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B
A new college guide in the United States compares educational requirements in seven subjects. These include math, science, writing and United States history or government. The other subjects are economics, foreign language and literature.
The free online guide is from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. The council is a nonprofit group that supports liberal arts education.
Its president, Anne Neal, says these areas of knowledge are needed to succeed in a twenty-first century society and an increasingly connected world. Yet she told VOA’s Faiza Elmasry it was surprising how many students can graduate with, in her words, a “thin education.”
Forty-two of the one hundred colleges and universities surveyed received the lowest marks. This meant they required two or fewer of the seven subjects. Five schools received a top grade for requiring six subjects. These were Brooklyn College in New York City, Texas A&M, the University of Texas-Austin, West Point and the University of Arkansas.
Robert Costrell is a professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas. He says many, if not all, of the top American colleges once had a core curriculum —a set of courses required for all students.
But over the years, many have dropped these requirements. Or they have watered them down, Professor Costrell says, into what became known as distribution requirements. This system lets a student choose from a number of different courses to satisfy a requirement.
ROBERT COSTRELL: “And in many cases these courses went too far, I would say, towards the fluffy treatment of serious material, and students could satisfy their requirement by taking such courses.”
Professor Costrell says schools should not only re-examine what they teach. They should also measure what students have learned — for example, through some form of examinations or papers.
A new report this week from the College Board showed that college prices continue to rise. But Anne Neal from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni says higher prices. do not guarantee a better general education. In fact, the group found that the higher the tuition, the more likely that students have to develop their own general education.
The college guide is on the Web at whatwilltheylearn.com. Anne Neal says her group is surveying more colleges. The hope, she says, is to discover what college graduates have really learned, and how ready they are to compete in the global marketplace.
61. Where does the passage probably come from?
A. A scientific fiction.                      B. A research newspaper.  
C. A fashion magazine.                     D. An entertainment newspaper.
62. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni does all the following EXCEPT _________.
A. support liberal arts education
B. concern itself with education in America
C. devote time to helping improve college education
D. make money by helping with college education
63. The words “watered them down” underlined in Paragraph 6 most likely mean “_______.”
A. reduced required courses                 B. improved required courses
C. increased required courses                D. developed required courses
64. In this passage, the new college guide mainly tells its readers that American colleges  should _____.
A. meet the requirements of the new century        B. reduce the number of required courses
C. have different standards on required courses      D. cut down on their tuitions
答案

61---64   BDAA  
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E
Teenagers who drink alcohol are at higher risk of becoming victims of violence, a Cardiff University study has found.
A team from the School of Dentistry" s Violence Research Group studied drinking habits in
children aged | 1-16 in England. They found not only a link between drink and violence but also
that children who drank were more likely to be hit, even if they weren" t violent themselves.
The researchers are now calling for measures to prevent alcohol misuse to reduce injury
risk. Current policy focuses on reducing aggression but this research shows that there should be
equal effort to reduce victimization(受害).
More than 4,000 children were surveyed at 13 schools at four local authorities in the North, the Midlands, London, and the South. The study found that 25% of 1 l-year-olds were drinking
monthly and 3.6% daily, with 12.8% admitting to getting drunk 3 to 5 times a year. By the age
of 16, 40% were drinking weekly and 6.2% were drinking every day. The research also showed
22.6% of 16-year-olds were getting drunk more than 21 times a year.
The study, which has just been published in the Journal of Adolescence, found a strong
link between frequency of drinking and frequency of hitting other people.
However, children who reported drinking monthly were also three times more likely to be
hit. Adolescents(青少年) who drank but didn"t get into fights were more likely to be hit than
those who did fight.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who led the research, said a lot of previous alcohol-related
violence work had focused on the offenders rather than the victims. His team is calling for more pre-vention work from parents and teachers in the first two years of secondary school by taking advantage of the "teachable moment", that is, immediately after a student has missed school because of drunkenness.
