英语专八考试必背人文知识
英语专业八级考试自1991年设立以来.一直作为衡量英语专业学生英语水平和专业知识的工具。根据2004年最新修订的《高校英语专业四、八级考试大纲》(以下简称《考试大纲》)，从2005年起，英语专业八级考试内容、范围和题型都发生了一定的变化。其中最突出的是增加了“人文知识”这一题型，代替了原来的快速阅读。
英语专八考试必背人文知识
1. Syntax: The study of the rules whereby words or otherelements of sentence structure are combined to formgrammatical sentences. 句法，研究词或其它句子成分如何联合起来形成合乎语法的句子规则的学科
2.acronym : 首字母组合词，首字母缩略词，比如，NATO, UNESCO, BASIC,它们可以连拼，但VOA是 Initialism。
3.A Tale of Two Cities was written by Charles Dickens.
4. Semantics: The study or science of meaning in language forms.语义学，以语言形式表示意思的研究或科学
5. Phonology: The study of speech sounds in language or alanguage with reference to their distribution and patterning andto tacit rules governing pronunciation. 音位学; 在语言或一门语言中，对有关其分类和模式以及为大家所默认的发音规则的研究音韵学, 音系学
6. Metonymy: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another withwhich it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or ofthe sword for military power. 换喻或转喻，一种,一个词或词组被另一个与之有紧密联系的词或词组替换的修辞方法，如用华盛顿代替美==或用剑代替军事力量，对面来了三个“红领巾”也是，以红领巾指代少先队员。
7. Simile: A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in aphrase introduced by like or as, as in How like the winter hath my absence been or So are you tomy thoughts as food to life (Shakespeare).明喻, 一种修辞手法，把两种基本不相像的东西进行比较，通常在由 like或 as引导的短语中，如 “我的离开好象是冬天来临”或“你对我的思想就象食物对于生命一样重要”(莎士比亚)
8. Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates onething is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in a sea of troubles orAll the world's a stage(Shakespeare) 隐喻一种语言表达手法，通常用指某物的词或词组来指代他物，从而暗示它们之间的相似之处，如 “忧愁之海”或“整个世界一台戏”(莎士比亚) the ship ofdesert 沙漠之舟
9. Oxymoron: A rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined,as in a deafening silence and a mournful optimist. 矛盾修饰法, 一种把互相矛盾或不调和的词合在一起的修辞手法，如在 震耳欲聋的沉默和悲伤的乐观 cruel kindness
10. The affection name given to the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster isBig Ben. 11. John Milton the poet wrote of Adam and Eve’sexpulsion from the Garden of Eden in Paradise Lost. ParadiseRegained was also written by him.
12. Sonnet: A 14-line verse form usually having one ofseveral conventional rhyme schemes. 十四行诗体, 一种由十四行组成的诗歌形式，通常有一种传统的押韵形式, 莎士比亚用过此诗体。
13. Slang: A kind of language occurring chiefly in casualand playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinagesand figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness,humor, irreverence, or other effect. 俚语主要出现在非正式的、游戏性的话语中的一种语言，基本由存在时间很短的派生词和修辞构成，它们被故意地用来取代标准的词语以达到生动、幽默、无礼或其它效果
14. Catch Phrase: A phrase in wide or popular use, especially one serving as a slogan for agroup or movement. 警句，妙句，吸引人的词句广泛使用的或流行的用语，尤指用作集团或运动的口号的用语。
15. Jargon: The specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, or similar group. 行话, 一个行业、职业或类似的团体中使用的专业的或技术的语言.
16. Platitude: A trite or banal remark or statement, especially one expressed as if it wereoriginal or significant. 陈腔滥调, 陈腐的或平庸的评论或陈述，尤指某人表述它时好象它是新颖的或有意义的
17. Hyperbole: A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in Icould sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton. 夸张法,一种比喻，使用夸张来强调或产生某种效果，比如在我能睡一年或这书有一吨重
18. onomatopoeia: The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate thesounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. 象声词, 词的构成或用法，例如 buzz或nurmur模仿事物或行动的声音.
19. hypotaxis: 从属关系
20. parataxis: 并列结构，指 短语或分句间不用连词， 如：I came, I saw, I conquered. 21. Transcendentalism: A literary and philosophicalmovement, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson and MargaretFuller, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality thattranscends the empirical and scientific and is knowable throughintuition. 超验主义, 一种文学和哲学运动，与拉尔夫•沃尔多•爱默生和玛格丽特•富勒有关，宣称存在一种理想的精神实体，超越于经验和科学之处，通过直觉得以把握
22. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the Scarlet Letter. 美国
23. Morphology: The study of the structure and form ofwords in language or a language, including inflection, derivation, and the formation ofcompounds.词法，词态学，形态音位学, 语言或某一语言中对于单词的结构和形式的研究，包括词尾变化、派生和合成词的构成
24. affricate: A complex speech sound consisting of a stop consonant辅音 followed by africative摩擦; for example, the initial sounds of child and joy. 塞擦音由闭塞音伴随着摩擦音而形成的复杂的语音;例如 child和 joy的第一个音Also called: affricative.
25. Vanity Fair 名利场 was written William Makepeace Thackray
来源 26. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. Edwin Aldrin, MichaelCollins
尼尔.阿姆斯特朗、埃德温.奥尔德林、迈克尔.柯林斯
27. The title of the national anthem 国歌 of Canada is O Canada. 此种类型题同学们可自己多找几个国家。
28. Henry David Thoreau’s work, Walden, has always been regarded as a masterpiece of NewEngland Transcendentalism.
29. etymology: the history of a word. 词源学
30. The dominant accent in the United States is General American. 除纽约市、南方、新英格兰 31. John Lennon is a member of the band of Beatles 披头士或甲壳虫乐队in the 1960s.
32. In Gulliver’s Travels格列佛游记, Jonathan Swiftdescribes the island of the Houyhnhnms as the world’s mostperfect society. 有理智和人性的马 Houyhnhnms are horses infact.
33. Ceoffrey Chaucer wrote Canterbury Tales in fourteenthcentury.
34. morpheme: A meaningful linguistic unit consisting of aword, such as man, or a word element, such as -ed in walked, that cannot be divided into smallermeaningful parts. 词素, 一种含有一个单词的有意义的语言单位，如 -ed在单词 walked中，不能被划分为更小的有意义单位
35. The name of the famous stadium露天体育场 in the north of London is Wembley.
36. Wimbledon温布尔登[英国英格兰东南部城市](位于伦敦附近, 是著名的国际网球比赛地)
37. Toad in the hole is a Traditional English recipe食谱, originating from Yorkshire, a countyin the north of England. 烤面拖牛肉，，面拖烤香肠
38. Boycott: To act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as anexpression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion(强制). 联合抵制, 联合起来拒绝使用、购买或经销以示抗议、不满或作为强制的手段
39. Segregation: The policy and practice of imposing the social separation of races, as inschools, housing, and industry, especially so as to practice discrimination against people of color ina predominantly white society. 种族隔离, 强制实行种族的社会分离政策及实践，如在学校、居住和工业中，尤指在白人居多的社会中实行有色人种歧视的政策
40. Apartheid: An official policy of racial segregation practiced in the Republic of South Africa,involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites. 种族隔离制, 南非共和国实行的一种官方的种族隔离政策，包括在政治、法律和经济诸方面对非白色人种的歧视.