《翻译硕士英语》样题
I. Vocabulary and grammar (30’)
Multiple choice
Directions: 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. protest
2. 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. minimum
3. Professor Johnson’s retirement ________ from next January.
A. carries into effect B. takes effect
C. has effect D. puts into effect
4. The president explained that the purpose of taxation was to ________ government spending.
A. finance B. expand C. enlarge D. budget
5. The heat in summer is no less _________ here in this mountain region.
A. concentrated B. extensive C. intense D. intensive
6. Taking photographs is strictly ________ here, as it may damage the precious cave paintings.
A. forbidden B. rejected C. excluded D. denied
7. Mr. Brown’s condition looks very serious and it is doubtful if he will _________.
A. pull back B. pull up C. pull through D. pull out
8. Since the early nineties, the trend in most businesses has been toward on-demand, always-available products and services that suit the customer’s _________ rather than the company’s.
A. benefit B. availability C. suitability D. convenience
9. The priest made the ________ of the cross when he entered the church.
A. mark B. signal C. sign D. gesture
10. This spacious room is ________ furnished with just a few articles in it.
A. lightly B. sparsely C. hardly D. rarely
11. 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. were
12. 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. sad
13. His remarks were ________ annoy everybody at the meeting.
A. so as to B. such as to C. such to D. as much as to
14. James has just arrived, but I didn’t know he _________ until yesterday.
A. will come B. was coming C. had been coming D. came
15. _________ conscious of my moral obligations as a citizen.
A. I was and always will be B. I have to be and always will be
C. I had been and always will be D. I have been and always will be
16. 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 a
C. some type of a D. some types of
17. 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 made
C. was able to make D. could make
18. I know he failed his last test, but really he’s _________ stupid.
A. something but B. anything but
C. nothing but D. not but
19. Do you know Tim’s brother? He is _________ than Tim.
A. much more sportsman B. more of a sportsman
C. more of sportsman D. more a sportsman
20. That was not the first time he ________ us. I think it’s high time we ________ strong actions against him.
A. betrayed… take B. had betrayed… took
C. has betrayed… took D. has betrayed… take
II. 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 A
The 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 Europe’s regional languages, spoken by more than a half-million of the country’s 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 club—Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales—a 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 Europe—only 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 nation’s symbol since the time of King Arthur, is everywhere—on 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, Wales’s 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 can’t do anything, we’re only Welsh. Now I think that’s 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 means
A. separatist.
B. conventional.
C. feudal.
D. political
3. Wales is different from Scotland in all the following aspects EXCEPT
A. people’s 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. people’s mentality.
B. pop culture.
C. town’s appearance.
D. possibilities for the people.
Passage B
The miserable fate of Enron’s 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. It’s the latest turn in the unwinding of one of the most audacious promises of the 20th century.
The promise was assured economic security—even comfort—for 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 days—lack of food, warmth, shelter—would 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 possibility—in some cases the promise—of 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 person’s stance toward providing for himself had been. Ultimately I’m on my own. Now it became, ultimately I’ll 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 won’t 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 person’s economic fate back on the employee. Within limits the employee must decide how much goes into the plan each year and how it gets invested—the two factors that will determine how much it’s 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 employee’s 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 company’s problems, prompting investors to hang on when they should have sold. Second, Enron’s 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 wasn’t prudent, but it’s what some of them did.
The Enron employees’ retirement disaster is part of the larger trend away from guaranteed economic security. That’s why preventing such a thing from ever happening again may be impossible. The huge attitudinal shift to I’ll-be-taken-care-of took at least a generation. The shift back may take just as long. It won’t 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, they’re on their own.
6. Why does the author say at the beginning “The miserable fate of Enron’s 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. people’s outlook on life.
B. people’s life styles.
C. people’s living standard.
D. people’s 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 because
A. 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. Enron’s 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 people’s mind.
D. Economic security won’t 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 1～3
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 Dartmoor’s 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 that’s not to say we won’t 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.
