2015年英语四级考试每日一练(11月16日)
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单项选择题
1、
Essay．Grading Software Offers Professors a Break
A．Imagine taking a college exam，and，instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later，clicking the“send”button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly，your essay scored by a software program．And then，instead of being done with that exam，imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade．
B．EDX，the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)to offer courses on the Internet，has just introduced such a system and will make its automated(自动的)software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it．The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers，freeing professors for other tasks．
C．The new service will bring the educational consortium(联盟)into a growing conflict over the role of automation in education．Although automated grading systems for multiple—choice and true—false tests are now widespread，the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade essay answers has not yet received widespread acceptance by educators and has many critics．
D．Anant Agarwal，an electrical engineer who is president of EDX，predicted that the instant—grading software would be a useful teaching tool enabling students to take tests and write essays over and over and improve the quality of their answers．He said the technology would offer distinct advantages over the traditional classroom system，where students often wait days or weeks lor grades．“There is a huge value in learning with instant feedback，”Dr．Agarwal said．“Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback．”
E．But skeptics(怀疑者)say the automated system is no match for live teachers．One longtime critic， Les Perelman，has drawn national attention several times for putting together nonsense essays that have fooled software grading programs into giving high marks．He has also been highly critical of studies claiming that the software compares well to human graders．
F．He is among a group of educators who last month began circulating a petition(呼吁)opposing automated assessment software．The group． which calls itself Professionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High—Stakes Assessment，has collected nearly 2，000 signatures，including some from famous people like Noanl Chomsky．
G．“Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scorin9，”the group’s statement reads in part． “Computers cannot‘read．’They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication：accuracy．reasonin9，adequacy of evidence，good sense，ethical(伦理的)position，convincing argument，meaningful organization，and clarity，among others．”
H)But EdX expects its software to be adopted widely by schools and universities．It offers free online classes from Harvard．MIT and the University of California—Berkeley；this fall，it will add classes from Well esley．Georgetown and the University of Texas．In all，12 universities participate in EDX，which offers certificates for course completion and has said that it plans to continue to expand next year，including adding international schools．
I．The EDX assessment tool requires human teachers，or graders，to first grade l00 essays or essay questions．The system then uses a variety of machine—learning techniques to train itself to be able to grade any number of essays or answers automatically and almost instantly．The software will assign a grade depending on the scoring system created by the teacher，whether it is a letter grade or numerical(数字的)rank．
J ． EDX is not the first to use the automated assessment technology，which dates to early computers in the l960s．There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers，and four states--Louisiana，North Dakota，Utah and West Virginia--are using some form
of the technology in secondary schools．A fifth，Indiana，has experimented with it．In some cases the software is used as a“second reader．”to check the reliability of the human graders．
K．But the growing influence of the EDx consortium to set standards is likely to give the technology aboost．On Tuesday，Stanford announced that it would work with EDX to develop a joint educational system that will make use of the automated assessment technology．
L．Two start．ups．Coursera and Udacity，recently founded by Stanford faculty members to create“massive open online courses，”0r MOOCs，are also committed to automated assessment systems because of the value of instant feedback．‘‘It allows students to get immediate feedback on their
work．so that learning turns into a game，with students naturally gravitating(吸引)toward resubmitting the work until they get it right，”said Daphne Koller，a computer scientist and afounder of Coursera．
M．Last year the Hewlett Foundation， a grant—malting organization set up by one of the Hewlett Packard founders and his wife．sponsored two$100，000 prizes aimed at improving software that grades essays and short answers．More than l50 teams entered each category．A winner of one of the Hewlett contests．Vik Paruchuri，was hired by E(Ⅸto help design its assessment software．
N．“One of our focuses is to help Mds learn how to think critically，”said Victor Vuchic，a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation．“It’s probably impossible to do that with multiple—choice tests The challenge is that this requires human graders，and so they cost a lot more and they take a lot more time．“
O．Mark D．Shermis，a professor at the University of Akron in Ohi0．supervised the Hewlett Foundation’s contest on automated essay scoring and wrote a paper about the experiment．In his view，the technology--though imperfect--has a place in educational settings．
P．With increasingly large classes，it is impossible for most teachers to give students meaningful feedback on writing assignments，he said．Plus，he noted，critics of the technology have tended to come from the nation’s best universities，where the level of teaching is much better than at n lost schools．
Q)“Often they come from very famous institutions where，in fact，they do a much better．job of providing feedback than a machine ever could，”Dr．Shermis said．“There seems to be a lack of appreciation of what is actually going on in the real world．”
Some professionals in education are collecting signatures to voice their opposition to antomated essay grading．
2、 Questionsare based on the following passage.
