just a little lower than what the average Brazilian uses in total over the same period of time.
Since the energy consumption by computers is apparently growing out of a demand for speed, the only way it can be reduced is by examining when and how the internet is used.(55) _____ If it replaces those that require less or no energy consumption, it is harmful.Likewise, using Twitter to generate unimportant information to stay in touch with friends is not just fun; it is also environmentally unfriendly.
Questions 51—55
Choose from the sentences A—G the one which best fits each gap of 51—55.There are two extra sentences which you do not need to use.
26
_____.
- A.Estimates of exactly how much vary according to circumstances.
- B.When a search is typed in, the request does not just rely on one server.
- C.Computer searches greatly damage the planet we lived by.
- D.The primary goal of any internet search provider is to supply the user with data as fast as possible.
- E.This is as much as the airline industry releases into the atmosphere.
- F.More power is needed to transmit information to and from the internet search providers’ data centers.
- G.If internet use occurs instead of activities such as driving, which requires more energy, it is good.
27
_____.
- A.Estimates of exactly how much vary according to circumstances.
- B.When a search is typed in, the request does not just rely on one server.
- C.Computer searches greatly damage the planet we lived by.
- D.The primary goal of any internet search provider is to supply the user with data as fast as possible.
- E.This is as much as the airline industry releases into the atmosphere.
- F.More power is needed to transmit information to and from the internet search providers’ data centers.
- G.If internet use occurs instead of activities such as driving, which requires more energy, it is good.
28
_____.
- A.Estimates of exactly how much vary according to circumstances.
- B.When a search is typed in, the request does not just rely on one server.
- C.Computer searches greatly damage the planet we lived by.
- D.The primary goal of any internet search provider is to supply the user with data as fast as possible.
- E.This is as much as the airline industry releases into the atmosphere.
- F.More power is needed to transmit information to and from the internet search providers’ data centers.
- G.If internet use occurs instead of activities such as driving, which requires more energy, it is good.
29
_____.
- A.Estimates of exactly how much vary according to circumstances.
- B.When a search is typed in, the request does not just rely on one server.
- C.Computer searches greatly damage the planet we lived by.
- D.The primary goal of any internet search provider is to supply the user with data as fast as possible.
- E.This is as much as the airline industry releases into the atmosphere.
- F.More power is needed to transmit information to and from the internet search providers’ data centers.
- G.If internet use occurs instead of activities such as driving, which requires more energy, it is good.
30
_____.
- A.Estimates of exactly how much vary according to circumstances.
- B.When a search is typed in, the request does not just rely on one server.
- C.Computer searches greatly damage the planet we lived by.
- D.The primary goal of any internet search provider is to supply the user with data as fast as possible.
- E.This is as much as the airline industry releases into the atmosphere.
- F.More power is needed to transmit information to and from the internet search providers’ data centers.
- G.If internet use occurs instead of activities such as driving, which requires more energy, it is good.
Section B (10 marks)
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
As you approach the hoarding gate, your heart starts beating faster and you begin to sweat. You begin to panic as your fear of flying threatens to overwhelm you. Despite your urge to flee, you continue to move forward in an orderly fashion. So, how did you resist the temptation to leave the airport? The simple answer is by not being there in the first place. You have lived the whole experience through your avatar, an animation that represents you in a virtual environment. In reality, you were never at the airport: you were only there on computer. However, according to recent research, the experience of watching your digital look-alike deal with anxiety in a simulated airport and board a plane is real enough to help you cope with such a situation in the real world.
In the virtual world, avatars do not normally resemble those people controlling them. A prime example is the popular virtual set-up of World of Warcraft, in which avatars take the form of dwarfs and elves (精灵) as well as other mythical beings. However, when digital photographs of users’ faces are incorporated into the avatars, they can look frighteningly like the users themselves. Such avatars are known as ‘doppelgängers’ (替身) and they have powerful effects on us. Indeed, it is claimed that just three minutes spent watching our doppelgängers can affect our ability to learn, our behaviour and even our opinions. Given these claims, it would appear that our identities may eventually become a combination of our real selves and our virtual representations, each inseparable from the other.
