1997年3月英语高级口译考试笔试真题+音频+答案
SECTION 5: READING TEST (30minutes)
Directions: Read the following passage 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 BOOKLET.
Question 1~3 //tr.hjenglish.com
BRITISH Telecom has been thwarted in its attempt to cut telephone links to a South American city that is operating a sex chatline service in Britain.
Direct dialing services to Georgetown,Guyana,were due to be suspended after the One-to-One Contacts company ignored an ultimatum from BT to close down.
But the chatline company,which is based in Dublin,Manchester and Guyana,has secured an injunction from the High Court to prevent the threatened action taking place. The matter will be resolved before a judge at a full hearing later this month.A preliminary hearing due yesterday was postponed until Friday.
The One-to-One Contacts service,which is advertised in the national press,breaches the strict guidelines set down by ICSTIS,the information line watchdog, because of the sexual nature of the calls.
The company does not use British 0898 numbers.Callers from Britain are directed to ring telephone numbers in the Virgin then given Guyanan number for the chatline service,ringing up pounds in international calls in the process.The countries of origin were not stated in the advertisements.
BT wanted to end the services,but because of the relatively unsophisticated routing between Britain and Guyana,it could not isolate the 52 numbers involved. The company told Guyana Telecom and Telephones that it would block direct dialling from Britain to every number in Georgetown, the capital,if the recorded sex lines were not put out of business.But the chatline company claimed that BT acted unfairly.
A High Court judge has granted an injunction preventing BT from taking action until he can hear both sides of the story.
The chatline company broke industry rules by advertising a sex line outside top-shelf publications--in the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers.
A BT spokeswoman explained: "The stop on IDD calls to Georgetown would have lasted two or three days while we found ways to block the relevant numbers. In the meantime, calls to other numbers would have been put through the operator at international direct dialling costs."
1. Why does the British Telecom plan to end the One-to-One Contacts service?
2. Introduce briefly in your own words the practice of the One-to-One Contacts company.
3. Why didn't the British Telecom cut the chatline service immediately?
Question 4~6 //tr.hjenglish.com
Summer is coming, and woe is you.You'd like to bake in the blazing sun and get a deep,dark worries about skin cancer may keep you indoors.Tanning salons are an alternative,but they're awfully expensive (and so artificial).What to do?Before long you may be able to acquire the perfect tan from the inside of your body out.No sun or sunlamps will be needed.
Researchers at the University of Arizona have discovered a synthetic peptide hormone that stimulates certain skin cells to produce melanin,a pigment that darkens the skin and protects it from ultraviolet radiation.The hormone could be useful not only in acquiring a tan but also in preventing aging of the skin. In addition,it might help to cure vitiligo--a disease that causes a progressive depigmentation of the skin and afflicts 1 to 2 percent of the world's population.
The hormone,which the Arizona researchers have dubbed Melano-Tan,is a chemical variation (or analog) of the melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) that some animals,such as frogs or chameleons,secrete from their pituitary glands,causing them to change color.It was discovered as part of a U.S. government-sponsored study of ways of reverse or cure vitiligo. "In the process of these studies," says Mac Hadley, an endocrinologist at the University of Arizona,"we discovered that if this molecule was delivered across the skin of a certain strain of mice,the skin would turn dark brown. And not just where we placed the chemical, but all over." What's more,says Hadley, another research center has just demonstrated that the hormone will cause in vitro human skin to tan as well, "which is pretty close to saying this product will work."
If Melano-Tan becomes commercially available--and a large American pharmaceutical company is now funding studies toward that end--it could be taken orally or applied topically.After would enter the bloodstream and systematically tan the entire body.Depending on the concentration,initial tanning would begin in two or three days and a dark,uniform tan could be achieved within two weeks.When the hormone is no longer applied,the tanned skin could be peeled off.There are already tanning pills on the market,such as French Bronze Tablets (with carotene),but Hadley dismisses them as "gimmicks" that merely dye the skin unevenly,like Easter eggs.
