2017年英语专业八级考试真题及答案解析

(1)It's 7 pm on a balmy Saturday night in June, and I have just ordered my first beer in I Cervejaria, a restaurant in Zambujeira do Mar, one of the prettiest villages on Portugal's south-west coast. The place is empty, but this doesn't surprise me at all. I have spent two weeks in this area, driving along empty roads, playing with my son on empty beaches, and staying in B&Bs where we are the only guests (2)No doubt the restaurant, run by two brothers for the past 28 years, is buzzing in July and August, when Portuguese holidaymakers descend on the Alentejo coast. But for the other 10 months of the year, the trickle of diners who come to feast on fantastically fresh seafood reflects the general pace of life in the Alentejo: sleepy, bordering on comatose. (3)One of the poorest, least-developed, least-populated regions in western Europe, the Alentejo has been dubbed both the Provence and the Tuscany of Portugal. Neither is accurate. Its scenery is not as pretty and, apart from in the capital Evora, its food isn't as sophisticated. The charms of this land of wheat fields, cork oak forests, wildflower meadows and tiny white-washed villages, are more subtle than in France or Italy's poster regions (4)To travel here is to step back in time 40 or 50 years. Life rolls along at a treacly pace; there's an unnerving stillness to the landscape. But that stillness ends abruptly at the Atlantic Ocean, where there is drama in spade. Protected by the South West Alentejo and Costa Vicentina national park, the 100 km of coastline from Porto Covo in the Alentejo to Burgau in the Algarve is the most stunning in Europe. And yet few people seem to know about it. Walkers come to admire the views from the Fisherman's Way, surfers to ride the best waves in Europe, but day after day we had spectacular beaches to ourselves. (5)The lack of awareness is partly a matter of accessibility(these beaches are a good two hours'drive from either Faro or Lisbon airports)and partly to do with a lack of beach side accommodation. There are some gorgeous, independent guesthouses in this area, but they are hidden in valleys or at the end of dirt tracks. (6)Our base was a beautiful 600-acre estate of uncultivated land covered in rock-rose, eucalyptus and wild flowers 13 km inland from Zambujeira. Our one-bedroom home, Azenha, was once home to the miller who tended the now-restored watermill next to it. A kilometre away from the main house, pool and restaurant, it is gloriously isolated. (7)Stepping out of the house in the morning to greet our neighbours—wild horses on one side, donkeys on the other—with nothing but birdsong filing the air, I felt a sense of adventure you normally only get with wild camping. (8)“When people first arrive, they feel a little anxious wondering what they are going to do the whole time,"Sarah Gredley, the English owner of the estate, told me.“But it doesn't usually take them long to realize that the whole point of being here is to slow down, to enjoy nature." (9)We followed her advice, walking down to the stream in search of terrapins and otters, or through clusters of cork oak trees. On some days, we tramped uphill to the windmill, now a romantic house for two, for panoramic views across the estate and beyond. (10)When we ventured out, we were always drawn back to the coast—the gentle sands and shallow bay of Farol beach. At the end of the day, we would head, sandy-footed, to the nearest restaurant, knowing that at every one there would be a cabinet full of fresh seafood to choose from—bass, salmon, lobster, prawns, crabs, goose barnacles, clams...We never ate the same thing twice. (11)A kilometre or so from I Cervejaria, on Zambujeira's idyllic natural harbour is O Sacas, originally built to feed the fishermen but now popular with everyone. After eating platefuls of seafood on the terrace, we wandered down to the harbour where two fishermen, in wetsuits, were setting out by boat across the clear turquoise water to collect goose barnacles. Other than them the place was deserted-just another empty beauty spot where I wondered for the hundredth time that week how this pristine stretch of coast has remained so undiscovered.