1. What is the Ten Tors Challenge? Give a brief introduction of its location and history.
2. Why is it suggested that the event be moved to the autumn or other seasons?
3. What are the difficulties if the event is moved to the autumn or other seasons?
Questions 4～5
Mike and Adam Hurewitz grew up together on Long Island, in the suburbs of New York City. They were very close, even for brothers. So when Adam’s liver started failing, Mike offered to give him half of his. The operation saved Adam’s life. But Mike, who went into the hospital in seemingly excellent health, developed a complication—perhaps a blood colt—and died last week. He was 57. Mike Hurewitz’s death has prompted a lot of soul searching in the transplant community. Was it a tragic fluke or a sign that transplant surgery has reached some kind of ethical limit? The Mount Sinai Medical Center, the New York City hospital where the complex double operation was performed, has put on hold its adult living donor liver transplant program, pending a review of Hurewitz’s death. Mount Sinai has performed about 100 such operations in the past three years.
A 1-in-100 risk of dying may not seem like bad odds, but there’s more to this ethical dilemma than a simple ratio. The first and most sacred rule of medicine is to do no harm. “For a normal healthy person a mortality rate 1% is hard to justify,” says Dr. John Fung, chief of transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “If the rate stays at 1%, it’s just not going to be accepted.” On the other hand, there’s an acute shortage of traditional donor organs from people who have died in accidents or suffered fatal heart attacks. If family members fully understand the risks and are willing to proceed, is there any reason to stand in their way? Indeed, a recent survey showed that most people will accept a mortality rate for living organ donors as high as 20%. The odds, thankfully, aren’t nearly that bad. For kidney donors, for example, the risk ranges from 1 in 2, 500 to 1 in 4, 000 for a healthy volunteer. That helps explain why nearly 40% of kidney transplants in the U.S. come from living donors.
The operation to transplant a liver, however, is a lot trickier than one to transplant a kidney. Not only is the liver packed with blood vessels, but it also makes lots of proteins that need to be produced in the right ratios for the body to survive. When organs from the recently deceased are used, the surgeon gets to pick which part of the donated liver looks the best and to take as much of it as needed. Assuming all goes well, a healthy liver can grow back whatever portion of the organ is missing, sometimes within a month.
A living-donor transplant works particularly well when an adult donates a modest portion of the liver to a child. Usually only the left lobe of the organ is required, leading to a mortality rate for living-donors in the neighborhood of 1 in 500 to 1 in 1, 000. But when the recipient is another adult, as much as 60% of the donor’s liver has to be removed. “There really is very little margin for error,” says Dr. Fung. By way of analogy, he suggests, think of a tree. “An adult-to-child living-donor transplant is like cutting off a limb. With an adult-to-adult transplant, you’re splitting the trunk in half and trying to keep both halves alive.”
Even if a potential donor understand and accepts these risks, that doesn’t necessarily mean the operation should proceed. All sorts of subtle pressures can be brought to bear on such a decision, says Dr. Mark Siegler, director of the MacLean for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. “Sometimes the sicker the patient, the greater the pressure and the more willing the donor will be to accept risks.” If you feel you can’t say no, is your decision truly voluntary? And if not, is it the medical community’s responsibility to save you from your own best intentions?
Transplant centers have developed screening programs to ensure that living donors fully understand the nature of their decision. But unexamined, for the most part, is the larger issue of just how much a volunteer should be allowed to sacrifice to save another human being. So far, we seem to be saying some risk is acceptable, although we’re still vaguer about where the cutoff should be. There will always be family members like Mike Hurewitz who are heroically prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for a loved one. What the medical profession and society must decide is if it’s appropriate to let them do so.
4. Describe in your own words the liver transplant between the two brothers Mike and Adam.
5. What is the major issue raised in the article?
III. Writing (30’)
Some people see education simply as going to school or college, or as a means to secure good jobs; other people view education as a lifelong process. In your opinion, how important is education to people in the modern society?
Write a composition of about 400 words on your view of the topic.
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