Part II Reading 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 line through the centre.
Passage ONE
Questions21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
Throughout the nation's more than 15,000 school districts, widely differing approaches to teaching science and math have emerged. Though there can be strength in diversity, a new international analysis suggests that this variability has instead contributed to lackluster (平淡的) achievement scores by U.S. children relative to their peers in other developed countries.
Indeed, concludes William H. Schmidt of Michigan State University, who led the new analysis, "no single intellectually coherent vision dominates U.S. educational practice in math or science.'' The reason, he said, "is because the system is deeply and fundamentally flawed."
The new analysis, released this week by the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., is based on data collected from about 50 nations as part of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study.
Not only do approaches to teaching science and math vary among individual U.S. communities, the report finds, but there appears to be little strategic focus within a school district’s curricula, its textbooks, or its teachers' activities. This contrasts sharply with the coordinated national programs of most other countries.
On average, U.S. students study more topics within science and math than their international counterparts do. This creates an educational environment that "is a mile wide and an inch deep," Schmidt notes.
For instance, eighth graders in the United States cover about 33 topics in math versus just 19 in Japan. Among science courses, the international gap is even wider. U.S. curricula for this age level resemble those of a small group of countries including Australia, Thailand, Iceland, and Bulgaria. Schmidt asks whether the United States wants to be classed with these nations, whose educational systems "share our pattern of splintered (支離破碎的) visions" but which are not economic leaders.
The new report "couldn't come at a better time," says Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association in Arlington. "The new National Science Education Standards provide that focused vision," including the call "to do less, but in greater depth."
Implementing the new science standards and their math counterparts will be the challenge, he and Schmidt agree, because the decentralized responsibility for education in the United States requires that any reforms be tailored and instituted one community at a time.
In fact, Schmidt argues, reforms such as these proposed national standards "face an almost impossible task, because even though they are intellectually coherent, each becomes only one more voice in the babble ( 嘈雜聲)."
21. According to the passage, the teaching of science and math in America is
A) losing its vitality gradually
B) characterized by its diversity
C) going downhill in recent years
D) focused on tapping students' potential
22. The fundamental flaw of American school education is that ________.
A) it attaches too much importance to intensive study of school subjects
B) it relies heavily on the initiative of individual teachers
C) it sets a very low academic standard for students
D) it lacks a coordinated national program
23. By saying that the U.S. educational environment is "a mile wide and an inch deep" (Line 2, Para. 5), the author means U.S. educational practice ________.
A) scratches the surface of a wide range of topics
B) lays stress on quality at the expense of quantity
C) encourages learning both in depth and in scope
D) offers an environment for comprehensive education
24. The new National Science Education Standards are good news in that they will
A) solve most of the problems in school teaching
B) provide depth to school science education
C) quickly dominate U.S. educational practice
D) be able to meet the demands of the community
25. Putting the new science and math standards into practice will prove difficult because ________.
A) many schoolteachers challenge the acceptability of these standards.
B) there is always controversy in educational circles
C) not enough educators have realized the necessity for doing so
D) school districts are responsible for making their own decisions
Passage TWO
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
I had an experience some years ago which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to officiate at two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died "full of years," as the Bible would say; both yielded to the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.
At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的) woman said to me, "If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It's my fault that she died." At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, "If only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the abrupt change of climate, was more than she could take. It's my fault that she's dead."
When things don't turn out as we would like them to, it is very tempting to assume that had we done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Priests know that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course - keeping Mother at home, postponing the operation C would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?
There seem to be two elements involved in our readiness to feel guilt. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.
The second element is the notion that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood. Psychologists speak of the infantile myth of omnipotence (萬能). A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that infantile notion that our wishes cause things to happen.
26. What is said about the two deceased elderly women?
A) They lived out a natural life.
B) They died due to lack of care by family members.
C) They died of exhaustion after the long plane ride.
D) They weren't accustomed to the change in weather.
27. The author had to conduct the two women's funerals probably because ________.
A) he had great sympathy for the deceased
B) he wanted to console the two families
C) he was priest of the local church
D) he was an official from the community
28. People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because ________
A) they believe that they were responsible
B) they had neglected the natural course of events
C) they couldn't find a better way to express their grief
D) they didn't know things often turn out in the opposite direction
29. In the context of the passage, "... the world makes sense" (Line 2, Para, 4) probably means that ________.
A) we have to be sensible in order to understand the world
B) everything in the world is predetermined
C) there's an explanation for everything in the world
D) the world can be interpreted in different ways
30. People have been made to believe since infancy that ________.
A) every story should have a happy ending
B) their wishes are the cause of everything that happens
C) life and death is an unsolved mystery
D) everybody is at their command
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