2008年英语专业四级考试真题及答案(3)

them information."

"I'm just a university professor," I said. My voice came out in a squeak.

"Of course you are. And we take people like you out of here in leg irons every day."

I put my phone away.

My husband and 1 were getting hungry and tired. Whole families had been brought into the waiting room, and the place was packed with excitable children, exhausted parents, even a flight attendant.

I wanted to scream, to jump on a chair and shout: "I'm an American citizen; a novelist; l probably teach English literature to your children." Or would that all be counted against me?

After two hours in detention, I was approached by one of the officers. "You're free to go," he said. No explanation or apologies. For a moment, neither of us moved, we were still in shock.

Then we leaped to our feet.

"Oh, one more thing." He handed me a tattered photocopy with an address on it. "If you weren't happy with your treatment, you can write to this agency."

"Will they respond?" I asked.

"I don't know --- I don't know of anyone who's ever written to them before." Then he added, "By the way, this will probably keep happening each time you travel internationally."

"What can I do to keep it from happening again?"

He smiled the empty smile we'd seen all day. "Absolutely nothing." After telling several friends about our ordeal, probably the most frequent advice I've heard in response is to change my name. Twenty years ago, my own graduate school writing professor advised me to write under a pen name so that publishers wouldn't stick me in what he called "the ethnic ghetto" --- a separate, secondary shelf in the bookstore. But a name is an integral part of anyone's personal and professional identity -just like the town you're born in and the place where you're raised. Like my father, I'll keep the name, but my airport experience has given me a whole new perspective on what diversity and tolerance are supposed to mean. I had no idea that being an American would ever be this hard.

90. The author was held at the airport because _____. A. she and her husband returned from Jamaica. B. her name was similar to a terrorist's. C. she had been held in Montreal. D. she had spoken at a book event.

91. She was not allowed to call her friends because _____.

A. her identity hadn't been confirmed yet.

B. she had been held for only one hour and a half.

C. there were other families in the waiting room.

D. she couldn't use her own cell phone.

92. We learn from the passage that the author would _____ to prevent similar experience from happening again.

A. write to the agency B. change her name

C. avoid traveling abroad D. do nothing

93. Her experiences indicate that there still exists _____ in the US.

A. hatred B. discrimination

C. tolerance D. diversity

94. The author sounds in the last paragraph. A. impatient B. bitter C. worried D. ironic

TEXT D

Public speaking fills most people with dread. Humiliation is the greatest fear; self-exposure and failing to appeal to the audience come a close second. Women hate it most, since girls are pressurized from an early age to be concerned with appearances of all kinds.

Most people have plenty of insecurities, and this seems like a situation that will bring them out. If you were under pressure to be perfect, you are terrified of falling in the most public of ways.

While extroverts will feel less fear before the ordeal, it does not mean they will necessarily do it better. Some very shy people manage to shine. When I met the British comedian Julian Clary, he was shy and cautious, yet his TV performances are perfect.

In fact, personality is not the best predictor of who does it well. Regardless of what you are like in real life, the key seems to be to act yourself.

Actual acting, as in performing the scripted lines of a character other than yourself, does not do the job. While politicians may limit damage by having carefully rehearsed, written scripts to speak from, there is always a hidden awareness among the audience that the words might not be true.

Likewise, the incredibly perfect speeches of many American academics are far from natural.

You may end up buying their book on the way out, but soon afterwards, it is much like fast food, and you get a nameless sense that you've been cheated.

Although, as Earl Spencer proved at his sister Princess Diana's funeral, it is possible both to prepare every word and to act naturally.

A script rarely works and it is used to help most speakers.

But, being yourself doesn't work either. If you spoke as if you were in your own kitchen, it would be too authentic, too unaware of the need to communicate with an audience.

I remember going to see British psychiatrist R. D. Laing speak in public. He behaved like a seriously odd person, talking off the top of his head. Although he was talking about madness and he wrote on mental illness, he seemed to be exhibiting rather than explaining it.

The best psychological place from which to speak is an unselfconscious self-consciousness, providing the illusion of being natural. Studies suggest that this state of "flow", as psychologists call it, is very satisfying.

95. Women hate public speaking most mainly because of _____. A. their upbringing very early on. B. their inability to appeal to the audience. C. their sense of greater public pressure. D. their sense of greater humiliation. 96. "this" in Paragraph Two refers to A. insecurity. B. sense of failure. C. public speaking. D. pressure.

97. Which of the following is NOT the author's viewpoint?

A. Acting like performers spoils the message in a speech.…… 此处隐藏：5663字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……