Soon after starting his job as supervisor of the Memphis，Tenn.，public schoois，Kriner Cash orderedan assessment of his new district’s l04，000 students.What most concerned him was that the number ofstudents considered“highly mobile，’’meaning they had moved at least once during the school year,hadballooned to34，000.At least l，500 students were homeless--probably more.It led him to think over anunusual suggestion：What if the best way to help kids in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods is to getthem out?
Cash is now calling for Memphis to create a residential school for 300 to400 kids whose parents arein financial distress.His proposal is at the forefront（前线．of a broader national trend.Public boardingschools are hardly a new concept.But publicly financing boarding school for inner-city kids is a verydifferent suggestion.‘
If Cash’s dream becomes a reality.it will probably look a lot like SEED（School for Educational
Evolution and Development．，whose 320 students Uve on campus five days a week.
Perhaps the most provocative（引起争论的．aspect of Cash’s proposal is to focus on students in grades3 through 5.Homelessness is growing sharply among kids at that critical age，when much of theireducational foundation is set，Cash says.His ailn：to prevent illiteracy and clear other learning roadblocksearly，so the problem “won’t migrate into middle and high school.”Students will remain on campus year-round． “It sounds very excitin9，but the devil is in the details，”says Efien Bassuk，president of theNational Center on Family Homelessness in Newton.Mass.“What’s it like to separate a third-or fifth-graderfrom their parents?”
It may help to consider the experience of SEED student Mansur Muhammad，17.when he arrivedseven years ago，the first few weeks were tough.But Muhammad hasn’t looked back.He maintains a 3.2GPA and reshelves books in the school’S library for$160 every couple of days，when he’S not in his roomnstenmg to rap or classical music and writing poetry.Insp打ed by a teacher，Muhammad is working on abook.“It was a long road for me to get here，”he says，“and I have a long way to 90.”
What did Cash intend to do with the kids in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods to“get them out”?
A．Help them get better-0危
B．Drive them out of school.
C．Help them be academically outstandin9.
D．Put them into a special boarding school.
3、Questionsare based on the following passage．
Rising college selectivity doesn’t mean that students are smarter and more serious than in the past．It’s a function of excess demand for higher education，occurring at a time of increased financial privatization of the industry．
The recession has only increased demand．The vast majority of students aren't going to college because of a thirst for knowledge．They’re there because they need a job，and they need to get the credentials（证书）-and，one hopes，the knowledge and skills behind the credentials--that will get them into the labor market．
As higher education has become a seller’s market，the institutions in a position to do so are doing what comes naturally：raising their tuitions，and their admissions requirements，but at the expense of contributing to the national goal to increase college attainment．The result is that the United States is losing ground in the international race for educational talent．
The increasing stratification（阶层化）of higher education is happening on the spending side，as well．As the selective institutions have become more expensive and less attainable，the rest have had to struggle with the responsibility to enroll more students without being paid to do s0．Gaps between rich and poor have grown even more dramatically than gaps in entering test scores．While spending is a poor measure of educational quality，we can’t seriously expect to increase educational attainment if we're not prepared to do something to address these growing inequities in funding．
That said，the educational policy problem in our country is not that the elite institutions are becoming more selective．The problem is on the public pokey side．The president and many governors have set a goal to return America to a position of international leadership in educational attainment．
It’s the right goal，we just need a financing strategy to get there．That doesn’t mean just more money，although some more money will be needed．It also means better attention to effectiveness and to efficiency，and to making sure that spending goes to the places that will make a difference in educational attainment．We know how to do it，if we want to．·
The demand for higher education has increased because __________．
A．the number of students keeps growing
B．there is a boost in the labor market
C．of the rising college selectivity
D．of the economic depression
4、Questions are based on the following passage.
