大学英语精读预备二级口语考试题目

大学英语精读预备二级口语考目 英语口语测试评分参考(预备II级) 一、段落朗读或背诵(5分) 1 朗读或背诵完整、流利。 3分 2 语音语调正确、自然。 2分 二、回答问题(5分) 1 回答切题。 2分 2 表达比较完整、流利，语义比较连贯。 2分 3 语法、措辞比较正确。 1分 每人口试时间:5分钟 1 Oral Test (Sub-band II) Examiner’s Material Part I ( 2 minutes) Examiner: Good morning (afternoon ), … .Could you please come here and draw your lot? Oh, it’s Unit … . Now please recite … . Part II ( 3 minutes ) Examiner: Ok, now I’d like you to answer some questions based on Unit … . You will have three minutes to talk about the questions. Don’t worry if I interrupt you at the end of the time limit. ( 5 minutes later ) That’s the end of the test. Thank you. 2 Part I Recitation 1. The Value of Education In fact, when we say all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that all must be educated: firstly, to realize that everyone can do whatever job is suited to his brain and ability; secondly, to understand that all jobs are necessary to society and that it is bad to be ashamed of one’s own work or to look down upon someone else’s; thirdly, to master all the necessary know-how to do one’s job well. Only such education can be called valuable to society. 2. I Want a Wife I want a wife who will not trouble me with a wife’s duties but always listens to me. She must arrange to lose time at work, but not to lose her job. She knows that sometimes I need a night out by myself. If, by chance, I find another person better as a wife than the wife I already have, I want to have the freedom to replace her with another one. And my wife will take the children and be responsible for them so that I can be left free. My God, who wouldn’t want a wife? 3. New York New York at nightfall loses its hard character during the day. On the quiet waters is cast a dark outline of the Statue of Liberty under the pale moonlight. Across the Hudson and East Rivers are the Manhattan bridges with their strings of lights. Straight ahead, row upon row, are millions of colorful lights rising higher and higher to the top of the buildings, which are like the crown of the queen of American cities. For although New York is not the capital of the United States, nor even the capital of New York State, it is the Empire City, the leading stronghold of American capitalism. 4. Ancient China The Chinese have always loved their homes and their families. Formerly when a son married he did not make a home of his own, but always brought his wife to his father’s house. The Chinese family came to include not only children and their parents, but their uncles and aunts, , their grandfathers and grandmothers, and even their great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. 5. Too Dear for the Whistle When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went at once to a shop where they sold toys for children. I handed over all my money for a whistle. I then came bounding home, and went blowing the whistle all over the hose. My brothers and sisters and cousins asked me how much I had paid for it, and then they said I had given four times as much as the whistle was worth. They put me in mind of what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for foolishness. So I cried. Thinking about the matter gave me more shame than the whistle gave me pleasure . 6. No Home in Africa I got truly angry at the Customs station between Zaire and Central African Republic. Tourists usually pass the Customs by merely showing their passports. Africans are subjected to a thorough search. As I was about to move along with other tourists, I was roughly dragged out from behind 3 and was thrown back into the crowd. “Who do you think you are ? A tourist? No! You are one of us.” Yes! To be more exact, I used to be. But now I realized that there was no home for me in Africa! Part II Questions for Oral test Unit 1 The Value of Education Q1: What does the text talk about? A: The text talks about the value of education Q2: Is education an end? A: No. Education is not an end, but a means to an end. Q3: What is the end or purpose of education? A: We do not educate children for the aim of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life. Q4: Why is education varied? A: Education is varied because life is varied. Q5: What do people in the countries with advanced industries think they can do by free education? A: They have for some time thought, by free education for all, they can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. Q6: Why do some people refuse to do work with their hand? A: Because they think it is “low” work. In fact, to work with one’s hands is thought to be dirty a shameful in such countries. Q7: What would happen in the modern world if all the farmers were completely uneducated? A: If all…uneducated, their production would remain low. As the population grows larger and larger in the modern world, we would die if we did not have enough food. Q8: What education system can be called valuable to society according to the author? A: All must be educated: Firstly, to realize that everyone can do whatever job is suited to his brain and ability; secondly, to understand that all jobs are necessary to society an that it is bad to be ashamed of one’s own work or to look down upon someone else’s; thirdly, to master all the necessary know-how to do one’s job well. Only such education can be called valuable to society. Unit 2 Beauty Q1: Do you think Erma Bombeck’s (the author’s) mother was a guard for the rich? A: No. She just had the height and weight of a guard for the rich. Q2: She was a strong woman, wasn’t she? A: Yes, she was. According to her height and weight, she should be a guard for the rich. Q3: Was she really beautiful? Can you say a few words about what she generally looked like? A: No. She had iron-willed blood, one