专 业：外国语言学及应用语言学
课程名称：基础英语（712）B 共 14 页 第1页
说明：答案标明题号写在答题纸上，写在试题纸上的一律无效。
I Structure & Vocabulary (每小题1分，共25分)
Directions: In each question, decide which of the four choices given will most suitably complete the sentence if inserted at the place marked.
1. Intellect is to the mind ______soul is to the body.
a. as b. since c. if d. what
2. In the early industrialized countries of Europe, the process of industrialization was spread over nearly a century, _____a developing nation nowadays underwent the same process in a decade or so.
a. just as b. thereby c. whereas d. nevertheless
3. For there ______successful communication, there must be attentiveness and involvement itself by all present.
a. to be b. is c .will be d. being
4.Five minutes earlier, ____we would have caught the last train.
a. and b .or c. but d. so
5. In the course of a day, students do far more than just _____classes
a. attend b. attended c. to attend d. attending
6. In 1945 he worked for Hambro’s Bank, touring the Middle East to report on ___diamond trading.
a.. elicit b.. illiberal c. illuminant d. illicit
7. Some people want to _______ the monument, while others want to preserve it so that the young generation could not forget the tragic history.
a. demolish b. annihilate c. wreck d. ruin
8. The serious illness _________ him of his sight and the use of his leg.
a. robbed b. excluded c. deprived d. gripped
9. The __________earthquake last month caused hundreds of people homeless.
a. unguarded b. overwhelming c. devastating d. evil
10. Mountain life produces a strong, tough ________of men.
a. generation b. genius c. breed d. gang
11.Does brain power ________ as we get older? Scientists now have some surprising answers.
a. collapse b. descend c. deduce d. decline
12. Recently a number of cases have been reported of young children ____a violent act previously seen on television.
a. modifying b. reconstructing c. accelerating d. duplicating
13. When the storm broke, the flock of sheep were ______ in all directions.
a. straying b. dispersing c. separating d. distributing
14. Being careless, she had her arm _____ by the barbed wire.
a. lacerated b. lamented c. juggled d..bemoaned
15. Missiles were mounted at various points to _______ the enemy aircrafts.
a. integrate b. jeopardize c. intercept d. interrogate
16. It is well known that knowledge is the ______ condition for expansion of mind.
a. incompatible b. incredible c. indefinite d. indispensable.
17. The flowers ____from lack of water.
a. withered b. flourished c. vanished d. stopped growing
18. At the inauguration ceremony. The newly elected president _____ his speech with a few words of thanks to his supporters.
a. preceded b. proceeded c. precluded d. advanced
19. The rescue was _____after several attempts because the snowstorm was getting worse.
a. deserted b. abandoned c .ceased d. rejected
20. She is one of the few professors in this department who have_______.
a. bogey b. cessation c. tenure d. penitence
21. Small children are often___________ to nightmares after hearing ghost stories in the dark.
a. definitive b. perceptible c. incipient d. susceptible
22. Their relations during the divorce proceeding had been mostly friendly, so his _________ in the judge’s chambers surprised her.
a. bellicose b. belligerence c. rebellion d. appease
23. The current production methods will soon be rendered _______since new and better ways are said to be invented.
a. ancient b. antique c. obsolete d. archaic
24. Animals or persons that behave in a fierce, cruel or savage way are usually referred to as _______.
a. ferocious b. ferrous c. impetuous d. judicious
25. Her bracelet is one of the several valuable gifts _____ on her when she visited the royal family.
a. granted b. bestowed c. awarded d. confirmed
II． Error Correction (每小题2分，共10分)
Directions: In this passage there are altogether 5 mistakes in the five numbered and underlined sentences. Try to detect the mistakes and write out your corrected answers on the Answer Sheet.
提示： 没有拼写和标点符号错误。
Sample test: He commenced helping the poor. →commenced to help
My first marriage was a childless one that ended ten years ago. Now 41, I married my second husband Gary, who was eight years my senior. （1）Because neither of us had brought up the topic of a child before we tied the nuptial knot, I knew I had to take immediate action if I did want one. After turning over all the scenarios, we came up with one advantage: allowing me to experience motherhood, an advantage set off by a list of disadvantages: high risk of childbirth for me, sagging energy that would make us pant while chasing a toddler, possible financial difficulties after retirement, and even the embarrassment to hear someone say “Your grandson is really cute”. I would turn 48 when my child entered the first grade and 60 if I was to see his high school diploma. Gary’s numbers would look even more disheartening. With all the extra work and stress coming from the anticipatable and the unforeseeable, we might not be fit enough to attend our child’s college graduation. When Gary and I made the sad but practical decision to stick just to each other, I was torn in half in a grave yard silence that followed. (2)Gary had to arrange a trip to the east coast to help easy my disappointment.
