C. in the first paragraph.      D. in the same paragraph.
93. The graduation speeches mentioned in the passage are related to the following themes      EXCEPT
A. death.   B. success.   C. service.   D. generosity.
94. It is implied in the passage that at great moments people fail to
A. remain clear-headed.     B. keep good manners.
C. remember others' words.      D. recollect specific details.
95. What is "one of the first lessons of growing up"?
A. Attending a graduation ceremony.
B. Listening to graduation speeches.
C. Forgetting details of memorable events.
D. Meeting high-profile graduation speakers
Text c 是2007年的专四真题，是问答题，题目和原来的选项有所不同。
The kids are hanging out. I pass small bands of students, in my way to work these mornings. They have become a familiar part of the summer landscape.
    These kids are not old enough for jobs. Nor are they rich enough for camp. They are school children without school. The calendar called the school year ran out on them a few weeks ago. Once supervised by teachers and principals, they now appear to be “self care”.
    Passing them is like passing through a time zone. For much of our history, after all, Americans arranged the school year around the needs of work and family. In 19th-century cities, schools were open seven or eight hours a day, 11 months a year. In rural America, the year was arranged around the growing season. Now, only 3 percent of families follow the agricultural model, but nearly all schools are scheduled as if our children went home early to milk the cows and took months off to work the crops. Now, three-quarters of the mothers of school-age children work, but the calendar is written as if they were home waiting for the school bus.
    The six-hour day, the 180-day school year is regarded as something holy. But when parents work an eight-hour day and a 240-day year, it means something different. It means that many kids go home to empty houses. It means that, in the summer, they hang out.
    “We have a huge mismatch between the school calendar and realities of family life,” says Dr. Ernest Boyer ,head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
    Dr. Boyer is one of many who believe that a radical revision of the school calendar is inevitable. “School, whether we like it or not, is educational. It always has been.”
    His is not popular idea. School are routinely burdened with the job of solving all our social problems. Can they be asked to meet the needs of our work and family lives?
    It may be easier to promote a longer school year on its educational merits and, indeed, the educational case is compelling. Despite the complaints and studies about our kids’ lack of learning, the United State still has a shorter school year than any industrial nation. In most of Europe, the school year is 220 days. In Japa, it is 240 days long. While classroom time alone doesn’t produce a well-educated child, learning takes time and more learning takes more time. The long summers of forgetting take a toll.
95. Which of the following is an opinion of the author’s? ____A____
A. “The kids are hanging out.”
B. “They are school children without school.”
C. “These kids are not old enough for jobs.”
D. “The calendar called the school year ran out on them a few weeks ago.”
解析：A。 第一段的第一句：“The kids are hanging out.”跟第二段的最后一句： “Once supervised by teachers and principals, they now appear to be “self care”. 相呼应。作者的观点是现在的孩子上学的时间太短，很多时间都在外闲逛，无所事事。这里的hang out是指在某地逗留，浪费时间。后面也可以加个地方，旨在那个地方逗留，浪费时间。也可以with某人，指与某人在一起瞎混，浪费时间。例如：You guys spent too much time hanging out.
你们花太多时间瞎混了。B、C、D是客观事实陈述，并不是作者观点。
96. The current American school calendar was developed in the 19th century according to ____A____
A. the growing season on nation’s farm.
B. the labor demands of the industrial age.
C. teachers’ demands for more vacation time.
D. parents’ demands for other experiences for their kids.
解析：A。第三段提到：“In rural America, the year was arranged around the growing season. Now, only 3 percent of families follow the agricultural model, but nearly all schools are scheduled as if our children went home early to milk the cows and took months off to work the crops. (19世纪的时候，上学时间是根据农时来决定的。现在虽然只有3%的家庭从事农业，但几乎所有的学校的校历安排似乎是让孩子们早早回家去挤牛奶或是花上几个月时间去地里种庄稼.)
