directions: there tire 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
questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.
given the lack of fit between gifted students and their schools, it is not surprising that such students often have little good to say 'about their school experience. in one study of 400 adults who had achieved distinction in all areas of life, researchers found that three-fifths of these individuals either did badly in school or were unhappy in school. few macarthur prize fellows, winners of the macarthur award for creative accomplishment, had good things to say about their precollegiate schooling if they had not been placed in advanced programs. anecdotal ( 名人轶事) reports support this. pablo picasso, charles darwin, mark twain, oliver goldsmith, and william butler yeats all disliked school. so did winston churchill, who almost failed out of harrow, an elite british school. about oliver goldsmith, one of his teachers remarked, "never was so dull a boy." often these children realize that they know more than their teachers, and their teachers often feel that these children are arrogant, inattentive, or unmotivated.
some of these gifted people may have done poorly in school because their gifts were not scholastic. maybe we can account for picasso in this way. but most fared poorly in school not because they lacked ability but because they found school unchallenging and consequently lost interest. yeats described the lack of fit between his mind and school: "because i had found it difficult to attend to anything less interesting than my own thoughts, i was difficult to teach." as noted earlier, gifted children of all kinds tend to be strong-willed nonconformists. nonconformity
and stubbornness (and yeats's level of arrogance and self-absorption) are likely to lead to conflicts with teachers.
when highly gifted students in any domain talk about what was important to the development of their abilities, they are far more likely to mention their families than their schools or teachers. a writing prodigy (神童) studied by david feldman and lynn goldsmith was taught far more about writing by his journalist father than his english teacher. high-iq children, in australia studied by miraca gross had much more positive feelings about their families than their schools. about half of the mathematicians studied by benjamin bloom had little good to say about school. they all did well in school and took honors classes when available, and some skipped grades.
21. the main point the author is making about schools is that .
a) they should enroll as many gifted students as possible
b) they should organize their classes according to the students' ability
c) they are often incapable of catering to the needs of talented students
d) they should satisfy the needs of students from different family backgrounds
22. the author quotes the remarks of one of oliver goldsmith's teachers .
a) to show how poor oliver's performance was at school
b) to illustrate the strong will of some gifted children
c) to explain how dull students can also be successful
d) to provide support for his argument
23. pablo picasso is listed among the many gifted children who .
a) could not cope with their studies at school successfully
b) paid no attention to their teachers in class
c) contradicted their teachers much too often
d) behaved arrogantly and stubbornly in the presence of their teachers
24. many gifted people attributed their success .
a) less to their systematic education than to their talent
b) mainly to parental help and their education at home
c) both to school instruction and to their parents' coaching
d) more to their parents' encouragement than to school training
25. the root cause of many gifted students having bad memories of their school years is that .
a) they were seldom praised by their teachers
b) school courses failed to inspire or motivate them
c) their nonconformity brought them a lot of trouble
d) teachers were usually far stricter than their parents
passage two
questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
it's hardly news that the immigration system is a mess. foreign nationals have long been slipping across the border with fake papers, and visitors who arrive in the u.s. legitimately often overstay their legal welcome without being punished. but since sept. 11, it's become clear that terrorists have been shrewdly factoring the weaknesses of our system into their plans. in addition to their mastery of forging passports, at least three of the 19 sept. 11 hijackers (劫机者) were here on expired visas. that's been a safe bet until now. the immigration and naturalization service (ins) ( 移民归化局 ) lacks the resources, and apparently the inclination, to keep track of the estimated 2 million foreigners who have intentionally overstayed their welcome.
but this laxness (马虎) toward immigration fraud may be about to change. congress has already taken some modest steps. the u.s.a. patriot act, passed in the wake of the sept. 11 tragedy, requires the fbi, the justice department, the state department and the ins to share more data, which will make it easier to stop watch-listed terrorists at the border.
but what's really needed, critics say, is even tougher laws and more resources aimed at tightening up border security. reformers are calling for a rollback of rules that hinder law enforcement. they also want the ins to hire hundreds more border patrol agents and investigators to keep illegal immigrants out and to track them down once they're here. reformers also want to see the ins set up a database to monitor whether visa holders actually leave the country when they are required to.
all these proposed changes were part of a new border-security bill that passed the house of representatives but died in the senate last week. before sept. 11, legislation of this kind had been blocked by two powerful lobbies: universities, which rely on tuition from foreign students who could be kept out by the new law, and business, which relies on foreigners for cheap labor. since the attacks, they've backed off. the bill would have passed this time but for congressional maneuverings and is expected to be reintroduced and to pass next year.
also on the agenda for next year: a proposal, backed by some influential law-makers, to split the ins into two agencies - a good cop that would tend to service functions like processing citizenship papers and a bad cop that would concentrate on border inspections, deportation and other functions. one reason for the division, supporters say, is that the ins has in recent years become too focused on serving tourists and immigrants. after the sept. l 1 tragedy, the ins should pay more attention to serving the millions of ordinary americans who rely on the nation's border security to protect them from terrorist attacks.
26. terrorists have obviously taken advantage of .
a) the irresponsibility of the officials at border checkpoints
b) the legal privileges granted to foreigners
c) the excessive hospitality of the american people
d) the low efficiency of the immigration and naturalization service
27. we learn from the passage that coordinated efforts will be made by various u.s. government agencies to .
a) limit the number of immigrants to the u.s.
b) prevent the forgery of immigration papers
c) ward off terrorist suspects at the border
d). refuse the renewing of expired visas
28. it can be inferred from the passage that before sept. 11, aliens with expired visas .
a) might stay on for as long as [hey wished
b) would be closely watched by fbi agents
c) would live in constant fear of deportation
d) might have them extended without trouble
29. it is believed by many that all these years the ins .
a) has been serving two contradictory functions '
b) has ignored the pleas of the two powerful lobbies
c) has over-emphasized its service functions at the expense of the nation's security
d) has been too liberal in granting visas to tourists and immigrants indiscriminately
30. before sept. 11, the u.s. congress had been unable to pass stricter immigration laws because .
a) education and business circles cared little about national security
b) resources were not available for their enforcement
c) it was difficult to coordinate the efforts of the congressmen
d) they might have kept away foreign students and cheap labor