(3)We were two hours into the deep ocean on a whale watch tour in Boston when a huge humpback suddenly jumped out and flipped over in the air before it dropped belly up, caused tons of water to explode. But before my widened eyes could blink, the creature leaped out a second time, accompanied by a baby whale. Then the bodies went down while the tails shot up, making one spattering after another. The crowd went crazy; and I was mesmerized, not as much by the fantastic sighting as by the closeness of this whale family. My eyes began to swim, and my heart ached.
The mother whale must be teaching her baby, and she must be brimming with pride. (4)Gary was busy videotaping, but I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and started wondering if some commonsense was worth questioned. How incomplete I would feel for the rest of my life! I wouldn’t have the opportunities to hear the first baby cry, to be enchanted by the sweet babbling and constant leg kicks, to witness the first roll over, the first effort to stand up, the first step, let alone the wedding, the blessing of being a grandma… I would pay to be torn with birth pain; (5)I would pay to have sleepless nights so my baby could sleep in lullaby; I would pay to parent a teenager; I would pay to…
That night I didn’t take my pill, and I made love with passion. That night I had a dream: I flipped over the ocean with ecstasy, and I wasn’t alone.
III. Paraphrasing (每小题2分，共20分)
Section A: Choose the best one among the three choices that closely restates the underlined part of the sentence. REMEMBER to write your answer on the Answer Sheet.
1. I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, delighted to find what they believe is an easier and safer prey.
a. I can see the German bombers and fighters in the sky who learned from the British air force how to fight, now feel happy because they think they can easily beat the Russian air force without heavy loss.
b. I can see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, after suffering severe losses in the aerial battle of England, now feel happy because they think they can easily beat the Russian air force without heavy loss.
c. I can see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, who, after suffering severe losses in the aerial battle of England, now feel happy because they think they can stay safe and comfortable at home.
2. The Duchess of Croydon---three centuries and a half of inbred arrogance behind her---did not yield easily.
a. The Duchess wouldn't give up easily because she had read history books of the past three hundred and 50 years.
b. The Duchess who was as proud as the noble ancestors of three centuries and a half wouldn't give up easily.
c. The Duchess was supported by her arrogance coming from parents of noble families with a history of three centuries and a half. She wouldn't give up easily.
3. The computer might appear to be a dehumanizing factor, but the opposite in that is true.
a. The computer might appear to make human beings machinelike，but it can also destroy human beings.
b. The computer might degrade human beings，but it can bring some human qualities into our lives as well．
c. The computer might appear to make human beings machinelike，but it can bring some human qualities into our lives as well．
4. The rather arresting spectacle of little old Japan adrift amid being concrete skyscrapers is the very symbol of the incessant struggle between the kimono and miniskirt.
a. The attractive scene in Japan is that the high building is like kimono while the small floating house is like miniskirt.
b. The traditional floating houses among high modern buildings represent the constant struggle between old tradition and new development.
c. The constant fighting between old traditional people and young people usually takes place between the high buildings and small floating houses in Japan.
5. She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand.
a. She thinks that her sister does not take life seriously.
b. She thinks that her sister has a firm control of her life.
c. She thinks that her sister has her life controlled by the others.
6. Mark Twain digested the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer.
a. Mark Twain first observed and absorbed the new American experience, and then introduce it to the world in his books or lectures.
b. Mark Twain first travelled around America, and then introduce it to the world in his books or lectures.
c. Mark Twain read the new published book American experience before introducing it to the world in his books or lectures.
7. Spectators paid to gaze at the ape and ponder whether they might be related.
a. People had to pay in order to have a look at the ape and to consider carefully whether apes and humans could have the same behavior.
b. People had to pay in order to have a look at the ape and to consider carefully whether apes and humans could have a common ancestry.
c. People must pay the price of looking at the ape, which makes then think carefully whether apes and humans are all aggressive.
8. She existed for me only as a vaguely embarrassing presence.
a. I only knew her as a person whose appearance makes others feel awkward.
b. Her presence for me is no more than invisible person.
c. I only knew her as a person who would make other people feel ill at ease.