(1)I can stillremember the faces when I suggested a method of dealing with what most teachers of English considered one of their pet horrors, extended reading. The room was full of tired teachers, and many were quite cynical about the offer to work together to create a new and dynamic approach to the place of stories in the classroom. (2)They had seen promises come and go and mere words weren't going to convince them, which was a shame as it was mere words that we were principally dealing with. Most teachers were unimpressed by the extended reading challenge from the Ministry, and their lack of enthusiasm for the rather dry list of suggested tales was passed on to their students and everyone was pleased when that part of the syllabus was over. It was simply a box ticking exercise. We needed to do something more. We needed a very different approach. (3)That was ten years ago. Now we have a different approach, and it works. Here's how it happened (or, like most good stories, here are the main parts. You have to fill in some of yourself employing that underused classroom device, the imagination.).We started with three main precepts: (4)First, it is important to realize that all of us are storytellers, tellers of tales. We all have our own narratives—the real stories such as what happened to us this morning or night, and the ones we have been told by others and we haven't experienced personally. We could say that our entire lives are constructed as narratives. As a result, we all understand and instinctively feel narrative structure. Binary opposites—for example, the tension created between good and bad together with the resolution of that tension through the intervention of time, resourcefulness and virtue—is a concept understood by even the youngest children. Professor Kieran Egan, in his seminal book“Teaching as Storytelling”warns us not to ignore this innate skill, for it is a remarkable tool for learning. (5)We need to understand that writing and reading are two sides of the same coin: an author has not completed the task if the book is not read: the creative circle is not complete without the reader, who willsupply their own creative input to the process. Samuel Johnson said: A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it. In teaching terms, we often forget that reading itself can be a creative process, just as writing is, and we too often relegate it to a means of data colection. We frequently forget to make that distinction when presenting narratives or poetry, and often ask comprehension questions which relate to factual information—who said what and when, rather than speculating on"why", for example, or examining the context of the action. (6)The third part of the reasoning that we adopted relates to the need to engage the students as readers in their own right, not simply as language learners; learning the language is part of the process, not the reason for reading. What they read must become theirs and have its own special and secret life in their heads, a place where teachers can only go if invited. (7)We quickly found that one of the most important ways of making all the foregoing happen was to engage the creative talents of the class before they read a word of the text. The pre-reading activities become the most important part of the teaching process; the actual reading part can almost be seen as the cream on the cake, and the principal aim of pre-reading activities is to get students to want to read the text. We developed a series of activities which use clues or fragments from the text yet to be read, and which rely on the students'innate knowledge of narrative, so that they can build their own stories before they read the key text. They have enough information to generate ideas but not so much that it becomes simply an exercise in guided writing; releasing a free imagination is the objective. (8)Moving from pre-reading to reading, we may introduce textual intervention activities.“Textual Intervention”is a term used by Rob Pope to describe the process of questioning a text not simply as a guide to comprehension but as a way of exploring the context of the story at any one time, and examining points at which the narrative presents choices, points of divergence, or narrative crossroads. We don't do this for all texts, however, as the shorter ones do not seem to gain much from this process and it simply breaks up the reading pleasure. (9)Follow-up activities are needed, at the least, to round off the activity, to bring some sense of closure but they also offer an opportunity to link the reading experience more directly to the requirements of the syllabus. Indeed, the story may have been chosen in the first place because the context supports one of the themes that teachers are required to examine as part of the syllabus—for example,“families”,“science and technology”, “communications”,“the environment”and all the other familiar themes. For many teachers this is an essential requirement if they are to engage in such extensive reading at all. (10)The whole process—pre-, while and post reading—could be just an hour's activity, or it could last for more than one lesson. When we are designing the materials for exploring stories clearly it isn't possible for us to know how much time any teacher willhave available, which is why we construct the activities into a series of independent units which we call kits. They are called kits because we expect teachers to build their own lessons out of the materials we provide, which implies that large amounts may be discarded. What we do ask, though, is that the pre-reading activities be included, if nothing else. That is essential for the process to engage the student as a creative reader. (11)One of the purposes of encouraging a creative reading approach in the language classroom is to do with the dynamics we perceive in the classroom. Strategic theorists tell us of the social trinity, whereby three elements are required to achieve a dynamic in any social situation. In the language classroom these might be seen as consisting of the student, the teacher and the language. Certainly from the perspective of the student—and usually from the perspective of the teacher—the relationship is an unequal one, with the language being perceived as placed closer to the teacher than the student. This will result in less dynamic between language and student than between language and teacher. However, if we replace“language”with narrative and especially if that is approached as a creative process that draws the student in so that they feel they“own”the relationship with the text. Then this will shift the dynamic in the classroom so that the student, who has now become a reader, is much closer to the language—or narrative—than previously. This creates a much more effective dynamic of learning. However, some teachers feel threatened by this apparent loss of overall control and mastery. Indeed, the whole business of open ended creativity and a lack of boxes to tick for the correct answer is quite unsettling territory for some to find themselves in.