Various studies have shown that increased spending on education has not led to measurable improvements in learning. Between 1980 and 2008, staff and teachers at U.S. public schools grew roughly twice as fast as students. Yet students showed no additional learning in achievement tests.
Universities show similar trends of increased administration personnel and costs without greater learning, as documented in Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's recent book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.
A survey shows that 63% of employers say that recent college graduates don't have the sldlls they need to succeed and 25% of employers say that entry-level writing skills are lacking.
Some simplistically attribute the decline in our public education system to the drain of skilled students by private schools, but far more significant events were at work.
Public schools worked well until about the 1970s. In fact, until that time, public schools provided far better education than private ones. It was the underperforming students who were thrown out of public schools and went to private ones.
A prominent reason public schools did well was that many highly qualified women had few options for worldng outside the house other than being teachers or nurses. They accepted relatively low pay,difficult working conditions, and gave their very best.
Having such a large supply of talented women teachers meant that society could pay less for their services. Women's liberation opened up new professional opportunities for women, and, over time, some of the best left teaching as a career option, bringing about a gradual decline in the quality of schooling.
Also around that time, regulations, government, and unions came to dictate pay, prevent ac~ustments,and introduce bureaucratic (官僚的) standard for advancement. Large education bureaucracies and unions came to dominate the landscape, confusing activity with achievement. Bureaucrats regularly rewrite curriculums, talk nonsense about theories of education, and require ever more admires" trators. The end result has been that, after all the spending, students have worse math and reading skills than both their foreign peers and earlier generations spending far less on education--as all the accumulating evidence now documents.
What do we learn from various studies on America's public education?
A． Achievement tests have failed to truly reflect the quality of teaching.
B． Public schools-lack the resources to compete with private schools.
C． Little improvement in education has resulted from increased spending.
D． The number of students has increased much faster than that of teachers.
5、Questions are based on the following passage.
Researchers have found that people’S mental abilities peak at 22 before beginning to deteriorate(恶化)just five years later. Professor Timothy Salthouse said the results suggesmd that therapies 36 to prevent or reverse agerelated conditions may need to start earlier，long before people become pensioners. Almost half of over 50s are“unaware of leading cause of blindness”. “Results converge on a 37 that some aspects of agerelated cognitive 38 begin in healthy，educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s，”he said.
The study of 2，000 men and women 39 over seven years. The 40 , aged between 18～60，were asked to solve visual puzzles，recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols. Similar tests are often used to 41 mental disabilities and declines，including dementia(痴呆).
The research by the University of Virginia found that in nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was 42 was 22. The first age at which performance was 43 lower than the 44 scores which was 27 for three tests of reasoning，speed of thought and spatial visualization. Mereory was shown to decline from the average age of 37. In the other tests，poorer results were shown by the age of 42.
However，the report published in the academic journal Neurobiology of aging，found that abilities based on 45 knowledge，such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information，increased until at the age of 60.
A．available
B．diagnose
C．achieved
D．significantly
E．accumulated
F．decline
G．respondents
H．lasted
l．recipients
J．conclusion
K．particularly
L． increase
M．designed
N．treat
O．peak
第(36)题应填__________
6、
根据材料，回答 问题。
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Addicted, Really?
Mental-health specialists disagree over whether to classify compulsive online behaviour as addiction---and how to treat it. Craig Smallwood, a disabled American war veteran, spent more than 20,000 hours over five years playing an online role-playing game called "Lineage II". When NCsoft, the South Korean firm behind the game, accused him of breaking the game's rules and banned him, he was plunged into depression, severe paranoia (偏执) and hallucinations (幻想). He spent three weeks in hospital. After that, he sued NCsoft for fraud and negligence (过失 ), demanding over $ 9m in damages and claiming that the company acted negligently by failing to warn him of the danger that he would become "addicted" to the game.
But does it make sense to talk of addiction to online activity? Mental-health specialists say three online behaviors can become problematic for many people: video games, pornography ( 色情作品 ) and messaging via e-mail and social networks. But there is far less agreement about whether any of this should be called "Internet addiction"--or how to treat it.