The power of our look-alike avatars to influence us is termed the ‘doppelgängers effect’. Although its potential is now becoming widely recognized, the effect was known and applied well before the digital age through the use of puppets by teachers to illustrate the points they wished to put across. The reasons why puppets were effective teaching tools were, however, unknown until scans of the brain were used to identify the parts that became active when people talked about both their avatar and their real-life experiences. They turned out to be remarkably similar, meaning we think of our experiences in the virtual world in almost the same way as we view our encounters in the real world. And since we tend to remember personal information more effectively than other kinds, the use of avatars, especially doppelgänger avatars, can be an efficient learning tool.
Apart from being able to play a role in education, doppelgänger avatars could be used to motivate us to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Studies have shown that behaviour can be altered through the use of digital images of ourselves. In a recent experiment, one group of students witnessed their avatars exercising on screen. As the routine progressed, they looked increasingly fitter. A second group watched their avatars hanging round doing nothing. In the twenty-four hours following the experiment, the first group were more physically active than the second group, doing more walking and working out in the gym longer. Although it is unclear how long this effect lasts, there is little doubt that we do relate strongly to our virtual selves.
While research indicates that the use of avatars can be beneficial to their real life equivalents, it is also recognised that they could also be used to benefit people other than the users. One obvious example of when such manipulation might occur is during an advertisement. By using actors that represent the section of the population the advertisement is aimed at an advertising agency can get the viewers to imagine themselves using a particular product and increase sales accordingly. It has also been found that the more like the consumer an actor is, the closer the association the viewer feels with the product. This finding suggests that advertising companies might even use social networking sites to get the consumer to make a more personal connection with an advertisement. In this way a person’s opinion of a product can be greatly affected and spending patterns changed or modified.
Questions 56 to 60
Answer the following questions with the information given in the passage.
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
As you approach the hoarding gate, your heart starts beating faster and you begin to sweat. You begin to panic as your fear of flying threatens to overwhelm you. Despite your urge to flee, you continue to move forward in an orderly fashion. So, how did you resist the temptation to leave the airport? The simple answer is by not being there in the first place. You have lived the whole experience through your avatar, an animation that represents you in a virtual environment. In reality, you were never at the airport: you were only there on computer. However, according to recent research, the experience of watching your digital look-alike deal with anxiety in a simulated airport and board a plane is real enough to help you cope with such a situation in the real world.
In the virtual world, avatars do not normally resemble those people controlling them. A prime example is the popular virtual set-up of World of Warcraft, in which avatars take the form of dwarfs and elves (精灵) as well as other mythical beings. However, when digital photographs of users’ faces are incorporated into the avatars, they can look frighteningly like the users themselves. Such avatars are known as ‘doppelgängers’ (替身) and they have powerful effects on us. Indeed, it is claimed that just three minutes spent watching our doppelgängers can affect our ability to learn, our behaviour and even our opinions. Given these claims, it would appear that our identities may eventually become a combination of our real selves and our virtual representations, each inseparable from the other.
The power of our look-alike avatars to influence us is termed the ‘doppelgängers effect’. Although its potential is now becoming widely recognized, the effect was known and applied well before the digital age through the use of puppets by teachers to illustrate the points they wished to put across. The reasons why puppets were effective teaching tools were, however, unknown until scans of the brain were used to identify the parts that became active when people talked about both their avatar and their real-life experiences. They turned out to be remarkably similar, meaning we think of our experiences in the virtual world in almost the same way as we view our encounters in the real world. And since we tend to remember personal information more effectively than other kinds, the use of avatars, especially doppelgänger avatars, can be an efficient learning tool.
Apart from being able to play a role in education, doppelgänger avatars could be used to motivate us to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Studies have shown that behaviour can be altered through the use of digital images of ourselves. In a recent experiment, one group of students witnessed their avatars exercising on screen. As the routine progressed, they looked increasingly fitter. A second group watched their avatars hanging round doing nothing. In the twenty-four hours following the experiment, the first group were more physically active than the second group, doing more walking and working out in the gym longer. Although it is unclear how long this effect lasts, there is little doubt that we do relate strongly to our virtual selves.