Previous work by Professor Jonathan Shepherd has shown drinkers may be more at risk of vio-lence because of reduced physical co-ordinatlon ( 配合), poor decision-making in threatening situa-tions and isolation while out late at night.
He said,"This new study seems to be the first to show a direct link between alcohol misuses and victimization. There now needs to be much more effort put into reducing alcohol misuse in order to reduce injury. "
58. The underlined word "aggression" in the third paragraph probably means_____
A. violence         B. sad feelings     C. bad manners          D. drunkenness
59. Drinkers may be more at risk of violence because of all the following EXCEPT __
A. reduced the physical co-ordination
B. isolation while out late at night
C. a higher frequency of hitting other people
D. poor decision-making in threatening situations
60. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to Professor Shepherd" s research?
A. The frequency of children getting drunk increases with age.
B. His previous alcohol-related violence work had focused on the offendersl
C. Some children missed school because of drunkenness.
D. This new study shows a direct link between alcohol misuse and victimization.
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案

D
Cellphone users in the United States have contributed more than $11 million to Haitian earthquake relief through text messages in what is being called as an unexpected mobile response to a natural disaster.
The Mobile Giving Foundation called it a “mobile-giving record” for funds raised for a single cause. Donations are rising swiftly, as former President Bill Clinton and other politicians urge the American people to give.
Jim Manis, chief officer of the organization helping to manage cellphone donations, said it was receiving up to 10,000 text messages per second. The foundation said more than $11 million has been donated.
Cellphone users can donate $5 to Haiti-born hip-hop musician Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund by texting the word “Yele” to 501501, or they can donate $10 to other nonprofit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, by texting the word “Haiti” to a specified number, like 90999.
The donation is charged to a user’s cellphone bill.
The American Red Cross said it has received more than $ 9 million in donations from more than 900,000 mobile phone users.
“It’s beyond our imagination that we’ve received this amount,” said spokeswoman Nadia Pontif.
Jean’s fund had raised $2 million via text messages, according to Give on the Go, Yele’s mobile application service provider.
The giving is also being fueled by the popularity of websites like Facebook and Twitter, where users are urging one another to make donations using cellphones.
Wireless carriers(无线运营商) Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc., Sprint and T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, have waived(免收) fees for customers wishing to send mobile donations. Carriers are also letting users know they are not taking a cut of the donations.
“There are no text messaging fees and 100% of the $10 donation goes to the American Red Cross, and every carrier is working through a solution to push those funds out faster.” Verizon said in a statement.
68. A mobile phone user can donate some money to Haiti by texting the word _____ .
A. “Yele” to 501501 to donate $10                    B. “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10
C. “Yele” or “Haiti” to 501501 to donate $ 5      D. “Haiti” to the American Red Cross to donate $ 5
69. The underlined word “fueled” in the ninth paragraph most probably means “_____ ”.
A. protected             B. discouraged      C. inspired             D. reflected
70. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Facebook and Twitter are two relief organizations from the USA.
B. Many American politicians force Americans to give donations to Haiti.
C. The American Red Cross expected to receive much more donations.
D. Carriers have promised not to take a share from the donation.
71.Which may be the best title for the passage?
A. U.S. Texting Raises $11 Million for Haiti Earthquake
B. An Unexpected Terrible Earthquake Hit Haiti
C. The American Red Cross Offers Help to Haiti
D. Wireless Carriers Donate $11 Million to Haiti
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案

E
There’s talk today about how as a society we’ve become separated by colors, income, city vs suburb, red state vs blue. But we also divide ourselves with unseen dotted lines. I’m talking about the property lines that isolate us from the people we are physically closest to: our neighbors.
It was a disaster on my street, in a middle-class suburb of Rochester Town, several years ago that got me thinking about this. One night, a neighbor shot and killed his wife and then himself; their two middle-school children ran screaming into the night. Though the couple had lived on our street for seven years, my wife and I hardly knew them. We’d see them jogging together. Sometimes our children would share cars to school with theirs.