Some mental-health specialists wanted "Internet addiction" to be included in the fifth version of psychiatry's bible, the"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", known as DSM-V, which is currently being overhauled (全面修订). The American Medical Association endorsed (赞成) the idea in 2007, only to backtrack( 放弃) days later. The American Journal of Psychiatry called Internet addiction a "common disorder" and supported its recognition. Last year the DSM-V drafting group made its decision: lnteruet addiction would not be included as a "behavioral addiction"--only gambling made the cut--but it said further study was necessary.
Skeptics say there is nothing uniquely addictive about the Internet. Back in 2000, Joseph Walther, a communications professor at Michigan State University, co-wrote an article in which he suggested, tongue in cheek, that the criteria used to call someone an Internet addict might also show that most professors were "addicted" to academia (学术活动). He argued that other factors, such as depression, are the real problem.
He stands by that view today. "No scientific evidence has emerged to suggest that lnternet use is a cause rather than a consequence of some other sort of issue," he says. "Focusing on and treating people for Internet addiction, rather than looking for underlying clinical issues, is definitely unwise."
Others disagree. "That would be wrong," says Kimberly Young, a researcher and therapist who has worked on Interact addiction since 1994. She insists that the Internet, with its powerfully immersive environments, creates new problems that people must learn to navigate(应对). Otherwise, the changing lifestyle will affect the development of the society.
No one disputes that online habits can turn toxic. Take South Korea, where widespread broadband means that the average high-school student plays video games for 23 hours each week. In 2007 the government estimated that around 210,000 children needed treatment for Internet addiction. In 2010 newspapers around the globe carried the story of a South Korean couple who fed their infant daughter so little that she starved to death. Instead of caring for the child, the couple spent most nights at an Internet cafe, sinking hours into a role- playing game in which they raised, fed and cared for a virtual daughter. And several South Korean men have died from exhaustion after marathon, multi-day gaming sessions.
The South Korean government has since asked game developers to adopt a gaming curfew (宵禁) for children, to prevent them playing between midnight and 8 a.m. At the same time, it has also opened more than 100 clinics for Internet addiction and sponsored an "Internet rescue camp" for serious cases.
But compulsive behaviour is not limited to garners. E-mail or web-use behaviours can also show signs of addiction. Getting through a business lunch in which no one pulls out a phone to check their messages now counts as a minor miracle in many quarters. A deluge (泛滥) of self-help books, most recently "Alone Together" by Sherry Turlde, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offer advice on how to unplug (去除障碍).
Pornography is hardly new, either, but the Internet makes accessing it much easier than ever before. When something can be summoned in an instant via broadband, whether it is a game world, an e-mail inbox or pornographic material, it is harder to resist. New services lead to new complaints. When online auction sites first became popular, talk of "eBay addiction" soon followed. Dr. Young says women complain to her now about addiction to Facebook--or even to "FarmVille", a game playable only within Facebook.
Treatment centres have popped up around the world with the popularity of online games. In 2006 Amsterdam's Smith & Jones facility billed itself as "the first and, currently, the only residential video-game treatment program in the world". In America the reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program claims to treat Internet addiction, gaming addiction, and even "texting addiction". In China, meanwhile, military-style "boot camps" are the preferred way to treat Internet problems.
Yet many people like feeling permanently connected. As Arikia Millikan, an American blogger, once put it, "If I could be jacked in at every waking hour of the day, I would, and I think a lot of my peers would do the, same." Bob LaRose, an Internet specialist at Michigan State University, doesn't believe her. In his research on college students, he found that most sense when they are "going overboard and restore self-control". Less than1% have a pathological(病态的) problem, he adds. For most people, Internet use "is just a habit--and one that brings us pleasure."
According to Joseph Walther, it is unwise to emphasize the treatment of Internet addiction instead of seeking for potential clinical issues.