While research indicates that the use of avatars can be beneficial to their real life equivalents, it is also recognised that they could also be used to benefit people other than the users. One obvious example of when such manipulation might occur is during an advertisement. By using actors that represent the section of the population the advertisement is aimed at an advertising agency can get the viewers to imagine themselves using a particular product and increase sales accordingly. It has also been found that the more like the consumer an actor is, the closer the association the viewer feels with the product. This finding suggests that advertising companies might even use social networking sites to get the consumer to make a more personal connection with an advertisement. In this way a person’s opinion of a product can be greatly affected and spending patterns changed or modified.
Questions 56 to 60
Answer the following questions with the information given in the passage.
31
What is an avatar mentioned in the passage?
32
How long do people need to watch their doppelgängers to affect their ability to learn?
33
Why can doppelgängers be used as an effective learning tool?
34
Who do we tend to relate strongly to through the use of digital image of ourselves?
35
How can companies increase their sales according to the last paragraph?
Section C (10 marks)
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Until recent decades, bilingualism was deeply discouraged and considered harmful to development. As one journal study put in 1926: ‘The use of a foreign language in the home is one of the chief factors in producing mental retardation as measured by intelligence tests.’ The choice to avoid the mother tongue wasn’t simply educational, but also social—the home language was invariably considered a source of shame, a sign of poverty or difference that would almost certainly lead to being left out and bullied.
The pendulum began to swing back when an academic study was conducted into monoglot (只说一种语言的) French speakers and English-French bilinguals in Montreal. The authors, Elizabeth Peal and Wallace E. Lambert, had expected a variety of tests to prove that the monoglots were more able than the bilinguals, but the exact opposite was the case. ‘Intellectually’, they said, ‘the bilingual child’s experience with two language systems seems to have left him/her with a more diversified set of mental abilities’. For the first time, academics were suggesting that, far from being an obstacle, exposure to more than one language could offer a distinct advantage.
Over the next two decades, various academics kept pushing that pendulum, devising aptitude tests that revealed that bilinguals were marginally more competent at problem solving, linguistic awareness and symbol manipulation. The more tests were done, the more neurologists and cognitive scientists focused on ‘executive control’, the cognitive skills in the brain’s frontal lobes that support high-level thought memory, attention and multitasking.
The effects of bilingualism on neuroplasticity seemed clear, so researchers needed to understand how the brain accessed the two or more languages. What emerged, through hundreds of experiments, was the notion that rather than having two different ‘pockets’ containing two languages, the bilingual’s brain had one huge pocket for both. In any linguistic setting, bilinguals’ brains would begin ‘joint activation’, searching for the right words in the appropriate language. That requires, of course, immediate inhibition and activation, stopping the wrong language and authorizing the right one. The result is what’s called ‘enhanced attentional control’, with obvious implications for concentration, memory and so on.
At the other end of the life spectrum, there appear to be positive consequences of bilingualism. One of the leading researchers into the subject, the Canadian psychologist Ellen Bialystok, analysed the medical records of patients diagnosed with dementia (痴呆) and discovered that symptoms were diagnosed between three or four years later in bilinguals (on average at 78.6 years old, compared to 75.4 years for monoglots).
The research does suggest that bilingualism, like other mentally challenging activities such as playing the piano or chess, can slow down age-related decline. However, there are clear drawbacks as well as advantages. The verbal expertise of bilinguals in each language is generally less than that of monolingual speakers; the vocabulary size is smaller; and there is a slower response time among bilinguals for the understanding and producing of words. It’s as if some bilinguals can speak, say, 95% of two languages, rather than 100% of one. For those who want their children to be articulate and sophisticated language users, that missing 5% is a major hole, especially if you want them fully to appreciate, say, Dante or Shakespeare. But as the French psycholinguist Francois Grosjean said, a bilingual is not ‘two monolingual in one’ and shouldn’t necessarily be judged according to monolingual parameters.
