Part ⅡReading Comprehension (35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C)and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single ling through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become ‘better’ people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don’t go.
But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who won’t fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other’s experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out – often encouraged by college administrators.
Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves – they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that’s a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn’t explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We’ve been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can’t absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.
Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things – maybe it’s just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy(異端邪說) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.
21. According to the author, ________.
A) people used to question the value of college education
B) people used to have full confidence in higher education
C) all high school graduates went to college
D) very few high school graduates chose to go to college
22. In the 2nd paragraph, “those who don’t fit the pattern” refers to ________.
A) high school graduates who aren’t suitable for college education
B) college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxis
C) college students who aren’t any better for their higher education
D) high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college
23. The drop-out rate of college students seems to go up because ________.
A) young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at college
B) many young people are required to join the army
C) young people have little motivation in pursuing a higher education
D) young people don’t like the intense competition for admission to graduate school
24. According to the passage the problems of college education partly arise from the fact that ________.
A) society cannot provide enough jobs for properly trained college graduates
B) high school graduates do not fit the pattern of college education
C) too many students have to earn their own living
D) college administrators encourage students to drop out
25. In the passage the author argues that ________.
A) more and more evidence shows college education may not be the best thing for high school graduates
B) college education is not enough if one wants to be successful
C) college education benefits only the intelligent, ambitious, and quick-learning people
D) intelligent people may learn quicker if they don’t go to college
Passage Two
Question 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
The competition among producers of personal computers is essentially a race to get the best, most innovative products to the marketplace. Marketers in this environment frequently have to make a judgment as to their competitors' role when making marketing strategy decisions. If major competitors are changing their products, then a marketer may want to follow suit to remain competitive. Apple Computer, Inc. has introduced two new, faster personal computers, the Mackintosh II and Mackintosh SE, in anticipation of the introduction of a new PC by IBM, one of Apple’s major competitors.
Apple’s new computers are much faster and more powerful than its earlier models. The improved Mackintosh is able to run programs that previously were impossible to run on an Apple PC, including IBM compatible(兼容的)programs. This compatibility feature illustrates computer manufacturers' new attitude of giving customers the features they want. Making Apple computers capable of running IBM software is Apple’s effort at making the Mackintosh compatible with IBM computers and thus more popular in the office, where Apple hopes to increase sales. Users of the new Apple can also add accessories(附件) to make their machines specialize in specific uses, such as engineering and writing.
The new computers represent a big improvement over past models, but they also cost much more. Company officials do not think the higher price will slow down buyers who want to step up to a more powerful computer. Apple wants to stay in the high price end of the personal computer market to finance research for even faster, more sophisticated computers.
Even though Apple and IBM are major competitors, both companies realize that their competitor's computers have certain features that their own models do not. The Apple line has always been popular for its sophisticated color graphics(圖形)，whereas the IBM machines have always been favored in offices. In the future, there will probably be more compatibility between the two companies' products, which no doubt will require that both Apple and IBM change marketing strategies.
26. According to the passage, Apple Computer, Inc. has introduced the Mackintosh II and the Mackintosh SE because .
A) IBM is changing its computer models continuously
B) it wants to make its machines specialize in specific uses
C) it wants to stay ahead of IBM in the competitive computer market
D) it expects its major competitor IBM to follow its example
27. Apple hopes to increase Mackintosh sales chiefly by .
A) making its new models capable of running IBM software
B) improving the color graphics of its new models
C) copying the marketing strategies of IBM
D) giving the customers what they want
28. Apple sells its new computer models at a high price because .
A) they have new features and functions
B) they are more sophisticated than other models
C) they have new accessories attached
D) it wants to accumulate funds for future research
29. It can be inferred from the passage that both Apple and IBM try to gain a competitive advantage by .
A) copying each other’s technology
B) incorporating features that make their products distinctive
C) making their computers more expensive
D) making their computers run much faster
30.The best title for the passage would be .