简答题
7、听录音,回答题
When Captain Cook asked the chiefs in Tahiti whY they always ate (26)__________ , theyreplied, "Because it is right." If we ask Americans why they eat with knives and forks, or why theirmen wear pants (27)__________ skirts, or why they may be married to only one person at a time,we are likely to get (28) __________ and very uninformative answers: "Because it's right." "Becausethat's the way it's done." "Because it's the (29) __________" Or even "I don't know." The reasonfor these and countless other patterns of social behavior is that they are (30) __________ by socialnorms--shared rules or guidelines which prescribe the behavior that is appropriate in a given situation.~
Norms (31) __________ how people "ought" to behave under particular circumstances in a particularsociety．We conform (遵守) to norms so readily that we are hardly aware they (32) __________ Infact, we are much more likely to notice (33) __________ from norms than conformity to them．Youwould not be surprised if a stranger tried to shake hands when you were introduced, but you might bea little (34) __________if they bowed, started to stroke you, or kissed you on both(35) __________ ．Yet each of these other forms of greeting is appropriate in other parts of theworld．When we visit another society whose norms are different, we quickly become aware that thingswe do this way, they do that way.
第(26)题__________
8、为了促进教育公平，中国已投入360亿元，用于改善农村地区教育设旋和加强中西部地区农村义务教育(compulsory education)．这些资金用于改善教学设施、购买书籍，使l6万多所中小学受益．资金还用于购置音乐和绘画器材．现在农村和山区的儿童可以与沿海城市的儿童一样上音乐和绘画课．一些为接受更好教育而转往城市上学的学生如今又回到了本地农村学校就读．
9、中国将于l2月l0号开启32条高铁路线，这个扩大的铁路网包括链接城市上海和毗邻香港的制造业中心城市广州市的路线。这段长达ll06英里的路线将列车运行时间减少到了6小时51分，之前的运行时间是l6小时。中国拥有世界上的高速铁路专线网，这将增长中的人口和经济联系了起来。中国有关当局对运输网络怀揣远大的梦想，他们希望中国的铁路网能与亚洲各邻国、俄罗斯、甚至是美国和英国实现连接。
10、中国书法(calligraphy)历史悠久，它不仅是汉字的传统书写形式，也是体现自我修养和自我表达的艺术。作者的内心世界通过美妙的字体得以体现。书法在中国艺术中拥有举足轻重的地位，因为它影响到了其他的中国艺术形式。今天，尽管出现了各种各样的现代书写方式，但人们仍然将书法作为一种业余爱好进行练习。作为传统的艺术瑰宝，中国书法在西方也越来越受欢迎。
1、
Essay．Grading Software Offers Professors a Break
A．Imagine taking a college exam，and，instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later，clicking the“send”button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly，your essay scored by a software program．And then，instead of being done with that exam，imagine that the system would immediately let you rewrite the test to try to improve your grade．
B．EDX，the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)to offer courses on the Internet，has just introduced such a system and will make its automated(自动的)software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it．The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers，freeing professors for other tasks．
C．The new service will bring the educational consortium(联盟)into a growing conflict over the role of automation in education．Although automated grading systems for multiple—choice and true—false tests are now widespread，the use of artificial intelligence technology to grade essay answers has not yet received widespread acceptance by educators and has many critics．
D．Anant Agarwal，an electrical engineer who is president of EDX，predicted that the instant—grading software would be a useful teaching tool enabling students to take tests and write essays over and over and improve the quality of their answers．He said the technology would offer distinct advantages over the traditional classroom system，where students often wait days or weeks lor grades．“There is a huge value in learning with instant feedback，”Dr．Agarwal said．“Students are telling us they learn much better with instant feedback．”
E．But skeptics(怀疑者)say the automated system is no match for live teachers．One longtime critic， Les Perelman，has drawn national attention several times for putting together nonsense essays that have fooled software grading programs into giving high marks．He has also been highly critical of studies claiming that the software compares well to human graders．
F．He is among a group of educators who last month began circulating a petition(呼吁)opposing automated assessment software．The group． which calls itself Professionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High—Stakes Assessment，has collected nearly 2，000 signatures，including some from famous people like Noanl Chomsky．
G．“Let’s face the realities of automatic essay scorin9，”the group’s statement reads in part． “Computers cannot‘read．’They cannot measure the essentials of effective written communication：accuracy．reasonin9，adequacy of evidence，good sense，ethical(伦理的)position，convincing argument，meaningful organization，and clarity，among others．”
H)But EdX expects its software to be adopted widely by schools and universities．It offers free online classes from Harvard．MIT and the University of California—Berkeley；this fall，it will add classes from Well esley．Georgetown and the University of Texas．In all，12 universities participate in EDX，which offers certificates for course completion and has said that it plans to continue to expand next year，including adding international schools．
