大学英语六级改革适用阅读模拟题2019年(20)_真题-无答案(668)_

大学英语六级改革适用（阅读）模拟题2019年(20)

(总分710,考试时间130分钟)

Part III Reading Comprehension

Section C

About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that

all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated, intelligence testing became unpopular.

Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing

has gone out of fashion and **munities have indeed forbidden it.

However, paradoxically, just recently a group of black parents filed lawsuit(诉讼)in

California claiming that the state's ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by

denying them the opportunity to take the test(They believed, correctly, that IQ tests are a valid

method of evaluating children for special education classes.)The judge, therefore, reversed, at least

partially, his original decision.

And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups

to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting, even facilitating,

such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very

important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other

factor is the cause.

What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is

not discriminative to evaluate either a child's physical condition or his intellectual level.

Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to

do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than

intelligence. Thirty years or so ago, for instance, white families were encouraged to adopt black

children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.

And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and

social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are

the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.

As to intelligence, in our opinion, the more we know about any child's intellectual level, the

better for the child in question.

1. Why did the intelligence test become unpopular in the past few decades?

A. Its validity was challenged by **munities.

B. It was considered discriminative against minority children.

C. It met with strong opposition from the majority of black parents.

D. It deprived the black children of their rights to a good education.

2. The recent legal action taken by some black parents in California aimed to_____.

A. draw public attention to IQ testing

B. put an end to special education

C. remove the state's ban on intelligence tests

D. have their children enter white schools

3. The author believes that intelligence testing _____.

A. may ease racial confrontation in the United States

B. can encourage black children to keep up with white children

C. may seriously aggravate racial discrimination in the United States

D. can help black parents make decisions about their children's education

4. The author's opinion of child adoption seems to be that _____.

A. no rules whatsoever can be prescribed

B. white families should adopt black children

C. adoption should be based on IQ test results

D. cross-racial adoption is to be advocated

5. Child adoption is mentioned in the passage to show that _____.

A. good will may **plicate racial problems

B. social surroundings are vital to the healthy growth of children

C. intelligence testing also applies to non-academic areas

D. American opinion can shift when it comes to sensitive issues

The desire for achievement is one of life's great mysteries. Social scientists have devoted

lifetimes studying the drives that spur us out of bed in the morning, compel us to work or study

hard and spark all manner of human endeavors. Indeed, a 1992 textbook actually documents 32

distinct theories of human motivation.

Given this diversity of thought, it's easy to forget that for half a century, American society has

been dominated by the psychological school known as behaviorism, or Skinnerian psychology.

Although behaviorism and its fundamental principle of "positive reinforcement" have long since

lost their sway in academic circles, the Skinnerian legacy remains powerful in every realm of daily

life, from the home and classroom to the workplace. Don't want to take the trash out? Do it, and

you can go to the movies Friday night. Not in the mood for work? Keep plugging away, and you

might get a bonus. Not interested in calculus? Strive for an A in the class, and you'll make the

honor roll. The theory may be bankrupt, but incentives and rewards are so much a part of

American culture that it's hard to imagine life without them.

Yet that's exactly what a growing group of researchers are advocating today. A steady stream

of research has found that rather than encouraging motivation and productivity, rewards actually

can undermine genuine interest and diminish performance. "Our society is caught in a whopping

paradox," asserts Alfie Kohn, author of the new book Punished by Rewards(Houghton Mifflin),

which surveys recent research on the effectiveness of rewards. "We complain loudly about

declining productivity, the crisis of our school and the distorted values of our children. But the

very strategy we use to solve those problems—dangling rewards like incentive plans and grade

and candy bars in front of people—is partly responsible for the fix we're in."

It's tough argument to make in a culture that celebrates the spoils of success. Yet study after

study shows that people tend to perform worse, to give up more easily and to lose interest more

quickly when a reward is involved. Children who are given treats for doing artwork, for example,

lose their initial love of art within weeks. Teenagers who are promised a reward for tutoring

youngsters don't teach as enthusiastically as tutors offered nothing. And chief executive officers

who have been awarded long-term incentive plans have often steered **panies toward lower

returns.

6. According to behaviorism, all human actions _____.

A. are based on stimulus and response

B. have no bearing on human drives

C. are supposed to be highly motivated

D. are of a great mystery

7. Behaviorism basically believes in _____.

A. motivation

B. performance

C. rewards

D. human factors

8. In paragraph 2, "calculus" probably refers to "_____".

A. a course

B. a sport

C. a kind of public service

D. a position in the student union

9. From the passage, it can be inferred that_____.

A. rewards are highly effective in America

B. rewards are not much sought-after in academic circles

C. rewards have long lost their appeal in American society

D. Americans are addicted to rewards

10. Which of the following statements is in support of the finding that "people tend to perform

when a reward is involved"(in the last paragraph)?