In November last year, St Stephens in East Ham, London, became the first non-independent school to top the Sunday Times school league table. What made it remarkable was the fact that 96% of students spoke English as an additional language. This seemed proof of what academic research had been saying for years: that the maintenance of a ‘home language’ may be beneficial for learning the ‘community language’, that proficiency in that first tongue enables proficiency in the next. Antonella Sorace is the director of Bilingualism Matters, a research and information centre at the University of Edinburgh that promotes multilingualism in Scotland and across the globe. ‘For decades,’ she says, ‘there was this notion that learning two languages together, or too soon, would affect children. It would cause problems at school. That’s always the message that parents got, but there’s absolutely no evidence of that; in fact, quite the opposite’.
The research that finally put that prejudice to bed was conducted by Jim Cummins and Virginia Collier at the University of Toronto. They discovered that students who were competent in their first language would display ‘cognitive academic language proficiency’ (CALP) in a secondary language far sooner than those who didn’t have a strong native language. The implication was that it’s far more advantageous for immigrant children to hear an eloquent, grammatically correct, richly nuanced language at home than be exposed to low-level pidgin English. They can then transfer those language skills—the concepts, diction and sophisticated structures—to their new language.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that so much cutting-edge research into bilingualism from Cummins and Collier to Bialystok, comes from Toronto, a city in which half the inhabitants are estimated to be bilingual. But those figures are now the norm: 56% of European citizens and 60% of Los Angeles residents are functionally bilingual. Globally, the figure for bi- and multilingualism is thought to be over 50% and rising, meaning that being monolingual is no longer the default to which polyglots are an odd exception.
Questions 61 to 65
Complete the summary below with information from the passage, using not more than five words for each blank.
Until recently, specialists believed that speaking another language made you less clever. Later studies revealed that bilinguals could gain (61) _____ over monolinguals. When speaking, bilinguals can activate two different language systems at the same time, the result of which is called (62) _____. Although it has been suggested that bilinguals present a more limited vocabulary range and seem to be less efficient at grasping or finding words, they seem to fare better than monolinguals when it comes to (63) _____ deterioration. One thing that has been confirmed recently, in fact, is that the ability to speak one language well increases the chances of acquiring (64) _____ in another language. Another Canadian study seems to have finally proved that people command of high-level first language would demonstrate (65) _____ in their secondary language learning.
Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.
Until recent decades, bilingualism was deeply discouraged and considered harmful to development. As one journal study put in 1926: ‘The use of a foreign language in the home is one of the chief factors in producing mental retardation as measured by intelligence tests.’ The choice to avoid the mother tongue wasn’t simply educational, but also social—the home language was invariably considered a source of shame, a sign of poverty or difference that would almost certainly lead to being left out and bullied.
The pendulum began to swing back when an academic study was conducted into monoglot (只说一种语言的) French speakers and English-French bilinguals in Montreal. The authors, Elizabeth Peal and Wallace E. Lambert, had expected a variety of tests to prove that the monoglots were more able than the bilinguals, but the exact opposite was the case. ‘Intellectually’, they said, ‘the bilingual child’s experience with two language systems seems to have left him/her with a more diversified set of mental abilities’. For the first time, academics were suggesting that, far from being an obstacle, exposure to more than one language could offer a distinct advantage.
Over the next two decades, various academics kept pushing that pendulum, devising aptitude tests that revealed that bilinguals were marginally more competent at problem solving, linguistic awareness and symbol manipulation. The more tests were done, the more neurologists and cognitive scientists focused on ‘executive control’, the cognitive skills in the brain’s frontal lobes that support high-level thought memory, attention and multitasking.
The effects of bilingualism on neuroplasticity seemed clear, so researchers needed to understand how the brain accessed the two or more languages. What emerged, through hundreds of experiments, was the notion that rather than having two different ‘pockets’ containing two languages, the bilingual’s brain had one huge pocket for both. In any linguistic setting, bilinguals’ brains would begin ‘joint activation’, searching for the right words in the appropriate language. That requires, of course, immediate inhibition and activation, stopping the wrong language and authorizing the right one. The result is what’s called ‘enhanced attentional control’, with obvious implications for concentration, memory and so on.