I．The EDX assessment tool requires human teachers，or graders，to first grade l00 essays or essay questions．The system then uses a variety of machine—learning techniques to train itself to be able to grade any number of essays or answers automatically and almost instantly．The software will assign a grade depending on the scoring system created by the teacher，whether it is a letter grade or numerical(数字的)rank．
J ． EDX is not the first to use the automated assessment technology，which dates to early computers in the l960s．There is now a range of companies offering commercial programs to grade written test answers，and four states--Louisiana，North Dakota，Utah and West Virginia--are using some form
of the technology in secondary schools．A fifth，Indiana，has experimented with it．In some cases the software is used as a“second reader．”to check the reliability of the human graders．
K．But the growing influence of the EDx consortium to set standards is likely to give the technology aboost．On Tuesday，Stanford announced that it would work with EDX to develop a joint educational system that will make use of the automated assessment technology．
L．Two start．ups．Coursera and Udacity，recently founded by Stanford faculty members to create“massive open online courses，”0r MOOCs，are also committed to automated assessment systems because of the value of instant feedback．‘‘It allows students to get immediate feedback on their
work．so that learning turns into a game，with students naturally gravitating(吸引)toward resubmitting the work until they get it right，”said Daphne Koller，a computer scientist and afounder of Coursera．
M．Last year the Hewlett Foundation， a grant—malting organization set up by one of the Hewlett Packard founders and his wife．sponsored two$100，000 prizes aimed at improving software that grades essays and short answers．More than l50 teams entered each category．A winner of one of the Hewlett contests．Vik Paruchuri，was hired by E(Ⅸto help design its assessment software．
N．“One of our focuses is to help Mds learn how to think critically，”said Victor Vuchic，a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation．“It’s probably impossible to do that with multiple—choice tests The challenge is that this requires human graders，and so they cost a lot more and they take a lot more time．“
O．Mark D．Shermis，a professor at the University of Akron in Ohi0．supervised the Hewlett Foundation’s contest on automated essay scoring and wrote a paper about the experiment．In his view，the technology--though imperfect--has a place in educational settings．
P．With increasingly large classes，it is impossible for most teachers to give students meaningful feedback on writing assignments，he said．Plus，he noted，critics of the technology have tended to come from the nation’s best universities，where the level of teaching is much better than at n lost schools．
Q)“Often they come from very famous institutions where，in fact，they do a much better．job of providing feedback than a machine ever could，”Dr．Shermis said．“There seems to be a lack of appreciation of what is actually going on in the real world．”
Some professionals in education are collecting signatures to voice their opposition to antomated essay grading．
2、 Questionsare based on the following passage.
Soon after starting his job as supervisor of the Memphis，Tenn.，public schoois，Kriner Cash orderedan assessment of his new district’s l04，000 students.What most concerned him was that the number ofstudents considered“highly mobile，’’meaning they had moved at least once during the school year,hadballooned to34，000.At least l，500 students were homeless--probably more.It led him to think over anunusual suggestion：What if the best way to help kids in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods is to getthem out?
Cash is now calling for Memphis to create a residential school for 300 to400 kids whose parents arein financial distress.His proposal is at the forefront（前线．of a broader national trend.Public boardingschools are hardly a new concept.But publicly financing boarding school for inner-city kids is a verydifferent suggestion.‘
If Cash’s dream becomes a reality.it will probably look a lot like SEED（School for Educational
Evolution and Development．，whose 320 students Uve on campus five days a week.
Perhaps the most provocative（引起争论的．aspect of Cash’s proposal is to focus on students in grades3 through 5.Homelessness is growing sharply among kids at that critical age，when much of theireducational foundation is set，Cash says.His ailn：to prevent illiteracy and clear other learning roadblocksearly，so the problem “won’t migrate into middle and high school.”Students will remain on campus year-round． “It sounds very excitin9，but the devil is in the details，”says Efien Bassuk，president of theNational Center on Family Homelessness in Newton.Mass.“What’s it like to separate a third-or fifth-graderfrom their parents?”
