翻译硕士英语样题及参考答案

翻译硕士英语样题I. Vocabulary and grammar (30)Multiple choiceDirections: Beneath each sentence there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence. Mark your answers on your answer sheet.1. Thousands of people turned out into the streets to _ against the local authorities decision to build a highway across the field.A. contradict B. reform C. counter D. protest2. The majority of nurses are women, but in the higher ranks of the medical profession women are in a _.A. minority B. scarcity C. rarity D. minimum3. Professor Johnsons retirement _ from next January.A. carries into effectB. takes effectC. has effectD. puts into effect4. The president explained that the purpose of taxation was to _ government spending.A. finance B. expand C. enlarge D. budget5. The heat in summer is no less _ here in this mountain region.A. concentrated B. extensive C. intense D. intensive6. Taking photographs is strictly _ here, as it may damage the precious cave paintings.A. forbidden B. rejected C. excluded D. denied7. Mr. Browns condition looks very serious and it is doubtful if he will _.A. pull back B. pull up C. pull through D. pull out8. Since the early nineties, the trend in most businesses has been toward on-demand, always-available products and services that suit the customers _ rather than the companys.A. benefit B. availability C. suitability D. convenience9. The priest made the _ of the cross when he entered the church.A. mark B. signal C. sign D. gesture10. This spacious room is _ furnished with just a few articles in it.A. lightly B. sparsely C. hardly D. rarely11. If you explained the situation to your solicitor, he _ able to advise you much better than I can.A. would be B. will have been C. was D. were12. With some men dressing down and some other men flaunting their looks, it is really hard to tell they are gay or _.A. straight B. homosexual C. beautiful D. sad13. His remarks were _ annoy everybody at the meeting.A. so as to B. such as to C. such to D. as much as to14. James has just arrived, but I didnt know he _ until yesterday.A. will come B. was coming C. had been coming D. came15. _ conscious of my moral obligations as a citizen.A. I was and always will be B. I have to be and always will beC. I had been and always will be D. I have been and always will be16. Because fuel supplies are finite and many people are wasteful, we will have to install _ solar heating device in our home.A. some type of B. some types of aC. some type of a D. some types of17. I went there in 1984, and that was the only occasion when I _ the journey in exactly two days.A. must take B. must have madeC. was able to make D. could make18. I know he failed his last test, but really hes _ stupid.A. something butB. anything butC. nothing butD. not but19. Do you know Tims brother? He is _ than Tim.A. much more sportsman B. more of a sportsmanC. more of sportsman D. more a sportsman20. That was not the first time he _ us. I think its high time we _ strong actions against him.A. betrayed take B. had betrayed tookC. has betrayed took D. has betrayed takeII. Reading comprehension (40)Section 1 Multiple choice (20)Directions: In this section there are reading passages followed by multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your answer sheet.Passage AThe Welsh language has always been the ultimate marker of Welsh identity, but a generation ago it looked as if Welsh would go the way of Manx, once widely spoken on the Isle of Man but now extinct. Government financing and central planning, however, have helped reverse the decline of Welsh. Road signs and official public documents are written in both Welsh and English, and schoolchildren are required to learn both languages. Welsh is now one of the most successful of Europes regional languages, spoken by more than a half-million of the countrys three million people. The revival of the language, particularly among young people, is part of a resurgence of national identity sweeping through this small, proud nation. Last month Wales marked the second anniversary of the opening of the National Assembly, the first parliament to be convened here since 1404. The idea behind devolution was to restore the balance within the union of nations making up the United Kingdom. With most of the people and wealth, England has always had bragging rights. The partial transfer of legislative powers from Westminster, implemented by Tony Blair, was designed to give the other members of the clubScotland, Northern Ireland, and Walesa bigger say and to counter centrifugal forces that seemed to threaten the very idea of the union.The Welsh showed little enthusiasm for devolution. Whereas the Scots voted overwhelmingly for a parliament, the vote for a Welsh assembly scraped through by less than one percent on a turnout of less than 25 percent. Its powers were proportionately limited. The Assembly can decide how money from Westminster or the European Union is spent. It cannot, unlike its counterpart in Edinburgh, enact laws. But now that it is here, the Welsh are growing to like their Assembly. Many people would like it to have more powers. Its importance as figurehead will grow with the opening in 2003, of a new debating chamber, one of many new buildings that are transforming Cardiff from a decaying seaport into a Baltimore-style waterfront city. Meanwhile a grant of nearly two million dollars from the European Union will tackle poverty. Wales is one of the poorest regions in Western Europeonly Spain, Portugal, and Greece have a lower standard of living. Newspapers and magazines are filled with stories about great Welsh men and women, boosting self-esteem. To familiar faces such as Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton have been added new icons such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, the movie star, and Bryn Terfel, the opera singer. Indigenous foods like salt marsh lamb are in vogue. And Wales now boasts a national airline, Awyr Cymru. Cymru, which means “land of compatriots”, is the Welsh name for Wales. The red dragon, the nations symbol since the time of King Arthur, is everywhereon T-shirts, rugby jerseys and even cell phone covers.