TEST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS (1999)&-GRADE EIGHT-

D. are based on an entirely new working principle

A. streets

B. hear talk from outside the zone

A. noise-control technology

C. work with initiative and willingness

B. working women can have more time at home

D. Working contracts in the US are mostly short-term ones.

A. small firms

D. office life

A. opposition

A. negotiating about photographic material

B. is unlikely to solve the dispute once and for all

B. ancient weather

D. The past 10,000 years have seen minor changes in the weather.

A. boost Americans' confidence in their art

B. they were explorers in their own ways

D. pursue a distinctive editorial style of its own

B. using natural manure as fertilizer

A. facetious

C. understand thoroughly the situations

A. Yes, but you should have ideas for improvement in the future.

B. keep calm and try to be tactful in your answers

C. practical

D. was passed to make the young more responsible to the old

A. the country will face mounting problems of the old in future

B. Fathers have legal obligations to look after their children.

C. are very important in preserving Asian uniqueness

A. indirect

D. filial awareness

D. clear up some misunderstanding about the World Bank

C. agricultural aid hints the economy in developing countries

B. a study of cowboy work culture

A. refute

D. 4, 000

B. a more powerful national system

B. modern stores in cities

D. attractive

D. US

C. 2.3

known 

save 

expensive/costly 

match 

image

media 

cosmetics / drinks

favorably 

conditioning 

expensive

as→like

supplementing→supplemented 

and→or 

in→on 

as→whereas/while 

for 

of

half∧→that 

if→though 

for ∧→a 

The glory of Vancouver has been achieved through the wisdom and the industry
of the Vancouver people, including the contributions of many ethnic groups. Canada,
sparsely populated, has a territory larger than that of China, but its population is only
less than 30 million. Consequently, to attracting immigrants from other countries has
become a national policy long practiced/followed/cherished by Canada. All Canadians
except the American Indians, so to speak, are foreign immigrants, differing only in the
length of time they have settled in Canada. Vancouver, in particular, is one of the few
most celebrated multi-ethnic cities in the world. Among the 1.8 million Vancouver
residents, half of them are non-natives and one out of every four residents is from
Asia. The 250,000 Chinese there have played a decisive role in the transformation of
Vancouver’s economy. Half of them have come to settle in Vancouver over the past
five years only, rendering Vancouver the largest area outside Asia where the Chinese
inhabit.

在某些社会中,人们希望拥有孩子是出于所谓的家庭原因:传宗接代,光宗
耀祖,讨好祖辈,使那些涉及到家庭的宗教仪式得以正常进行｡此类原因在现代
世俗化的社会中似显苍白,但它们在其他地方曾一度构成并确实仍在构成强有力
的理由｡
此外,有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共通之处,这便是:生儿育女是为了
维系或改善婚姻:能拴住丈夫或者使妻子不致于无所事事;修复或重振婚姻;多
子多孙,以为家庭幸福惟有此法｡这一点更可以由其反 面得到昭示:在某些社
会中,无法生儿育女(或无法生育男孩)对婚姻而言是一种威胁,还可作为离婚
的现成借口｡
后代对于家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此｡对许多人来说,夫
妻两人尚不足以构成一个真正意义上的家庭——夫妻需要孩子来丰富其两人的
天地,赋予该小天地以真正意义上的家庭性质,并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报｡ 孩子需要家庭,但家庭似乎也需要孩子｡家庭作为一种社会机构,以其特有
的方式,至少从原则上说,可在一个变幻莫测､常常是充满敌意的世界中让人从中获取某种安全､慰藉､保障,以及价值取向｡

COMPETITION OR CO-OPERATION
Some people claim that competition is more important than co-operation in the present-day society. I don't agree with them. I think co-operation is more important than competition because not only people can fulfill today's complex and high-tech work better by co-operating with each other, but also co-operation helps to form fine public morals in the present-day society.
    First, co-operation can produce better work effect. Now most work is more difficult and complicated than before. It requires all types of knowledge in different fields. Even the person who is proved to be outstanding in fierce competition can't do it only by himself. After all, one's ability is limited. He can't master all the knowledge in the world. In this case, people had better co-operate; and each one applies knowledge in his major. However, if people compete against each other, work can just be done. The quality of work is uncertain.
    Second, co-operation can do good to the forming of a united and fraternal social environment. When people co-operate, they have the same goal. In the process of overcoming difficulties, each of them uses his own merit to compensate for others' defects.  And they encourage each other to strive for their common aim. By and by, their relationship becomes close and friendly. By contrast, competition causes egoism. The final result of competition is to sort out the only best one by eliminating all the others. So this makes every competitor hope that he himself is better than any other. Unavoidably he won't help others make progress because he's afraid that he will be surpassed. In this way, he tends to think only for himself, not for others at all. Egoism appears.
    In a word, co-operation is more important than competition in the present-day society for the sake of good work effect and high moral atmosphere.