It may help to consider the experience of SEED student Mansur Muhammad，17.when he arrivedseven years ago，the first few weeks were tough.But Muhammad hasn’t looked back.He maintains a 3.2GPA and reshelves books in the school’S library for$160 every couple of days，when he’S not in his roomnstenmg to rap or classical music and writing poetry.Insp打ed by a teacher，Muhammad is working on abook.“It was a long road for me to get here，”he says，“and I have a long way to 90.”
What did Cash intend to do with the kids in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods to“get them out”?
A．Help them get better-0危
B．Drive them out of school.
C．Help them be academically outstandin9.
D．Put them into a special boarding school.
3、Questionsare based on the following passage．
Rising college selectivity doesn’t mean that students are smarter and more serious than in the past．It’s a function of excess demand for higher education，occurring at a time of increased financial privatization of the industry．
The recession has only increased demand．The vast majority of students aren't going to college because of a thirst for knowledge．They’re there because they need a job，and they need to get the credentials（证书）-and，one hopes，the knowledge and skills behind the credentials--that will get them into the labor market．
As higher education has become a seller’s market，the institutions in a position to do so are doing what comes naturally：raising their tuitions，and their admissions requirements，but at the expense of contributing to the national goal to increase college attainment．The result is that the United States is losing ground in the international race for educational talent．
The increasing stratification（阶层化）of higher education is happening on the spending side，as well．As the selective institutions have become more expensive and less attainable，the rest have had to struggle with the responsibility to enroll more students without being paid to do s0．Gaps between rich and poor have grown even more dramatically than gaps in entering test scores．While spending is a poor measure of educational quality，we can’t seriously expect to increase educational attainment if we're not prepared to do something to address these growing inequities in funding．
That said，the educational policy problem in our country is not that the elite institutions are becoming more selective．The problem is on the public pokey side．The president and many governors have set a goal to return America to a position of international leadership in educational attainment．
It’s the right goal，we just need a financing strategy to get there．That doesn’t mean just more money，although some more money will be needed．It also means better attention to effectiveness and to efficiency，and to making sure that spending goes to the places that will make a difference in educational attainment．We know how to do it，if we want to．·
The demand for higher education has increased because __________．
A．the number of students keeps growing
B．there is a boost in the labor market
C．of the rising college selectivity
D．of the economic depression
4、Questions are based on the following passage.
Various studies have shown that increased spending on education has not led to measurable improvements in learning. Between 1980 and 2008, staff and teachers at U.S. public schools grew roughly twice as fast as students. Yet students showed no additional learning in achievement tests.
Universities show similar trends of increased administration personnel and costs without greater learning, as documented in Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's recent book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.
A survey shows that 63% of employers say that recent college graduates don't have the sldlls they need to succeed and 25% of employers say that entry-level writing skills are lacking.
Some simplistically attribute the decline in our public education system to the drain of skilled students by private schools, but far more significant events were at work.
Public schools worked well until about the 1970s. In fact, until that time, public schools provided far better education than private ones. It was the underperforming students who were thrown out of public schools and went to private ones.
A prominent reason public schools did well was that many highly qualified women had few options for worldng outside the house other than being teachers or nurses. They accepted relatively low pay,difficult working conditions, and gave their very best.
Having such a large supply of talented women teachers meant that society could pay less for their services. Women's liberation opened up new professional opportunities for women, and, over time, some of the best left teaching as a career option, bringing about a gradual decline in the quality of schooling.
Also around that time, regulations, government, and unions came to dictate pay, prevent ac~ustments,and introduce bureaucratic (官僚的) standard for advancement. Large education bureaucracies and unions came to dominate the landscape, confusing activity with achievement. Bureaucrats regularly rewrite curriculums, talk nonsense about theories of education, and require ever more admires" trators. The end result has been that, after all the spending, students have worse math and reading skills than both their foreign peers and earlier generations spending far less on education--as all the accumulating evidence now documents.
What do we learn from various studies on America's public education?
A． Achievement tests have failed to truly reflect the quality of teaching.
B． Public schools-lack the resources to compete with private schools.
C． Little improvement in education has resulted from increased spending.