shoulder is lower than the other, and she bites her fingernails. Q4: According to the author, was she beautiful? A: Yes. According to the author, she was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. Q5: Why did the daughter say that her mother was a beauty? A: Because the mother has worked hard and shown great love for her children. Q6: Can you say a few words about her face, her eyes, her back, her legs, and her hands? A: Her face was full of lines and had a double chin. Her eyes were protected by glasses, but still 4 full of life (they were direct and sharp and looked at you when you speak). Her bent back developed slowly. Her legs were still in shape, but the step was slow. Her hands are small but able. Q7: What would modern women do about their double chins? A: They don’t have a double chin. They beat it away or pat the fat until it becomes firm. Unit 3 I Want a Wife Q1: What sort of an idea came to the author’s mind one evening? A: The author suddenly had the idea that she, too, would like to have a wife. Q2: What would she like to become? A: She would like to go back to school so that she could become a good scientist. Q3: What did she want a wife to do? A: She wanted a wife who will work and send her to school, who will take care of her, who will take care of her social life, and who will not trouble her with a wife’s duties and always listen to her. Q4: What did she want a wife to do while she was at school? A: To look after her children. (to make sure her children eat properly and are kept clean. To comb the girls’ hair and tie the boy’s necktie and wash the children’s clothes, arrange for their schooling, take them to the park or the zoo and makes them have a good time after school, look after the children when they are sick, arrange to be around when the children need special care… because she cannot miss lectures at school) Q5: In what way did she want her wife to listen to her? A: The wife must arrange to lose time at work, but not to lose her job. If, by chance, the author find another person better as a wife than the wife she already have, the author wants to have to freedom to replace her with another one. Q6: What conclusion does the author draw at the end of the text? A: Nobody wouldn’t want a wife. Unit 4 New York Q1: How long a history does New York have? A: A short history of some three hundred years. Q2: Who first came to Manhattan island? How did they get hold of the island? A: Dutch settlers came in 1626. They bought the island from the Indians and paid several pieces of bright cloth, diamond-like stones and other things worth about twenty-four dollars. Q3: 1)Who renamed the island New York? A: The English who came in 1604. 2) How did they take over the island? A: They defeated Dutch without a real fight. Q4: What makes New York famous? A: If there is one thing which has made New York famous, it is its tall buildings. Q5: What do you think is the reason that New York has to grow upwards? A: Because Manhattan is very small, only 12 miles by 2.5 miles at its wildest part, so it has grown upwards, instead of outwards. Q6: Suppose you were walking down a New York street, what would you feel? A: It is exciting. The buildings rise straight into the blue sky on either side. It makes one feel as though he were walking through a deep valley. 5 Q7: 1)Do all New Yorkers live in Manhattan? A: No, not all of them live in Manhattan. 2) They spent most of the day there, don’t they? A: Yes, the majority spend most of the day there. Q8: 1) What do most New Yorkers do when the day’s work is over? A: They stay home and watch TV. 2) How about others? A: Others return at night. Q9: Why does the passage say New York is the Empire City? A: For although New York is not the capital of the United States, Not Even the Capital of New York state, it is the Empire City, the leading stronghold of American capitalism. Unit 5 How Clever Is a Fish? Q1: Can fish hear? A: Yes. Q2: How sharp is a fish’s hearing? A: Slight sound two hundred feet away could drive them away. Q3: Is a fish able to recognize different colors? A: Yes. Q4: How did the scientist do experiments testing the ability of fish to tell different color? A: A small bottle with a colored sign around it was lowered among the fish. When a fish swam near it, the food was given. Then other colors were wrapped round the bottle. If a fish came near these, a gentle electric shock was given as a punishment by touching the fish’s back with an electric wire. Q5: Can fish be trained to tell different shapes? A: Yes. Fish also have an eye for different colors. Q6: How did the expert train the fish to recognize certain patterns? A: He trained fish to connect certain patterns with food. He used a small circle and a square. If the fish swam towards the circle, they received food as a reward. If they swam towards the square, they received nothing. Q7: What is the result of this training? A: The fish learned in time to go to the circle but not to the square. Q8: Have you ever had the experience that the more often a fish is nearly caught, the more difficult it will be to interest it next time? A: Many stories are told of the fishes that get away and the clever “old hand” ones that cannot be caught. Q9: How do you explain it? A: Because fish seem to learn by their own experience. Unit 6 Ancient China Q1: Where does China lie? A: China lies north of the Himalaya Mountains, in the eastern part of Asia. Q2: What kind of people live in the land? A: The black-haired, yellow-skinned people with dark eyes. Q3: What did they call their country? A: The Middle Kingdom, because they thought that the earth was flat and that their land was 6 in the middle of its flat surface. Sometimes they spoke lovely of their country as the Flowery Land. Q4: What was the purpose of building the great wall at that time? A: It was built along the northern border to keep the enemies beyond. Q5: 1) How long was the wall? A: Twelve hundred miles. 