Some of the neighbors attended the funeral(葬礼)and called on relatives. Someone laid a single bunch of yellow flowers at the family’s front door, but nothing else was done to mark the loss. Within weeks, the children had moved with their grandparents to another part of the town. The only indication that anything had changed was the “For Sale” sign in front of their house.
A family had disappeared, yet the impact on our neighborhood was slight. How could that be? Did I live in a community or just in a house on a street surrounded by people whose lives were entirely separate? Few of my neighbors, I later learned, knew others on the street more than casually; many didn’t know even the names of those a few doors down.
Why is it that in an age of low long-distance expenses, discount airlines and the Internet, when we can create community anywhere, we often don’t know the people who live next door? Maybe my neighbors didn’t mind living this way, but I did. I wanted to get to know the people whose houses I passed each day – not just what they do for a living and how many children they have, but the depth of their experience and what kind of people they are.
What would it take, I wondered, to break through the barriers between us? I thought about childhood sleepovers(在外过夜), and the familiar feeling and deep understanding I used to get from waking up inside a friend’s home. Would my neighbors let me sleep over and write about their lives from inside their own houses?
72. The underlined word “this” in the second paragraph probably refers to the talk about ____.
A. how a society is divided by dotted lines 
B. the property lines separating us from our neighbors
C. the couple’s death                  
D. understanding each other between neighbors
73. Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the author’s description?
A. The husband killed himself.
B. The couple had the habit of jogging together.
C. Their children moved to live with grandparents after the couple’s death.
D. The author never knew the couple until they died seven years later.
74. From the last paragraph, we can infer that the author _____ in his childhood.
A. had once slept in the open air outside
B. had slept in his friend’s home more than once
C. had slept at home but woke up to find himself inside his friend’s home
D. used to live in his friend’s home
75. Following the last paragraph, the author will perhaps _____.
A. leave his home and began his writing career
B. sleep in the open air and write about his experiences
C. sleep in his neighbors’ homes and write about their family lives
D. interview his neighbors and write about their houses
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案

D
“Pay has little to do with motivation in the workplace”.That’s the argument put forward by best-selling author Daniel Pink in his new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.“Pay for performance is supposed to be a folk tale,” he says.
Daniel argues that, if employees receive a basic level of payment, three other factors matter more than money: a sense of independence, of mastery over one’s labor, and of serving a purpose larger than oneself.For example, in 2008 at the offices of Best Buy’s Richfield, salaried workers there were allowed to organize their own work day, putting in only as many hours as they felt necessary to get their jobs done.Productivity increased by 35% according to The Harvard Business Review.
But the managers at Goldman Sachs aren’t exactly making some efforts to adjust.Like others on Wall Street, the banking giant argues that fat bonuses (extra rewards) are essential to make its numbers.“That’s exactly the attitude that leads to the recent financial crisis in the United States,” responds Daniel, “as managers always focus on short-term rewards that encourage cheating, shortcuts, and dishonest behavior.”
Moreover, the 45-year-old author and former Al Gore speechwriter refers to social-science experiments and experiences at such workplaces as Google and 3M.In one 2005 experiment he describes, economists working for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston tested the power of incentives (激励) by offering cash rewards to those who did well in games that included reciting a series of numbers and throwing tennis balls at a target.The researchers’ finding: Over and over, higher incentives led to worse performance --- and those given the highest incentives did the poorest job.
From this and other cases, Daniel draws a conclusion that monetary incentives remove the element of play and creativity, transforming “an interesting task into a dull one.” It’s even possible, he adds, for oversized rewards to have dangerous side effects, like those of a drug dependency in which an addicted requires ever larger amounts.He refers to scientific testing that shows the promise of cash rewards increase a chemical in the brain similar to that brought on by cocaine or nicotine.
Daniel, however, is also aware that his company examples --- no GE, no IBM, no Microsoft --- hardly represent the commanding heights of the economy.But he thinks his approach will catch on, even in the biggest companies.“Managers tend to be realistic, and in time they will respond,” he says.