D． The number of students has increased much faster than that of teachers.
5、Questions are based on the following passage.
Researchers have found that people’S mental abilities peak at 22 before beginning to deteriorate(恶化)just five years later. Professor Timothy Salthouse said the results suggesmd that therapies 36 to prevent or reverse agerelated conditions may need to start earlier，long before people become pensioners. Almost half of over 50s are“unaware of leading cause of blindness”. “Results converge on a 37 that some aspects of agerelated cognitive 38 begin in healthy，educated adults when they are in their 20s and 30s，”he said.
The study of 2，000 men and women 39 over seven years. The 40 , aged between 18～60，were asked to solve visual puzzles，recall words and story details and spot patterns in letters and symbols. Similar tests are often used to 41 mental disabilities and declines，including dementia(痴呆).
The research by the University of Virginia found that in nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was 42 was 22. The first age at which performance was 43 lower than the 44 scores which was 27 for three tests of reasoning，speed of thought and spatial visualization. Mereory was shown to decline from the average age of 37. In the other tests，poorer results were shown by the age of 42.
However，the report published in the academic journal Neurobiology of aging，found that abilities based on 45 knowledge，such as performance on tests of vocabulary or general information，increased until at the age of 60.
A．available
B．diagnose
C．achieved
D．significantly
E．accumulated
F．decline
G．respondents
H．lasted
l．recipients
J．conclusion
K．particularly
L． increase
M．designed
N．treat
O．peak
第(36)题应填__________
6、
According to Joseph Walther, it is unwise to emphasize the treatment of Internet addiction instead of seeking for potential clinical issues.
简答题
7、听录音,回答题
When Captain Cook asked the chiefs in Tahiti whY they always ate (26)__________ , theyreplied, "Because it is right." If we ask Americans why they eat with knives and forks, or why theirmen wear pants (27)__________ skirts, or why they may be married to only one person at a time,we are likely to get (28) __________ and very uninformative answers: "Because it's right." "Becausethat's the way it's done." "Because it's the (29) __________" Or even "I don't know." The reasonfor these and countless other patterns of social behavior is that they are (30) __________ by socialnorms--shared rules or guidelines which prescribe the behavior that is appropriate in a given situation.~
Norms (31) __________ how people "ought" to behave under particular circumstances in a particularsociety．We conform (遵守) to norms so readily that we are hardly aware they (32) __________ Infact, we are much more likely to notice (33) __________ from norms than conformity to them．Youwould not be surprised if a stranger tried to shake hands when you were introduced, but you might bea little (34) __________if they bowed, started to stroke you, or kissed you on both(35) __________ ．Yet each of these other forms of greeting is appropriate in other parts of theworld．When we visit another society whose norms are different, we quickly become aware that thingswe do this way, they do that way.
第(26)题__________
8、为了促进教育公平，中国已投入360亿元，用于改善农村地区教育设旋和加强中西部地区农村义务教育(compulsory education)．这些资金用于改善教学设施、购买书籍，使l6万多所中小学受益．资金还用于购置音乐和绘画器材．现在农村和山区的儿童可以与沿海城市的儿童一样上音乐和绘画课．一些为接受更好教育而转往城市上学的学生如今又回到了本地农村学校就读．
9、中国将于l2月l0号开启32条高铁路线，这个扩大的铁路网包括链接城市上海和毗邻香港的制造业中心城市广州市的路线。这段长达ll06英里的路线将列车运行时间减少到了6小时51分，之前的运行时间是l6小时。中国拥有世界上的高速铁路专线网，这将增长中的人口和经济联系了起来。中国有关当局对运输网络怀揣远大的梦想，他们希望中国的铁路网能与亚洲各邻国、俄罗斯、甚至是美国和英国实现连接。
10、中国书法(calligraphy)历史悠久，它不仅是汉字的传统书写形式，也是体现自我修养和自我表达的艺术。作者的内心世界通过美妙的字体得以体现。书法在中国艺术中拥有举足轻重的地位，因为它影响到了其他的中国艺术形式。今天，尽管出现了各种各样的现代书写方式，但人们仍然将书法作为一种业余爱好进行练习。作为传统的艺术瑰宝，中国书法在西方也越来越受欢迎。
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