“Until very recent times most Welsh people had this feeling of being second-class citizens,” said Dyfan Jones, an 18-year-old student. It was a warm summer night, and I was sitting on the grass with a group of young people in Llanelli, an industrial town in the south, outside the rock music venue of the National Eisteddfod, Waless annual cultural festival. The disused factory in front of us echoed to the sounds of new Welsh bands.“There was almost a genetic tendency for lack of confidence,” Dyfan continued. Equally comfortable in his Welshness as in his membership in the English-speaking, global youth culture and the new federal Europe, Dyfan, like the rest of his generation, is growing up with a sense of possibility unimaginable ten years ago. “We used to think. We cant do anything, were only Welsh. Now I think thats changing.”1. According to the passage, devolution was mainly meant to A. maintain the present status among the nations.B. reduce legislative powers of England.C. create a better state of equality among the nations. D. grant more say to all the nations in the union. 2. The word “centrifugal” in the second paragraph meansA. separatist.B. conventional.C. feudal.D. political3. Wales is different from Scotland in all the following aspects EXCEPTA. peoples desire for devolution.B. locals turnout for the voting.C. powers of the legislative body.D. status of the national language.4. Which of the following is NOT cited as an example of the resurgence of Welsh national identity?A. Welsh has witnessed a revival as a national language.B. Poverty-relief funds have come from the European Union.C. A Welsh national airline is currently in operation.D. The national symbol has become a familiar sight.5. According to Dyfan Jones what has changed is A. peoples mentality. B. pop culture.C. towns appearance.D. possibilities for the people.Passage BThe miserable fate of Enrons employees will be a landmark in business history, one of those awful events that everyone agrees must never be allowed to happen again. This urge is understandable and noble: thousands have lost virtually all their retirement savings with the demise of Enron stock. But making sure it never happens again may not be possible, because the sudden impoverishment of those Enron workers represents something even larger than it seems. Its the latest turn in the unwinding of one of the most audacious promises of the 20th century. The promise was assured economic securityeven comfortfor essentially everyone in the developed world. With the explosion of wealth, that began in the 19th century it became possible to think about a possibility no one had dared to dream before. The fear at the center of daily living since caveman dayslack of food, warmth, shelterwould at last lose its power to terrify. That remarkable promise became reality in many ways. Governments created welfare systems for anyone in need and separate programs for the elderly (Social Security in the U.S.). Labour unions promised not only better pay for workers but also pensions for retirees. Giant corporations came into being and offered the possibilityin some cases the promiseof lifetime employment plus guaranteed pensions? The cumulative effect was a fundamental change in how millions of people approached life itself, a reversal of attitude that most rank as one of the largest in human history. For millennia the average persons stance toward providing for himself had been. Ultimately Im on my own. Now it became, ultimately Ill be taken care of. The early hints that this promise might be broken on a large scale came in the 1980s. U.S. business had become uncompetitive globally and began restructuring massively, with huge Layoffs. The trend accelerated in the 1990s as the bastions of corporate welfare faced reality. IBM ended its no-layoff policy. AT&T fired thousands, many of whom found such a thing simply incomprehensible, and a few of whom killed themselves. The other supposed guarantors of our economic security were also in decline. Labour-union membership and power fell to their lowest levels in decades. President Clinton signed a historic bill scaling back welfare. Americans realized that Social Security wont provide social security for any of us.A less visible but equally significant trend affected pensions. To make costs easier to control, companies moved away from defined benefit pension plans, which obligate them to pay out specified amounts years in the future, to defined contribution plans, which specify only how much goes into the play today. The most common type of defined-contribution plan is the 401(k). the significance of the 401(k) is that it puts most of the responsibility for a persons economic fate back on the employee. Within limits the employee must decide how much goes into the plan each year and how it gets investedthe two factors that will determine how much its worth when the employee retires. Which brings us back to Enron? Those billions of dollars in vaporized retirement savings went in employees 401(k) accounts. That is, the employees chose how much money to put into those accounts and then chose how to invest it. Enron matched a certain proportion of each employees 401(k) contribution with company stock, so everyone was going to end up with some Enron in his or her portfolio; but that could be regarded as a freebie, since nothing compels a company to match employee contributions at all. At least two special features complicate the Enron case. First, some shareholders charge top management with illegally covering up the companys problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second, Enrons 401(k) accounts were locked while the company changed plan administrators in October, when the stock was falling, so employees could not have closed their accounts if they wanted to.But by far the largest cause of this human tragedy is that thousands of employees were heavily overweighed in Enron stock. Many had placed 100% of their 401(k) assets in the stock rather than in the 18 other investment options they were offered. Of course that wasnt prudent, but its what some of them did.The Enron employees retirement disaster is part of the larger trend away from guaranteed economic security. Thats why preventing such a thing from ever happening again may be impossible. The huge attitudinal shift to Ill-be-taken-care-of