Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)

Section A

Directions:

In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks, You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.

Scholars of the information society are divided over whether social inequality decreases or increases in an information-based society, However, they generally agree with the idea that equality in the information society is 36 different from that of an industrial society. As informatization progresses in society, the cause and structural nature of social inequality changes as well.

It seems that the information society 37 the quantity of Information available to the members of a society by revolutionizing the Ways of using and exchanging information. But such a view is a 38 analysis based on the quantity of information supplied by various forms of the mass media. A different 39 is possible when the actual amount of information 40 by the user is taken into account. In fact, the more information 41 throughout the entire society, the wider the gap becomes between "information haves" and "information have-nots," leading to digital divide.

According to recent studies, digital divide has been caused by three major 42 classy, sex, and generation. In terms of class, digital divide exists among different types of workers and between the upper and middle classes and the lower class. With 43 to sex, digital divide exists between men and women. The greatest gap, however, is between the Net-generation, 44 with personal computers and the Internet, and the older generation, 45 to an industrial society.

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Section B

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.

Joy: A Subject Schools Lack

Becoming educated should not require giving up pleasure.

A) When Jonathan Swift proposed, in 1729, that the people of Ireland eat their children, he insisted it would solve three problems at once: feed the hungry masses, reduce the population during a severe depression, and stimulate the restaurant business. Even as a satire (諷刺), it seems disgusting and shocking in America with its child-centered culture. But actually, the country is closer to his proposal than you might think.

B) If you spend much time with educators and policy makers, you’ll hear a lot of the following words: “standards,” “results,” “skills,” “self-control,” “accountability,” and so on. I have visited some of the newer supposedly “effective” schools, where children shout slogans in order to lean self-control or must stand behind their desk when they can’t sit still.

C) A look at what goes in in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right.

D) I’m a mother of three, a teacher, and a developmental psychologist. So I’ve watched a lot of children-talking, playing, arguing, eating, studying, and being young. Here’s what I’ve come to understand. The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. It’s their enormous capacity for joy. Think of a 3-year-old lost in the pleasures of finding out what he can and cannot sink in the bathtub, a 5-year-old beside herself with the thrill of putting together strings of nonsensical words with her best friends, or an 11-year-old completely absorbed in a fascinating comic strip. A child’s ability to become deeply absorbed in something, and derive intense pleasure from that absorption, is something adults spend the rest of their lives trying to return to.

E) A friend told me the following story. One day, when he went to get his 7-year-old son from soccer practice, his kid greeted him with a downcast face and a sad voice. The coach had criticized him for not focusing on his soccer drills. The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But just before he reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching (蹲伏) down to peer at something on the sidewalk. His face went down lower and lower, and then, with complete joy he called out, “Dad. Come here. This is the strangest bug I’ve ever seen. It has, like, a million legs. Look at this. It’s amazing.” He looked up at his father, his features overflowing with all those legs. This is the coolest ever.”

F) The traditional view of such moments is that they constitute a charming but irrelevant byproduct of youth——something to be pushed aside to make room for more important qualities, like perseverance (堅(jiān)持不懈), obligation, and practicality. Yet moments like this one are just the kind of intense absorption and pleasure adults spend the rest of their lives seeking. Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy. Becoming educated should not require giving up joy but rather lead to finding joy in new kinds of things: reading novels instead of playing with small figures, conducting experiments instead of sinking cups in the bathtub, and debating serious issues rather than stringing together nonsense words, for example. In some cases, schools should help children find new, more grown-up ways of doing the same things that are constant sources of joy: making art, making friends, making decisions.

G) Building on a child’s ability to feel joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldn’t be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education world’s mindset (思 維 模 式). Instead of trying to get children to work hard, why not focus on getting them to take pleasure in meaningful, productive activity, like marking things, working with others, exploring ideas, and solving problems? These focuses are not so different from the things in which they delight.

H) Before you brush this argument aside as rubbish, or think of joy as an unaffordable luxury in a nation where there is awful poverty, low academic achievement, and high dropout rates, think again. The more horrible the school circumstances, the more important pleasure is to achieving any educational success.

I) Many of the assignments and rules teachers come up with, often because they are pressured by their administrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility. The assumption is that children shouldn’t chat in the classroom because it hinders hard work; instead, they should learn to delay gratification (快樂) so that they can pursue abstract goals, like going to college.

J) Not only is this a boring and awful way to treat children, it makes no sense educationally. Decades of research have shown that in order to acquire skills and real knowledge in school, kids need to want to learn. You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice division. But you can’t force the child to think carefully, enjoy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure in learning——to see school as a source of joy.

K) Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine; unpleasant, but necessary and good for you. Why not instead think of learning as if it were food——something so valuable to humans that they have evolved to experience it as a pleasure?

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46. It will not be difficult to make learning a source of joy if educators change their way of thinking.