97. The author thinks that the current school calendar ____A____.
A. is still valid.
B. is out of date.
C. can not be revised.
D. can not be defended.
解析：B。从第三段可知，现有的校历是根据以前的情况制定的，已经不能适应现在的情况了。
98. Why was Dr. Boy’s idea unpopular? ____D____
A. He argues for the role of school in solving social problems.
B. He supports the current school calendar.
C. He thinks that school year and family life should be considered separately.
D. He strongly believes in the educational role of school.
解析：D。A和B明显与文章不符。A指的是大众的观点；B选项Dr. Boy是不赞同现有的校历的。C选项与文章相反，文中提到Dr.Boy’s idea: “We have a huge mismatch between the school calendar and realities of family life,”… “School, whether we like it or not, is educational. It always has been.” 意思是如今的校历安排与现实生活脱节，暗指应该把两者结合起来。
99.“The long summers of forgetting take a toll ”in the last paragraph but one means that ____C____.
A. long summer vacation slows down the progress of learning.
B. long summer vacation has been abandoned in Europe.
C. long summers result in less learning time.
D. long summers are a result of tradition.
解析：C。细看这句话：“learning takes time more learning takes more time, the long summer's forgetting take a toll.” take a toll意思是造成损失或有不良的影响。这句话意思是：“学习要时间,更多学习要更多时间,而长时间的暑假会影响(它),会对(它)造成不好影响”。
文中作者的观点是现有的校历学习的时间不够长，“Despite the complaints and studies about our kids’ lack of learning, the United State still has a shorter school year than any industrial nation.”（虽然我们抱怨和研究我们的孩子学习不够，然而在美国，上学时间仍然比其他任何工业国家的都要短。）
100. The main purpose of the passage is ____C____
A. to describe how American children spend their summer.
B. to explain the needs of the modern working families.
C. to discuss the problems of the current school calendar.
D. to persuade parents to stay at home to look after their kids.

Text D 是2002年的专八真题，考题是问答题形式。
It is nothing new that English use is on the rise around the world, especially in business circles. This also happens in France, the headquarters of the global battle against American cultural hegemony. If French guys are giving in to English, something really big must be going on. And something big is going on.
Partly, it s that American hegemony. Didier Benchimol, CEO of a French e-commerce software company, feels compelled to speak English perfectly because the Internet software business is dominated by Americans. He and other French businessmen also have to speak English because they want to get their message out to American investors, possessors of the world s deepest pockets.
The triumph of English in France and elsewhere in Europe, however, may rest on something more enduring. As they become entwined with each other politically and economically, Europeans need a way to talk to one another and to the rest of the world. And for a number of reasons, they've decided upon English as their common tongue.
So when German chemical and pharmaceutical company Hoechst merged with French competitor Rhone-Poulenc last year, the companies chose the vaguely Latinate Aventis as the new company name- and settled on English as the company's common language. When monetary policymakers from around Europe began meeting at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt last year to set interest rates for the new Euroland, they held their deliberations in English. Even the European Commission, with 11 official languages and traditionally French-speaking bureaucracy, effectively switched over to English as its working language last year.
How did this happen? One school attributes English s great success to the sheer weight of its merit. It s a Germanic language, brought to Britain around the fifth century A.D. During the four centuries of French-speaking rule that followed Norman Conquest of 1066, the language morphed into something else entirely. French words were added wholesale, and most of the complications of Germanic grammar were shed while few of the complications of French were added. The result is a language with a huge vocabulary and a simple grammar that can express most things more efficiently than either of its parents. What's more, English has remained ungoverned and open to change-foreign words, coinages, and grammatical shifts-in a way that French, ruled by the purist Academic Francaise, had not.
So it's a swell language, especially for business. But the rise of English over the past few centuries clearly owes at least as much to history and economics as to the language's ability to economically express the concept win-win. What happened is that the competition-first Latin, then French, then, briefly, German-faded with the waning of the political, economic, and military fortunes of, respectively, the Catholic Church, France, and Germany. All along, English was increasing in importance: Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and London the world's most important financial centre, which made English a key language for business. England s colonies around the world also made it the language with the most global reach. And as that former colony the U.S. rose to the status of the world's preeminent political economic, military, and cultural power, English became the obvious second language to learn.