A) Apple’s Efforts to Stay Ahead of IBM B) Apple’s New Computer Technology
C) Apple’s New Personal Computers D) Apple’s Research Activities
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
A recent study, published in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a picture of how risky it is to get a lift from a teenage driver. Indeed, a 16-year-old driver with three or more passengers is three times as likely to have a fatal accident as a teenager driving alone. By contrast, the risk of death for drivers between 30 and 59 decreases with each additional passenger.
The author also found that the death rates for teenage drivers increased dramatically after 10 p.m., and especially after midnight, with passengers in the car, the driver was even more likely to die in a late-night accident.
Robert Foss, a scientist at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, says the higher death rates for teenage drivers have less to do with “really stupid behavior” than with just a lack of driving experience. “The basic issue.” he says, “is that adults who are responsible for issuing licenses fail to recognize how complex and skilled a task driving is.”
Both he and the author of the study believe that the way to mitigate (使……緩解)the problem is to have states institute so-called graduated licensing systems, in which getting a license is a multistage process. A graduated license requires that a teenager first prove himself capable of driving in the presence of an adult, followed by a period of driving with night of passenger restrictions, before graduating to full driving privileges.
Graduated licensing systems have reduced teenage driver crashes, according to recent studies, About half of the states now have some sort of graduated licensing system in place, but only 10 of those states have restrictions on passengers, California is the strictest, with a novice(新手)driver prohibited from carrying any passenger under 20(without the presence of an adult over 25)for the first six months.
31. Which of the following situations is most dangerous according to the passage?
A) Adults giving a lift to teenagers on the highway after 10 p.m.
B) A teenager driving after midnight with passengers in the car.
C) Adults driving with three or more teenage passengers late at night.
D) A teenager getting a lift from a stranger on the highway at midnight.
32. According to Robert Foss, the high death rate of teenage drivers is mainly due to ________
A) their frequent driving at night B) their improper way of driving
C) their lack of driving experience D) their driving with passengers
33. According to Paragraph 3. which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) Teenagers should spend more time learning to drive.
B) Driving is a skill too complicated for teenagers to learn.
C) Restrictions should be imposed on teenagers applying to take driving lessons.
D) The licensing authorities are partly responsible for teenagers' driving accidents.
34. A suggested measure to be taken to reduce teenagers' driving accidents is that ________ .
A) driving in the presence of an adult should be made a rule
B) they should be prohibited from taking on passengers
C) they should not be allowed to drive after 10 p.m.
D) the licensing system should be improved
35. The present situation in about half of the states is that the graduated licensing system ________.
A) is under discussion B) is about to be set up
C) has been put into effect D) has been perfected
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table. I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked: "So, how have you been?" And the boy—who could not have been more than seven or eight years old —replied. "Frankly, I've been feeling a little depressed lately."
This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed” until we were in high school.
The evidence of a change in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don’t seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to.
Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists, why?
Human development is based not only on innate (天生的) biological states, but also on patterns of access to social knowledge. Movement from one social rote to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new status. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in stages: traditionally, we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.
In the last 30 years, however, a secret-revelation (揭示) machine has been installed in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information, and indiscriminately (不加區(qū)分地), to all viewers alike, be they children or adults. Unable to resist the temptation, many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more vivid moving pictures.
Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information to which children have access. Reading and writing involve a complex code of symbols that must be memorized and practices. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.
36. According to the author, feeling depressed is ________.
A) a sure sign of a psychological problem in a child
B) something hardly to be expected in a young child
C) an inevitable sign of children's mental development
D) a mental stage present in all humans, including children
37. Traditionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world ________.
A) through contact with society B) gradually and under guidance
C) naturally and by biological instinct D)through exposure to social information
38. The phenomenon that today’s children seem adult-like is attributed by the author to ________.
A) the widespread influence of television
B) the poor arrangement of teaching content
C) the fast pace of human intellectual development
D) the constantly rising standard of living
39. Why is the author in favor of communication through print for children?
A) It enables children to gain more social information.
B) It develops children's interest in reading and writing.
C) It helps children to memorize and practice more.
D) It can control what children are to learn.
40. What does the author think of the change in today’s children?
A) He feels amused by their premature behavior.
B) He thinks it is a phenomenon worthy of note.
C) He considers it a positive development.
D) He seems to be upset about it.
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