53.In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink is promoting the idea that _____.
A.it is a money-driven society    B.all workers are not driven by money
C.money plays a key role in management  D.pay has nothing to do with workplaces
54.In Daniel’s point of view, many Wall Street managers are _______.
A.dishonest      B.considerate  C.short-sighted       D.ridiculous
55.In paragraph 5, the example of drug-taking is given to show _______.
A.money is as addictive as cocaine or nicotine
B.big rewards bring about dangerous side effect
C.nicotine and money bring the same chemical
D.workers do not need the incentives of money at all
56.We can learn from the last paragraph that _______.
A.Daniel’s approach will be popular in a wider field
B.realistic managers will first consider Daniel’s approach
C.Daniel’s approach meets the demand of economic crisis
D.GE, IBM and Microsoft will join in Daniel’s approach next
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案

E
If you don’t have a college degree, you’re at greater risk of developing memory problems or even Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆).Education plays a key role in lifelong memory performance and risk for mental disorder, and it"s well documented that those with a college degree possess a cognitive(认知的) advantage over their less educated counterparts in middle and old age.
Now, a large national study from Brandeis University published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry shows that those with less schooling can significantly make up for poorer education by frequently engaging in mental exercises such as word games, puzzles, reading, and lectures.
“The lifelong benefits of higher education for memory in later life are quite impressive, but we do not clearly understand how and why these effects last so long,” said lead author Margie Lachman, a psychologist.She suggested that higher education may encourage lifelong interest in cognitive efforts, while those with less education may not engage as frequently in mental exercises that help keep the memory agile (敏捷地).
But education early in adulthood does not appear to be the only route to maintain your memory.The study found that intellectual activities undertaken regularly made a difference.“Among individuals with low education, those who are engaged in reading, writing, attending lectures, doing word games or puzzles once a week or more had memory scores similar to people with more education,” said Lachman.
The study, called Midlife in the United States, assessed 3,343 men and women between the ages of 32 and 84 with a mean age of 56 years.Almost 40 percent of the participants had at least a 4-year college degree.The researchers evaluated how the participants performed in two cognitive areas, verbal memory and executive function --- brain processes involved in planning, abstract thinking and cognitive flexibility.Participants were given a battery of tests, including tests of verbal fluency, word recall, and backward counting.
As expected, those with higher education said they engaged in cognitive activities more often and also did better on the memory tests, but some with lower education also did well, explained Lachman.
“The findings are promising because they suggest there may be ways to level the playing field for those with lower educational achievement, and protect those at greatest risk for memory declines,” said Lachman.“Although we can not rule out the possibility that those who have better memories are the ones who take on more activities, the evidence is consistent with cognitive plasticity (可塑性), and suggests some degree of personal control over cognitive functioning in adulthood by adopting an intellectually active lifestyle.”
57.What is the text mainly about?
A.Higher education has a better cognitive advantage.
B.Better memories result from college degree.
C.Cognitive activity does a mind good.
D.Poor education has more risk of memory declines.
58.According to the result of Margie Lachman’s study, we can conclude that ________.
A.education is responsible for the lifelong memory performance and risk for mental disorder
B.education early in adulthood can be the only route to maintain your memory
C.those with higher education did better on the memory tests than those with lower education
D.an intellectually active lifestyle does help to maintain your memory
59.What do we know about the study called Midlife?
A.Participants each were given a battery to test their memory.
B.The average age of the participants are 56 years old.
C.Participants had to perform in one of the two cognitive areas.
D.One in four of the participants had a 4-year college degree.
60.Why are the findings of the Lachman’s study promising?
A.The lower educated may have the same opportunities to keep up memory.
B.We may have ways to cure the people who have memory declines.
C.Adopting a different lifestyle can control over cognitive functioning.
D.We can find out the possibility to have better memories.
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
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