47. What distinguishes children from adults is their strong ability to derive joy from what they are doing.

48. Children in America are being treated with shocking cruelty.

49. It is human nature to seek joy in life.

50. Grown-ups are likely to think that learning to children is what medicine is to patients.

51. Bad school conditions make it all the more important to turn learning into a joyful experience.

52. Adults do not consider children’s feeling when it comes to education.

53. Administrators seem to believe that only hard work will lead children to their educational goals.

54. In the so-called “effective” schools, children are taught self-control under a set of strict rules.

55. To make learning effective, educators have to ensure that children want to learn.

Section C

Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. 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 Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

Passage One

Question 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.

When it’s five o’clock, people leave their office. The length of the workday, for many workers, is defined by time. They leave when the clock tells them they’re done.

These days, the time is everywhere: not just on clocks or watches, but on cell-phones and computers. That may be a bad thing, particularly at work. New research shows on that clock-based work schedules hinder morale (士氣) and creativity.

Clock-timers organize their day by blocks of minutes and hours. For example: a meeting from 9 am to 10 a.m., research from 10 a.m. to noon, etc. On the other hand, task-timers have a list of things they want to accomplish. They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning.

What, then, are the effects of thinking about time in these different ways? Does one make us more productive? Better at the tasks at hand? Happier? In experiments conducted by Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier, they had participants organize different activities—from project planning, holiday shopping, to yoga—by time or to-do list to measure how they performed under "clock time" vs "task time." They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive. They tend to enjoy the moment when something good is happening, and seize opportunities that come up.

The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in the business culture. Smart companies, they believes will try to bake more task-based planning into their strategies.

This might be a small change to the way we view work and the office, but the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need, and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks easier, and the task-doers will be happier.

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56. What does the author think of time displayed everywhere？

A) It makes everybody time-conscious.

B) It is a convenience for work and life.

C) If may have a negative effect on creative work.

D) It clearly indicates the fast pace of modern life.

57. How do people usually go about their work according to the author?

A) They combine clock-based and task-based planning.

B) They give priority to the most urgent task on hand.

C) They set a time limit for each specific task.

D) They accomplish their tasks one by one.

58. What did Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier find in their experiments about clock-timers?

A) They seize opportunities as they come up.

B) Thev always get their work done in time.

C) They have more control over their lives.

D) They tend to be more productive.

59. What do the researchers say about today's business culture?

A) It does not support the strategies adopted by smart companies.

B) It does not attach enough importance to task-based practice.

C) It places more emphasis on work efficiency than on workers' lives,

D) It aims to bring employees' potential and creativity into full play.

60. What do the researchers suggest?

A) Task-based timing is preferred for doing creative work.

B) It is important to keep a balance between work and life.

C) Performing creative jobs tends to make workers happier.

D) A scientific standard should be adopted in job evaluation.

Passage Two

Questions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.

Martha Stewart was charged, tried and convicted of a crime in 2004. As she neared the end of her prison sentence, a well-known columnist wrote that she was "paying her dues," and that "there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew."

Surely, the American ideal of second chances should not be reserved only for the rich and powerful. Unfortunately, many federal and state laws impose post-conviction restrictions on a shockingly large number of Americans, who are prevented from ever fully paying their debt to society,

At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record. This can result in severe penalties that continue long after punishment is completed,

Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person's individual circumstances. Laws can restrict or ban voting, access to public housing, and professional and business licensing. They can affect a person's ability to get a job and qualification for benefits.

In all, more than 45,000 laws and rules serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life.

Some laws make senses No one advocates letting someone convicted of pedophilia (戀童癖) work in a school. But too often collateral (附隨的) consequences bear no relation to public safety. Should a woman who possessed a small amount of drugs years ago be permanently unable to be licensed as a nurse?

These laws are also counterproductive, since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or land a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding.

A recent report makes several recommendations, including the abolition of most post-conviction penalties, except for those specifically needed to protect public safety. Where the penalties are not a must, they should be imposed only if the facts of a case support it.

The point is not to excuse or forget the crime. Rather, it is to recognize that in America's vast criminal justice system, second chances are crucial. It is in no one's interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.

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61. What does the well-known columnist's remark about Martha Stewart suggest?

A) Her past record might stand in her way to a new life.

B) Her business went bankrupt while she as in prison.

C) Her release from prison 'has drawn little attention.

D) Her prison sentence might have been extended.

62. What do we learn from the second paragraph about many criminals in America?

A) They backslide after serving their terms in prison.

B) They are deprived of chances to turn over a new leaf.

C) They receive severe penalties for committing minor offenses.

D) They are convicted regardless of their individual circumstances.

63. What are the consequences for many Americans with a criminal record?

A) They remain poor for the rest of their lives.

B) They are deprived of all social benefits.

C) They are marginalized in society.

D) They are deserted by their family.

64. What does the author think of the post-conviction laws and rules?

A) They help to maintain social stability

B) Some of them have long been outdated.

C) They are hardly understood by the public.

D) A lot of them have negative effects on society.

65. What is the author’s main purpose in writing the passage?

A) To create opportunities for criminals to reform themselves.

B) To appeal for changes in America's criminal justice system.

C) To ensure that people with a criminal record live a decent life．

D) To call people’s attention to prisoners’conditions in America. 

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