9. They make it harder to make a big killing in good times, (because you have to share the trade with other members.)
a. They make it more difficult to kill a lot of animals when it is ideal hunting time.
b. They make it more difficult to make a large amount of money when economic conditions are favorable.
c. They make it more difficult to make a large amount of grain even if the whether is favorable for harvest.
10. Or maybe Laura’s unwitting influence has called it out.
a. Or maybe my suppressed inclination has been brought out under Laura's unintentional influence．
b. Or maybe Laura’s naivety has helped me release my potential feeling．
c. Or maybe Laura’s unintentional influence has made me aware of the meaning of life.
IV Blank filling (每空2分，共20分)
Directions: Choose the right word from the list in the box below for each blank.
eat charm rift tilled natives differences resistance wings villa ignorantly barrier attack flames asking reconsidering sty descendants unconsciously
The glow of the conversation burst into ____1___. There were affirmations and protests and denials, and of course the promise, made in all such conversation, that we would look it up on the morning. That would settle it; but conversation does not need to be settled; it could still go____2____ on.
It was an Australian who had given her such a definition of "the King's English," which produced some rather tart remarks about what one could expect from the ____3____ of convicts. We had traveled in five minutes to Australia. Of course, there would be resistance to the King's English in such a society. There is always ____4_____ in the lower classes to any attempt by an upper class to lay down rules for "English as it should be spoken."
Look at the language ____5_____ between the Saxon churls and their Norman conquerors. The conversation had swung from Australian convicts of the 19th century to the English peasants of the 12th century. Who was right, who was wrong, did not matter. The conversation was on____6_____.
Someone took one of the best-known of examples, which is still always worth the ____7_____. When we talk of meat on our tables we use French words; when we speak of the animals from which the meat comes we use Anglo-Saxon words. It is a pig in its ____8____; it is pork (porc) on the table. They are cattle in the fields, but we sit down to beef (boeuf). Chickens become poultry (poulet), and a calf becomes veal (veau). Even if our menus were not written in French out of snobbery, the English we used in them would still be Norman English. What all this tells us is of a deep class ____9____in the culture of England after the Norman conquest.
The Saxon peasants who ___10____ the land and reared the animals could not afford the meat, which went to Norman tables. The peasants were allowed to eat the rabbits that scampered over their fields and, since that meat was cheap, the Norman lords of course turned up their noses at it. So rabbit is still rabbit on our tables, and not changed into some rendering of lapin.
V. Reading Comprehension (每小题5分，共30分)
Read the passage carefully and then answer the following questions and translate the underlined sentences into Chinese. When answering question, you are supposed to come to the point at once and then try to elaborate it.
(注意：回答每个问题简明扼要，开门见山，不超过50个单词，切记标清题号)
Politics and the English Language
By George Orwell
1. Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language—so the argument runs—must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.
2. Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers. I will come back to this presently, and I hope that by that time the meaning of what I have said here will have become clearer. Meanwhile, here are five specimens of the English language as it is now habitually written.
3. Dying metaphors. A newly-invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically "dead" has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness. But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.
4. Operators, or verbal false limbs. These save the trouble of picking out appropriate verbs and nouns, and at the same time pad each sentence with extra syllables which give it an appearance of symmetry. The keynote is the elimination of simple verbs. Instead of being a single word, such as break, stop, spoil, a verb becomes a phase, made up of a noun or adjective tacked on to some general-purposes verb as prove, serve, form, play, render. Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as with respect to, having regard to, the fact that.
5. Pretentious diction. Words like phenomenon, categorical, exploit, utilize, liquidate, are used to dress up simple statements and give an air of scientific impartiality to biased judgments. Adjectives like epoch-making, unforgettable, age-old, are used to dignify the sordid processes of international politics, while writing that aims at glorifying war usually takes on an archaic color, its characteristic words being: realm, throne ,banner,. Foreign words and expressions such as cul de sac ancient mutatis, are used to give an air of culture and elegance. Except for the useful abbreviations I.E., E.G., and ETC., there is no real need for any of the hundreds of foreign phrases now current in English. Bad writers, and especially scientific, political and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones. The result, in general, is an increase in slovenliness and vagueness.
6. Meaningless words. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. Words like romantic, plastic, sentimental, as used in art criticism, are strictly meaningless, in the sense that they not only do not point to any discoverable object, but are hardly even expected to do so by the reader. When one critic writes, "The outstanding feature of Mr. X's work is its living quality," while another writes, "The immediately striking thing about Mr. X's work is its peculiar deadness," the reader accepts this as a simple difference of opinion If words like black and whit e involved, instead of the jargon words dead and living, he would see at once that language was being used in an improper way. Many political words are similarly abused.