At the other end of the life spectrum, there appear to be positive consequences of bilingualism. One of the leading researchers into the subject, the Canadian psychologist Ellen Bialystok, analysed the medical records of patients diagnosed with dementia (痴呆) and discovered that symptoms were diagnosed between three or four years later in bilinguals (on average at 78.6 years old, compared to 75.4 years for monoglots).
The research does suggest that bilingualism, like other mentally challenging activities such as playing the piano or chess, can slow down age-related decline. However, there are clear drawbacks as well as advantages. The verbal expertise of bilinguals in each language is generally less than that of monolingual speakers; the vocabulary size is smaller; and there is a slower response time among bilinguals for the understanding and producing of words. It’s as if some bilinguals can speak, say, 95% of two languages, rather than 100% of one. For those who want their children to be articulate and sophisticated language users, that missing 5% is a major hole, especially if you want them fully to appreciate, say, Dante or Shakespeare. But as the French psycholinguist Francois Grosjean said, a bilingual is not ‘two monolingual in one’ and shouldn’t necessarily be judged according to monolingual parameters.
In November last year, St Stephens in East Ham, London, became the first non-independent school to top the Sunday Times school league table. What made it remarkable was the fact that 96% of students spoke English as an additional language. This seemed proof of what academic research had been saying for years: that the maintenance of a ‘home language’ may be beneficial for learning the ‘community language’, that proficiency in that first tongue enables proficiency in the next. Antonella Sorace is the director of Bilingualism Matters, a research and information centre at the University of Edinburgh that promotes multilingualism in Scotland and across the globe. ‘For decades,’ she says, ‘there was this notion that learning two languages together, or too soon, would affect children. It would cause problems at school. That’s always the message that parents got, but there’s absolutely no evidence of that; in fact, quite the opposite’.
The research that finally put that prejudice to bed was conducted by Jim Cummins and Virginia Collier at the University of Toronto. They discovered that students who were competent in their first language would display ‘cognitive academic language proficiency’ (CALP) in a secondary language far sooner than those who didn’t have a strong native language. The implication was that it’s far more advantageous for immigrant children to hear an eloquent, grammatically correct, richly nuanced language at home than be exposed to low-level pidgin English. They can then transfer those language skills—the concepts, diction and sophisticated structures—to their new language.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that so much cutting-edge research into bilingualism from Cummins and Collier to Bialystok, comes from Toronto, a city in which half the inhabitants are estimated to be bilingual. But those figures are now the norm: 56% of European citizens and 60% of Los Angeles residents are functionally bilingual. Globally, the figure for bi- and multilingualism is thought to be over 50% and rising, meaning that being monolingual is no longer the default to which polyglots are an odd exception.
Questions 61 to 65
Complete the summary below with information from the passage, using not more than five words for each blank.
Until recently, specialists believed that speaking another language made you less clever. Later studies revealed that bilinguals could gain (61) _____ over monolinguals. When speaking, bilinguals can activate two different language systems at the same time, the result of which is called (62) _____. Although it has been suggested that bilinguals present a more limited vocabulary range and seem to be less efficient at grasping or finding words, they seem to fare better than monolinguals when it comes to (63) _____ deterioration. One thing that has been confirmed recently, in fact, is that the ability to speak one language well increases the chances of acquiring (64) _____ in another language. Another Canadian study seems to have finally proved that people command of high-level first language would demonstrate (65) _____ in their secondary language learning.
36
_____.
37
_____.
38
_____.
39
_____.
40
_____.
五、Part Ⅴ Translation
15 marks
41
Section A (5 marks)
Translate the following paragraph into Chinese. Write the answers on the answer sheet.
When an iceberg is born, the sound is like thunder. The impact shoots water hundreds of feet into the air and waves lay gently against your ship. You relish every moment, marveling as the sights and sounds of calving glaciers thrill you again and again. That’s the lure of enchanting Glacier Bay, where the most astounding natural forces take centre stages.
Translate the following paragraph into Chinese. Write the answers on the answer sheet.