(1)Once again, seething, residual anger has burst forth in an American city. And the riots that overtook Los Angeles were a reminder of what knowledgeable observers have been saving for a quarter-century: America will continue paying a high price in civil and ethnic unrest unless the nation commits itself to programs that help the urban poor lead productive and respectable lives. (2)Once again, a proven program is worth pondering: national service. (3)Somewhat akin to the military training that generations of American males received in the armed forces, a 1990s version would prepare thousands of unemployable and undereducated young adults for quality lives in our increasingly global and technology-driven economy. National service opportunities would be available to any who needed it and, make no mistake, the problems are now so structural, so intractable, that any solution will require massive federal intervention. (4)In his much-quoted book,“The Truly Disadvantaged”, sociologist William Julius Wilson wrote that “only a major program of economic reform”will prevent the riot-prone urban underclass from being permanently locked out of American economic life. Today, we simply have no choice. The enemy within and among our separate ethnic selves is as daunting as any foreign foe. (5)Families who are rent apart by welfare dependency, job discrimination and intense feelings of alienation have produced minority teenagers with very little self-discipline and little faith that good grades and the American work ethic will pay off. A military-like environment for them with practical domestic objectives could produce startling results. (6)Military service has been the most successful career training program we've ever known, and American children born in the years since the all-volunteer Army was instituted make up a large proportion of this targeted group. But this opportunity may disappear forever if too many of our military bases are summarily closed and converted or sold to the private sector. The facilities, manpower, traditions, and capacity are already in place. (7)Don't dismantle it: rechannel it. (8)Discipline is a cornerstone of any responsible citizen's life. I was taught it by my father, who was a policeman. Many of the rioters have never had any at all. As an athlete and former Army officer, I know that discipline can be learned. More importantly, it must be learned or it doesn't take hold. (9)A precedent for this approach was the Civilian Conservation Corps that worked so well during the Great Depression. My father enlisted in the CCC as a young man with an elementary school education and he learned invaluable skills that served him well throughout his life. The key was that a job was waiting for him when he finished. The certainty of that first entry-level position is essential if severely alienated young minority men and women are to keep the faith. (10)We all know these are difficult times for the public sector, but here's a chance to add energetic and able manpower to America's workforce. They could be prepared for the world of work or college—an offer similar to that made to returning GIs after World War Ⅱ.It would be a chance for 16-to 2l-year-olds to live among other cultures, religions, races and in different geographical areas. And these young people could be taught to rally around common goals and friendships that evolve out of pride in one's squad, platoon, company, battalion—or commander. (11)We saw such images during the Persian Gulf War and during the NACC Final Four basketball games. In military life and competitive sports, this camaraderie doesn't just happen; it is taught and learned n an atmosphere of discipline and earned mutual respect for each other's capabilities. (12)A national service program would also help overcome two damaging perceptions held by America's disaffected youth: that society just doesn't care about minority youngsters and that one's personal best efforts will not be rewarded in our discriminatory job market. Harvard professor Robert Reich's research has shown that urban social ills are so pervasive that the upper 20 percent of Americans—that“fortunate fifth”as he calls them—have decided quietly to“secede”from the bottom four-fifths, and the lowest fifth in particular. We cannot accept such estrangement on a permanent basis. And what better way to answer skeptics from any group than by certifying the technical skills of graduates from a national service training program? (13)Now, we must act decisively to forestall future urban unrest. Republicans must put aside their aversion to funding programs aimed at certain cultural groups. Democrats must forget labels and recognize that a geographically isolated subgroup of Americans—their children in particular—need systematic and substantive assistance for at least another 20 years. (14)The ethnic taproots of minority Americans are deeply buried in a soil of faith and loyalty to traditional values. With its emphasis on discipline, teamwork, conflict resolution, personal responsibility and marketable skills development, national service can provide both the training and that vital first job that will reconnect these Americans to the rest of us. Let's do it now before the fire next time.