7. As I have tried to show, modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug. The attraction of this way of writing is that it is easy. It is easier—even quicker, once you have the habit—to say In my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption that than to say I think. If you use ready-made phrases, you not only don’t have to hunt about for words; you also don’t have to bother with the rhythms of your sentences, since these phrases are generally so arranged as to be more or less euphonious. By using stale metaphors, similes, and idioms you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself. This is the significance of mixed metaphors. The sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual image. When these images clash—as in The Fascist octopus has sung its swan song, the jackboot is thrown into the melting pot—it can be taken as certain that the writer is not seeing a mental image of the objects he is naming; in other words he is not really thinking. People who write in this manner usually have a general emotional meaning—they dislike one thing and want to express solidarity with another—but they are not interested in the detail of what they are saying. A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: what am I trying to say? What words will express it ? what image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly? But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you—even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent—and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connection between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.
8. In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing. Where it is not true, it will generally be found that the writer is some kind of rebel, expressing his private opinions and not a "party line." Orthodoxy, of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style. The political dialects to be found in pamphlets, leading articles, manifestoes, White Papers and the speeches of under-secretaries do, of course, vary from party to party, but they are all alike in that one almost never finds in them a fresh, vivid, home-made turn of speech. A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance towards turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself. If the speech he is making is one that he is accustomed to make over and over again, he may be almost unconscious of what he is saying, as one is when one utters the responses in church. And this reduced state of consciousness, if not indispensable, is at any rate favorable to political conformity.
9. In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them.
10. But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better. The debased language that I have been discussing is in some ways very convenient. Phrases like a not unjustifiable assumption, leaves much to be desired, would serve no good purpose, a consideration which we should do well to bear in mind, are a continuous temptation, a packet of aspirins always at one’s elbow. Look back through this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against. This invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anesthetizes a portion of one's brain.
11. I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced an argument at all that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words and constructions. So far as the general tone or spirit of a language goes, this may be true, but it is not true in detail. Silly words and expressions have often disappeared, not through any evolutionary process but owing to the conscious action of a minority. But all these are minor points. The defense of the English language implies more than this, and perhaps it is best to start by saying what it does not imply.
12. To begin with it has nothing to do with archaism, with the salvaging of obsolete words and turns of speech, or with the setting up of a “standard English” which must never be departed from. On the contrary, it is especially concerned with the scrapping of every word or idiom which has outworn its usefulness. It has nothing to do with correct grammar and syntax, which are of no importance so long as one makes one’s meaning clear, or with the avoidance of Americanisms, or with having what is called a “good prose style.” On the other hand it is not concerned with fake simplicity and the attempt to make written English colloquial. Nor does it even imply in every case preferring the Saxon word to the Latin one, though it does imply using the fewest and shortest words that will cover one’s meaning. What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way about. In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them. When you think of a concrete object, you think wordlessly, and then, if you want to describe the thing you have been visualizing you probably hunt about till you find the exact words that seem to fit it. When you think of something abstract you are more inclined to use words from the start, and unless you make a conscious effort to prevent it, the existing dialect will come rushing in and do the job for you, at the expense of blurring or even changing your meaning. Probably it is better to put off using words as long as possible and get one’s meaning as clear as one can through pictures or sensations. Afterwards one can choose—not simply accept—the phrases that will best cover the meaning, and then switch round and decide what impression one’s words are likely to make on another person. This last effort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and humbug and vagueness generally.
13. I have not here been considering the literary use of language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought. Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don’t know what fascism is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities as this, but one ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. Political language-and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists--is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase into the dustbin where is belongs.
Questions on contents and style:
1. What connections does the author make between politics and the English language?
2. Many people use big and foreign words in order to sound educated. According to Orwell, what do such words do to a piece of writing?
3. What does Orwell mean when he states that “in our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of indefensible”?
4. Orwell states, “In prose, the worst thing one can do with words is to surrender to them”. Give an example of what he means by this surrender.
5. What is the analogy used for illustration in paragraph 2?
6. In what paragraph does Orwell make the transition from poor writing in general to poor writing in politics? Point out the transitional sentence?
VI English composition (共45分)
Directions: You are required to write an essay based on the following title.
The Abuse of Language
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriateness. Failure to follow the instructions may result in a loss of marks.
