complete and perfect as instruments of communication: that is,
every language appears to be well equipped as any other to say 1________________ the things their speakers want to say. 2________________ There may or may not be appropriate to talk about primitive 3________________ peoples or cultures, but that is another matter. Certainly, not all groups of people are equally competent in nuclear physics or
psychology or the cultivation of rice . Whereas this is not the 4_____________ fault of their language. The Eskimos , it is said, can speak about
snow with further more precision and subtlety than we can in 5______________ English, but this is not because the Eskimo language (one of those sometimes miscalled 'primitive') is inherently more precise and
subtle than English. This example does not come to light a defect 6______________ in English, a show of unexpected 'primitiveness'. The position is
simply and obviously that the Eskimos and the English live in similar 7____________ environments. The English language will be just as rich in terms 8____________ for different kinds of snow, presumably, if the environments in which
Englishwas habitually used made such distinction as important. 9_____________ Similarly, we have no reason to doubt that the Eskimo language could be as precise and subtle on the subject of motor manufacture
or cricket if these topics formed the part of the Eskimos' life. 10____________ 2010年专八真题改错参考答案以及分词 1 be后插入 as; as?as引导的比较级 2 their改为its; its代替every language
3 There改为It; It此处作为形式主语，真正的主语是后面的不定式 4 Whereas改为But ； 语境需要表示转折的连词，whereas表示对比 5 further 改为much further不能修饰比较级
6 come改为bring; (sth)come to light , bring sth to light
bring to light the defect of English =bring the defect of english to light 揭示英语的缺陷 7 similar改为different; 根据语境应该用different 8 will改为would; 虚拟语气 9 as important去掉as;
10 the part去掉the或者改the为a be/become/form (a) part of 是固定短语
09专八改错原题
The previous section has shown how quickly a rhyme passes
from one school child to the next and illustrates the further difference (1)___________ between school lore and nursery lore. In nursery lore a verse,
learnt in early childhood, is not usually passed on again when the (2)___________ little listener has grown up, and has children of their own, or even (3)____________ grandchildren. The period between learning a nursery rhyme and
transmitting it may be something from twenty to seventy years. With (4)_____________ the playground lore, therefore, a rhyme may be excitedly passed (5)___________
on within the very hour it is learnt; and in the general, it passes (6)_____________ between children of the same age, or nearly so, since it is uncommon for the difference in age between playmates to be more than five years. If ,therefore, a playground rhyme can be shown to have been
currently for a hundred years, or even just for fifty, it follows that it (7)__________ has been retransmitted over and over; very possibly it has passed (8)___________ along a chain of two or three hundred young hearers and tellers, and
the wonder is that it remains live after so much handling, (9)____________ to let alone that it bears resemblance to the (10)____________ 答案分析：
(1) the further difference改为a further difference（此次应该用不定冠词表示泛指） (2) 改when 为until, 结构not...until翻译为“直到??才”
(3)their改为his（代词与前文a little listener在单复数上保持一致） (4)something 改为anything 此处指二十到七十的任何时段 (5)therefore改为however （根据上下文逻辑关系）
(6) in the general去掉the （习惯用法in general 表示总的来说，一般不用冠词） (7) currently 改为current （这里起的是表语的作用，需要形容词而不是副词） (8) it has passed改为 it has been passed （与分号前的被动保持一致） (9) live 改为 alive alive翻译为“鲜活的”，一般作补语；live翻译为“现场转播的；活的”，一般作定语
(10) to let alone改为 let alone (let alone 为习惯搭配，意思是“更不用说
2008年专八真题 短文改错
The desire to use language as a sign of national identity is a
very natural one, and in result language has played a prominent ____1____ part in national moves. Men have often felt the need to cultivate ____2____ a given language to show that they are distinctive from another ____3____ race whose hegemony they resent. At the time the United States ____4____ split off from Britain, for example, there were proposals that
independence should be linguistically accepted by the use of a ____5____ different language from those of Britain. There was even one ____6____ proposal that Americans should adopt Hebrew. Others favoured the adoption of Greek, though, as one man put it, things would
certainly be simpler for Americans if they stuck on to English ____7____ and made the British learn Greek. At the end, as everyone ____8____ knows, the two countries adopted the practical and satisfactory
solution of carrying with the same language as before. ____9____ Since nearly two hundred years now, they have shown the world ____10____ that political independence and national identity can be complete
without sacrificing the enormous mutual advantages of a common language. 2008
1. in result 改成in consequence，
2 moves改成movements.
3 distinctive改成distinct或different 4 在time后加when 5 accepted 改成realized 6 those改成that 7 删除on, 8 At 改成In
9 carrying with 改成 carrying on with 10 now改成 ago
07专八真题 短文改错
From what has been said, it must be clear that no one can make very positive statements about how language originated.