According to Hadley,Melano-Tan could lower the incidence of skin cancer by allowing fair-skinned people to tan before going out in the sun.It could also help those who suffer from vitiligo or hyperpigmentation,and those who are allergic to sun screens.
4. What are the disadvantages of tanning in the sun or in a tanning salon?
5. In what other ways can the synthetic peptide hormone be useful to people apart from acquiring a tan?
6. How will the hormone work when taken orally or applied topically? //tr.hjenglish.com
Questions 7~10
IF VITAMIN C is good for you, does more mean better? Millions of people think so but scientists have been divided on the issue.Despite a huge research effort,there is little evidence that megadoses of vitamin C,up to 100 times the recommended daily amounts, have beneficial effects.
Now an American scientist has come up with an explanation of the lack of effect--and a simple remedy. Millions of Americans take supplements of the vitamin in the belief that its anti-oxidant properties help prevent heart disease,cancer and the ageing process. Most of it, however,goes straight down the pan:the body cannot deal with excess vitamin C,which is rapidly excreted.Even large doses are eliminated in 12 hours and slow-release ones in 16.
The way to keep blood levels of the vitamin continuously high,according to Roc Ordman,Professor of Biochemistry at Beloit College,Wisconsin,is to take it twice a day--one 500 milligram does every 12 hours.
"If vitamin C really does work as an antioxidant,then taking a supplement once a day might be like wearing a condom half the time."Professor Ordman said. "Nobody has ever thought to look at how much you have to take to keep the level elevated."
In a study published in the current issue of the gerontology journal Age, Professor Ordman gave varying doses of vitamin C at different times to students and measured the amount excreted in their urine. He found a 500 mg dose was needed every 12 hours "to enrich the blood just enough to ensure there is a little bit leaking out all the time." This compares with the US-recommended adult daily allowance of 60 mgs.
Recommended levels of vitamin C,and other vitamins,have been raised following recognition of their role in mopping up "free radicals" in the blood linked with a range of diseases.However, the British figure of 40 mgs daily for vitamin C is still below the U.S. figure and likely to be raised again.
Research on megadoses of vitamin C of 10 and 20 times this level have shown it to have some protective effect against the common cold taken at the first sign.But there is no evidence of a beneficial effect against other diseases of doses vastly higher than the recommended daily amounts.
LINUS PAULING,the Nobel Laureate,whose book on vitamin C and the common cold in 1970 popularised the idea of taking fistfuls of supplements,is said to have swallowed 10,000 mgs a day.It is because it is water-soluble and quickly excreted that vitamin C is safe in such quantities;it does not build up in the tissues.
Professor Ordman's twice-daily regime may help keep blood levels of the vitamin high. But dosing on the scale followed by Pauling,who died last August aged 93,will seriously damage your bank balance--at $ 2,500 a year.
7. What do you know about Professor Ordman's view towards vitamin C from the passage?
8. Why was the Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling mentioned in the passage?
9. Explain in your town words the sentence from paragraph 2 "Most of it, however, goes straight down the pan".
10.What is concluded about effects of megadoses of vitamin C in the passage?
SECTION 6：TRANSLATION TEST (30 minutes)
Directions: Translate the following passage into English and write your version in the corresponding space in your ANSWER BOOKLET.
1995 年10 月，黄浦江上又一座大桥凌空飞架，将浦南与奉贤连接起来，成为继徐浦、南浦、杨浦三座大桥之后建成通车的第四座大桥——奉浦大桥。
奉浦大桥是首座由地方筹资兴建的黄浦江大桥，奉贤县与市区有关部门和企业共同集 资4.46 亿元，仅用1 年零7 个月的时间即胜利建成。大桥的建成解决了长期困扰奉贤与浦 南地区的过江问题，同时还改善了该地区的投资环境，为杭州湾北的开发、建设打下了良好的基础。
金秋10 月的黄浦江畔，徐浦、南浦、杨浦、奉浦四座大桥沐浴着金秋阳光，各显神姿，交相辉映，为上海这座充满生机与魅力的国际大都市增添了更加夺目的风采。不久的将来，上海还将建造更多的过江设施，把浦江两岸更紧密地连结在一起。 //tr.hjenglish.com