2) How wide is the wall? A: It was so wide that armies could march on top of it. Q6: What did a Chinese family usually include in the old days? A: The Chinese family came to include not only children and their parents, but their uncles and aunts, their grandfathers and grandmothers, and even their great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. Q7: How about now? A: For a nuclear family, Father, Mother, Son or Daughter. Q8: What was the great discovery the Chinese in very early days? A: They found they could spin silk threads and make them into lovely cloth. Q9: How about other discoveries discussed in the text? A: China made from very fine earth and how to make paper and print on it by using wooden blocks. Unit 7 Charles Chaplin Q1: Who was Charles Chaplin? A: An film actor, editor and producer, who was admired as the king of silent films and most famous comedian of all time. Q2: Where did he grown up? A: He grew up in the East End of London. Q3: What did his parents once do? A: Both of them had been on the stage and lived in the hope that one day they would become “stars”. Q4: What was Charles Chaplin’s dream? A: He dreamed that he could succeed where his parents had failed. That means he dreamed of becoming a star. Q5: How did he reach the top of the film world? A It was not at one single stroke. His early efforts to copy other famous stars at that time were a failure. However, he gradually began to develop the character of a tramp, which is always connected with his name. Q6: Can you say a few words about the tramp hero in the film? A: He wore a black hat, carried a walking stick and went in his famous walk learnt from a wounded London driver. He looked very funny but was kind in nature; he was poor but dreamed of being rich; he was ugly but wanted to be handsome; he always lost his heart to girls but for some reason that girls had to leave him. Q7: Can you say anything about his films? A: The Kids was a mirror of his own fears and sufferings when he was separated from his mother. In City Lights he described courage and strength of the poor in their struggles during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Modern Times attacked the cruel factory life in capitalist countries. 7 Q8: Why did he move to Switzerland in 1952? A: Because of his different points of view in politics, he was forced by the U.S. government to settle down in Switzerland. Q9: 1) When did he come back to the USA? A: In1972. 2) What did he come back for? A: He was welcomed back to receive an award- the award of an Oscar. Unit 8 Too Dear for the Whistle Q1: What did Benjamin Franklin’s friends do on a holiday when he was seven years old? A: His friend filled his pocket with coppers. Q2: What did he go to buy? A: A whistle. Q3: Why did Benjamin Franklin cry? A: Because his brothers and sisters and cousins put him in mind of what good things he might have bought with the rest of money and laughed at him so much for foolishness. Thinking about the matter gave him more shame than the whistle gave him pleasure. Q4: How many types of men were criticized by Franklin in the text? Who are they? A: Five types: man full of desire for court favor; man full of love for being famous; man fond of wealth more than anything else in the world; man fond of pleasure best of all; man fond of appearance. Q5 What did he criticized those men who tried hard to gather and keep wealth? A: They gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the respect of his fellows and the joys of friendship, in order to gather and keep wealth. Q6: What does the phrase “too dear for the whistle” mean? A: It means putting a false value on things. Unit 9 A Fable for Tomorrow Q1: Where is the town? A: In the heart of America. Q2: What were grown around the town? A: Fields of rice, wheat, corn or other crops, and hillsides of trees of orange, apple or other fruits. Q3: What could you see in autumn in the town? A: In autumn various fruits changed the color of the slopes. The foxes barked in the hills and silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the fog of the autumn morning. Q4: What did the countless birds come to the town for? A: To feed on the seed heads of the dried plants rising above the snow. Q5: Why did people come to the town? A: For sightseeing, to visit various kind of bird life, to fish the streams, pools or ponds, which flowed clear and cold out of the hills. Q6: What happened then? A: A great misfortune crept over the town and everything began to change. Strange illness swept the chickens; the cattle grew sick and died. Everywhere was a shadow of death. There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths, not only among the grown-ups, but even among children. They would be stricken suddenly while at work or play and die within a few hours. 8 Q7: 1) What happened to the birds? A: Nobody knew where thy had gone. 2) (What happened to )The fruit trees? A: They were coming into flower but bore no fruit. 3) (What happened to) The roadsides? A: They were lined with brown grass as though they had been swept by fire. They were, too, silent, deserted by all living things. 