There is no material in any language today and in the earliest 1__________ records of ancient languages show us language in a new and 2__________ emerging state. It is often said, of course, that the language 3_________ originated in cries of anger, fear, pain and pleasure, and the 4__________ necessary evidence is entirely lacking: there are no remote tribes, no ancient records, providing evidence of
a language with a large proportion of such cries 5__________ than we find in English. It is true that the absence
of such evidence does not disprove the theory, but in 6__________ other grounds too the theory is not very attractive. People of all races and languages make rather similar
noises in return to pain or pleasure. The fact that 7___________ such noises are similar on the lips of Frenchmen
and Malaysians whose languages are utterly different,
serves to emphasize on the fundamental difference 8___________ between these noises and language proper. We may say that the cries of pain or chortles of amusement
are largely reflex actions, instinctive to large extent, 9____________ whereas language proper does not consist of signs
but of these that have to be learnt and that are 10___________ wholly conventional
1, 改and为or, any languagages today or recordsof ancient languages 是并列成分，在否定句中用or
2, 改show为showing, 现在分词作定语 3， 删除the, 表示泛指
4， 改and为but, 根据语境此处是转折
5，改 large为larger, 后面有than, 应该用比较级 6， 改in为on, on other grounds “ 基于其它理由”，为固定搭配 7，改return为response , in response to “对??作出反应”
8，删除on, emphasize sth emphasize是及物动词
9，在large前加a, extent 是可数名词，前面要加冠词。 \翻译为“在很大程度上”
10，改 these为 those those that/who为固定形式
2006专八短文改错
We use language primarily as a means of communication with
other human beings. Each of us shares with the community in which we
live a store of words and meanings as well as agreeing conventions as 1_______ to the way in which words should be arranged to convey a particular 2_______ message: the English speaker has in his disposal vocabulary and a 3_______ set of grammatical rules which enables him to communicate his 4_______ thoughts and feelings, in a variety of styles, to the other English 5_______ speakers. His vocabulary, in particular, both that which he uses active- ly and that which he recognises, increases in size as he grows
old as a result of education and experience. 6_________ But, whether the language store is relatively small or large, the system remains no more than a psychological reality for the individual, unless
he has a means of expressing it in terms able to be seen by another 7_________ member of his linguistic community; he bas to give the system a
concrete transmission form. We take it for granted the two most 8____________ common forms of transmission-by means of sounds produced by our
vocal organs (speech) or by visual signs (writing). And these are 9_____________ among most striking of human achievements. 10____________ 1, 改agreeing为agreed agreed conventions翻译为“习俗” 2，words前加the, 此处为特指
3，改in为at at one?s disposal为固定短语，翻译为“由某人做主”
4， 改enables为enable，定语从句与先行词vocabulary and a set of grammatical rules保持一致
5，删除the, 此处需要泛指
6，改 old为older, 此处需要比较级
7， 改seen为understood，system应该是被理解 8．， 删除it take sth for granted take it for granted that? 9, 改 or为and ,语境需要并列关系而不需选择关系 10， most前加the, 形容词最高级中that一般不能省略
2005年专八真题短文改错
The University as Busines
A number of colleges and universities have announced steep tuition increases for next year much steeper than the current,
very low rate of inflation. They say the increases are needed because
of a loss in value of university endowments heavily investing in common 1 ________ stock. I am skeptical. A business firm chooses the price that maximizes
its net revenues, irrespective fluctuations in income; and increasingly the 2 _________ outlook of universities in the United States is indistinguishable from those of 3 ___________ business firms. The rise in tuitions may reflect the fact economic uncertainty 4__________ increases the demand for education. The biggest cost of being
in the school is foregoing income from a job (this is primarily a factor in 5 __________ graduate and professional-school tuition); the poor one's job prospects, 6 ___________ the more sense it makes to reallocate time from the job market to education, in order to make oneself more marketable.
The ways which universities make themselves attractive to students 7 ___________ include soft majors, student evaluations of teachers, giving students
a governance role, and eliminate required courses. 8 _________ Sky-high tuitions have caused universities to regard their students as
customers. Just as business firms sometimes collude to shorten the 9 ___________ rigors of competition, universities collude to minimize the cost to them of the athletes whom they recruit in order to stimulate alumni donations, so the best athletes now often bypass higher education in order to obtain salaries earlier from professional teams. And until they were stopped by the antitrust authorities, the Ivy League schools colluded to limit competition for the best students, by agreeing not to award scholarships on the basis of merit rather than purely
of need-just like business firms agreeing not to give discounts on their best 10 ____________ customer
1. investing应改为invested，过去分词作定语 2. 在irrespective和fluctuations之间加上介词of。irrespectiveOf是一固定用法，意指“不论，不管，不顾，”等，此处指公司不顾收入的波动变化。
3. 把those改为that， that此处代替outlook
4．在fact和economic之间力口上关系代词that。这是一个同位语从语，that在同位语从句中是不能省略的.
5．把定冠词the去掉, in school表示上学这个抽象意义
6．把形容词poor改为其比较级poorer。这句中的poor与后面的more形成一对比较关系，表示“越??越??” 7．在ways和which之间加上一个介词in。 8．这里应该用动词的—lng形式，即eliminating，以便使句型结构与前面的giving(students a governance role)保持一致，否则句子结构和意思都显得不正确。
9．将shorten(缩短；使变短)改为reduce/lesson/weaken。此处属于用词不当。
10．将to give discounts on改为to give discounts to their best customer。意为实业公司给最好的客户提供优惠。 Give discounts to sb为固定短语
2004