When an iceberg is born, the sound is like thunder. The impact shoots water hundreds of feet into the air and waves lay gently against your ship. You relish every moment, marveling as the sights and sounds of calving glaciers thrill you again and again. That’s the lure of enchanting Glacier Bay, where the most astounding natural forces take centre stages.
42
Section B (10 marks)
Translate the following paragraph into English. Write the answers on the answer sheet.
二十四节气（the Twenty-four Solar Terms）是自立春（Beginning of Spring）至大寒（Great Cold）一组节气的总称。它表现了一年中天文、季节、气候与农业生产的关系，是中国古代独特的创造。二十四节气的形成和发展与中国农业生产紧密相连。在农业发展初期，由于播种和收获等农事活动的需要，人们开始探索农业生产的季节变化规律，逐渐地出现了“春种、夏长、秋收、冬藏”的概念。
Translate the following paragraph into English. Write the answers on the answer sheet.
二十四节气（the Twenty-four Solar Terms）是自立春（Beginning of Spring）至大寒（Great Cold）一组节气的总称。它表现了一年中天文、季节、气候与农业生产的关系，是中国古代独特的创造。二十四节气的形成和发展与中国农业生产紧密相连。在农业发展初期，由于播种和收获等农事活动的需要，人们开始探索农业生产的季节变化规律，逐渐地出现了“春种、夏长、秋收、冬藏”的概念。
六、Part Ⅶ IQ Test
10 marks（Error Correction）
43
There are five IQ Test questions in this part. Write the answers on the answer sheet.
Rearrange the muddled letters in capitals to make a proper word. The answer will complete the sentence sensibly.
Rearrange the muddled letters in capitals to make a proper word. The answer will complete the sentence sensibly.
44
There are two blue shapes, one green shape, and one yellow shape. An oval is not green. The follow pairs consist of shapes of different colors: the oval and a triangle, a rhombus (菱形) and the oval, the rhombus and a square, the square and the oval, the triangle and the rhombus. Which shape is green?
45
Fill a word that is similar in meaning to the word in capital letters and that rhymes with the second word.
A. CABLE tyre_____
B. HORSE hair_____
A. CABLE tyre_____
B. HORSE hair_____
46
Which is the missing section?
47
A professor was driving to his out-of-town laboratory at a consistent speed (not faster than 90 km/h). At one moment the meter showed 16961 km of mileage. In exactly 2 hours the number on the meter once again showed a number that reads the same in both directions.
At what speed (km/h) was the professor driving?
At what speed (km/h) was the professor driving?
七、Part Ⅵ EC
10 marks
There are 10 errors altogether in the following passage. The errors are: missing words, unnecessary words and wrong words. Please correct them as follows: for a missing word, mark its position with the symbol “∧” and write it; for an unnecessary word, cross it out with the symbol “\”; for a wrong word, underline it and write the correct word. An example of how to correct the error is provided below. Write the answers on the answer sheet.
48
_____.
49
_____.
50
_____.
51
_____.
52
_____.
53
_____.
54
_____.
55
_____.
56
_____.
57
_____.
八、Part Ⅷ Writing
30 marks
58
Section A (10 marks)
The charts below show the results of a survey about what people of different age groups say is most important in their lives. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where necessary. Write at least 120 words on the answer sheet.
The charts below show the results of a survey about what people of different age groups say is most important in their lives. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where necessary. Write at least 120 words on the answer sheet.
59
Section B (20 marks)
Write about the following topic:
Your class has listened to a discussion about how local authorities can increase tourism. You have made the notes below:
Write an essay discussing two of the ways in your notes that local authorities can increase tourism. You should explain which way you think is more effective and use your own words as far as possible. Write an essay of at least 160 words on the answer sheet.
Write about the following topic:
Your class has listened to a discussion about how local authorities can increase tourism. You have made the notes below:
Write an essay discussing two of the ways in your notes that local authorities can increase tourism. You should explain which way you think is more effective and use your own words as far as possible. Write an essay of at least 160 words on the answer sheet.
输入阅读码
查看答案与解析需要输入阅读码