4) (What happened to) The streams? A: They were now lifeless, for all the fish died. Q8: Why did all this happen? A: Because some months before, rains of bitter taste, sometimes mixed with fine grains of sand, black as coal, had fallen upon the roofs and hills, fields and streams. Q9: What lesson can we learn from the passage “A Fable for Tomorrow”? A: By giving an example of the imagined town in America, the author warns us that: Something has to be done about pollution, or great misfortunes will fall upon the human race sooner or later jus as what has happened to this imagined town. Unit 10 Hilary’s Aunt Q1: Why was Hilary Smith put in prison? A: By the age of twenty, he had spent all the money his old family had, and then had some trouble with the bank and was put in prison. Q2: Where did he go after escaping from the prison? A: Australia. Q3: Did he like the place? Why? A: No, he didn’t. He thought Australia didn’t like him. What he could do was one of two things. He could die or work. The thought of neither of these gave him any pleasure. Q4: Was his aunt dead? A: No. She was just considered dead by her brother because he married a husband who was connected with “trade” instead of a nobleman. Q5: What does “Hilary’s star shone again” mean? A: Hilary became fortunate again. Q6: Did her aunt make any will? When was that? A: Yes. When she was a girl and had not much money. Q7: Did she make another will after she was married? Why or why not? A: No. Because she thought there was no need. When she finally had a lot of money she found she had no relations. Unit 11 Hilary’s Aunt Q1: 1) Where did he go the next day? A: A public library. 2) What for? A: To examine a book of law. Q2: What did he find in the book of law? A: The book told him what he already believed. When a woman married, an earlier will lose its value. A new will must made. If no new will is made, the money goes to the nearest relation. Q3: Why was he so sure that his future was safe? 9 A: Because he knew he was his aunt’s only relation. If his aunt didn’t make a new will, he would get her fortune. Q4: What did he and his aunt quarrel about? A: They had a quarrel about the small amount of ten pounds. Q5: What was the problem he began to wonder about? A: He began to wonder whether it was kind to want his aunt to live any longer and whether it was not better for her to die then. Q7: What decision did he finally take? A: He decided that he must do a great kindness to the poor old woman and put her to sleep forever. Q8: What did his aunt want to do more than anything else? A: To sleep, and never to wake up. Q9: Did Hilary finally get money from his aunt? Why or why not? A: He didn’t get the money. Because his aunt didn’t make a new will and the old will was still valid, for she didn’t marry Mr. Parks. Unit 12 No Home in Africa Q1: What does Annette Dula look like? A: She looks like a black African with the black skin and the curly hair. Q2: Sometimes she was pleased when she was considered an African, wasn’t she? A: Yes, she was. Q3: What happened at other times? A: She hated her African appearance at other times when embarrassing situations could develop. Q4: Why did she go to Africa? A: She went there for a visit because Africa is the place where lay her cultural roots. Q5: What happened to them when they got to Ethiopia? A: The people there were hostile to her, but they did not bother Kay. Q6: What happened in a shop in East Africa? A: She wanted to buy material for a shirt. She had walked in ahead of Kay. The shopkeeper pretended not to have seen her. But when Kay walked in, he rushed up to her. Q7: How did she feel two years later after the incident? A: She could still taste the bitterness. Q8: What was the shopkeeper’s opinion upon the black people? A: According to him, natives are lazy. They just aren’t capable of the super material nor worthy of it. Q9: Why was she roughly dragged out and was thrown back into the crown? A: As she was about to move along with other tourists, she was roughly dragged out from behind and was thrown back into the crowd because Africans are subjected to a thorough search while tourists usually pass the Customs by merely showing their passports. Q10: What did she finally realize? A: She realized that there was no home for her in Africa. Unit 13 What is Happiness Q1: What right is issued to us all with our birth? A: The right to pursue happiness is issued to us all. Q2: Does everyone of us know what it is? 10 A: No one seems quite sure what it is. Q3: How about you? (Student’s own understanding) Q4: What does a holy man in India think of happiness? A: The happiness is in himself. It is needing nothing form outside himself. In wanting nothing, he lacks nothing. Q5: What does he usually do then? A: He sits still there with all attention to his religious contemplation, free even of his own body, or nearly free of it. If some admirers bring him food he eats it; if not, he starves all the same. Q6: Why does he need nothing from outside himself? A: What is outside is nothing to him. His religious contemplation is his joy, the accomplishment of which is itself a joy within himself. Q7: What about westerners? A: They are taught that the more they have form outside themselves, the happier they will be. Q8: What are they made to do? A: And then they are made to want. They are even told it is their duty to want. Q9: What is the author’s idea of happiness? A: He doubts the holy man’s idea of happiness, and he doubts the dreams of the happiness-market, too. According to him, whatever happiness is, it is neither in having nothing nor in having more, but in changing—in changing the world and mankind into pure states. Q10: What is the weakness of eastern idea of happiness? A: It seems dull because they seem to be refusing playing anything at all. Perhaps the Eastern weakness is in the idea that there is such a thing as perfect happiness in man himself. Q11: What is the weakness of western idea of happiness? A: The western weakness may be in the dreams that happiness can be bought. Q12: What is your idea then? A: According to author, “No difficulty, no happiness!” 11