took at least a generation. The shift back may take just as long. It wont be complete until a new generation of employees see assured economic comfort as a 20th-century quirk, and understand not just intellectually but in their bones that, like most people in most times and places, theyre on their own.6. Why does the author say at the beginning “The miserable fate of Enrons employees will be a landmark in business history”?A. Because the company has gone bankrupt.B. Because such events would never happen again.C. Because many Enron workers lost their retirement savings.D. Because it signifies a turning point in economic security.7. According to the passage, the combined efforts by governments, layout unions and big corporations to guarantee economic comfort have led to a significant change in A. peoples outlook on life.B. peoples life styles.C. peoples living standard.D. peoples social values.8. Changes in pension schemes were also part of A. the corporate lay-offs.B. the government cuts in welfare spending.C. the economic restructuring.D. the warning power of labors unions.9. Thousands of employees chose Enron as their sole investment option mainly becauseA. the 401(k) made them responsible for their own future.B. Enron offered to add company stock to their investment.C. their employers intended to cut back on pension spending.D. Enrons offer was similar to a defined-benefit plan.10. Which is NOT seen as a lesson drawn from the Enron disaster?A. The 401(k) assets should be placed in more than one investment option.B. Employees have to take up responsibilities for themselves.C. Such events could happen again as it is not easy to change peoples mind.D. Economic security wont be taken for granted by future young workers.Section 2 Answering questions (20)Directions: Read the following passages and then answer IN COMPLETE SENTENCES the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space in your answer sheet.Questions 13 For 40 years the sight of thousands of youngsters striding across the open moorland has been as much an annual fixture as spring itself. But the 2,400 school pupils who join the grueling Dartmoor Ten Tors Challenge next Saturday may be among the last to take part in the May tradition. The trek faces growing criticism from environmentalists who fear that the presence of so many walkers on one weekend threatens the survival of some of Dartmoors internationally rare bird species. The Ten Tors Challenge takes place in the middle of the breeding season, when the slightest disturbance can jeopardize birds chances of reproducing successfully. Experts at the RSPB and the Dartmoor National Park Authority fear that the walkers could frighten birds and even crush eggs. They are now calling for the event to be moved to the autumn, when the breeding season is over and chicks should be well established. Organisers of the event, which is led by about 400 Territorial Army volunteers, say moving it would be impractical for several reasons and would mean pupils could not train properly for the 55-mile trek. Dartmoor is home to 10 rare species of ground-nesting birds, including golden plovers, dunlins and lapwings. In some cases, species are either down to their last two pairs on the moor or are facing a nationwide decline. Emma Parkin, South-west spokeswoman for the PASPB, took part in the challenge as a schoolgirl. She said the society had no objections to the event itself but simply wanted it moved to another time of year. “It is a wonderful activity for the children who take part but, having thousands of people walking past in one weekend when birds are breeding is hardly ideal,” she said. “We would prefer it to take place after the breeding and nesting season is over. There is a risk of destruction and disturbance. If the walkers put a foot in the wrong place they can crush the eggs and if there is sufficient disturbance the birds might abandon the nest.” Helen Booker, an RSPB upland conservation officer, said there was no research into the scale of the damage but there was little doubt the walk was detrimental. “If people are tramping past continually it can harm the chances of successful nesting. There is also the fear of direct trampling of eggs.” A spokesman for the Dartmoor National Park Authority said the breeding season on the moor lasted from early March to mid-July, and the Ten Tors Challenge created the potential for disturbance for March, when participants start training. To move the event to the autumn was difficult because children would be on holiday during the training period. There was a possibility that some schools in the Southwest move to a four-term year in 2004, “but until then any change was unlikely. The authority last surveyed bird life on Dartmoor two year ago and if the next survey showed any further decline, it would increase pressure to move the Challenge,” he said. Major Mike Pether, secretary of the army committee that organises the Challenge, said the event could be moved if there was the popular will. “The Ten Tors has been running for 42 years and it has always been at this time of the year. It is almost in tablets of stone but thats not to say we wont consider moving if there is a consensus in favour. However, although the RSPB would like it moved, 75 per cent of the people who take part want it to stay as it is,” he said. Major Pether said the trek could not be moved to earlier in the year because it would conflict with the lambing season, most of the children were on holiday in the summer, and the winter weather was too harsh.Datmoor National Park occupies some 54 sq km of hills topped by granite outcrops known as “Tors” with the highest Tor-capped hill reaching 621m. The valleys and dips between the hills are often sites of bogs to snare the unwary hiker. The moor has long been used by the British Army as a training and firing range. The origin of the event stretches back to 1959 when three Army officers exercising on the moor thought it would provide a challenge for civilians as well as soldiers. In the first year 203 youngsters took up the challenges. Since then teams, depending on age and ability, face hikes of 35, 45 or 55 miles between 10 nominated Tors over two days. They are expected to carry everything they need to survive