A. People are not used to being conditioned by prizes.

B. Rewards are attempts to control behavior.

C. Rewards are indispensable to American culture.

D. The principle of "positive reinforcement" is not fully enforced.

Parents can **e down with an acute case of schizophrenia(精神分裂症)from reading the

contradictory reports about the state of the public schools. One set of experts asserts that the

schools are better than they have been for years. Others say that the schools are in terrible shape

and are responsible for every national problem from urban poverty to the trade deficit

One group of experts looks primarily at such indicators as test scores, and they cheer what

they see: all the indicators—reading scores, **petency test results, the scholastic aptitude test

scores—are up, some by substantial margins. Students are required to take more academic

courses— more mathematics and science, along with greater stress on basic skills, including

knowledge of computers. More than 40 state legislatures have mandated such changes.

But in the eyes of another set of school reformers such changes are at best superficial and at

worst counterproductive. These experts say that merely toughening requirements without either

improving the quality of instruction or even more important, changing the way schools are

organized and children are taught makes the schools worse rather than better. They challenge the

nature of the tests, mostly multiple choice or true or false, by which children's progress is

measured; they charge that raising the test scores by drilling pupils to come up with the right

answers does not improve knowledge, understanding and the capacity to think logically and

independently. In adoption, these critics fear that the get-tough approach to school reform will

cause more of the youngsters at the bottom to give up and drop out. This, they say, may improve

national scores but drain even further the nation's pool of educated people.

The way to cut through the confusion is to understand the different yardsticks used by

different observers.

Compared with what schools used to be like "in the good old days", with lots of drill and

uniform requirements, and the expectation that many youngsters who could not make it would

drop out and find their way into unskilled jobs—by those yardsticks the schools have measurably

improved in recent years.

But by the yardsticks of those experts who believe that the old school was deficient in

teaching the skills needed in the modern world, today's schools have not become better. These

educators believe that rigid new mandates may actually have made the schools worse.

11. If the parents read the contradictory reports about the state of the public schools, they will

_____.

A. have a clearer understanding of the education provided by the public schools

B. realize the disadvantages of the education provided by the public schools

C. be greatly confused and not know which side to believe

D. not believe that public schools should be responsible for every national problem

12. In the eyes of the first group of experts mentioned in the second paragraph, _____.

A. academic courses are more important than basic skills

B. every state legislature should mandate the changes

C. students should take academic courses and learn basic skills

D. the increase of test scores can show that public schools are better than before

13. It can be inferred from the third paragraph that school reformers are convinced that _____.

A. the way schools are organized and children are taught at present is good enough

B. enabling pupils to raise their test scores can improve their logical thinking

C. the present testing system can not measure either the students' progress or actual ability

D. toughening requirements can help to produce more educated people

14. The word "yardstick"(Line 3, Para. 5)most possibly means "_____".

A. measuring standard

B. method of school reform

C. judgment

D. logic thinking

15. The passage mainly _____.

A. compares the old schools and the present schools

B. shows contradictory views about the state of public schools

C. tells why parents can easily become schizophrenic

D. displays how school reform is carried out

Ask most people how they define the American Dream and chances are they'll say, "Success."

The dream of individual opportunity has been at home in American since Europeans discovered a

"new world" in the Western Hemisphere. Early immigrants like Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur

praised highly the freedom and opportunity to be found in this new land. His glowing descriptions

of a classless society where anyone could attain success through honesty and hard work fired the

imaginations of many European readers: in Letters from an American Farmer(1782)he wrote, "We

are all excited at the spirit of an industry which is unfettered(无拘无束的)and unrestrained,

because each person works We have no princes, for whom we toil(干苦力活), starve,

and bleed: we are the most perfect society now existing in the world." The promise of a land

where "the rewards of a man's industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor" drew

poor immigrants from Europe and fueled national expansion into the western territories.

Our national mythology(神话)is full of illustrations of the American success story. There's

Benjamin Franklin, the very model of the self-educated, self-made man, who rose from modest

origins to become a well-known scientist, philosopher, and statesman. In the nineteenth century,

Horatio Alger, a writer of fiction for young boys, became American's best-selling author with

rags-to-riches tales. The notion of success haunts us: we spend millions every year reading about

the rich and famous, learning how to "make a fortune in real estate with no money down," and

"dressing for success." The myth of success has even invaded our personal relationships: today it's

as important to be "successful" in marriage or parenthood as it is to come out on top in business.

But dreams easily turn into nightmares. Every American who hopes to "make it" also knows

the fear of failure, because the myth of success inevitably **parison between the haves and the

have-nots, the stars and the anonymous crowd. Under pressure of the myth, we become indulged

in status symbols: we try to live in the "right" neighborhoods, wear the "right" clothes, eat the

"right" foods. These symbols of distinction assure us and others that we believe strongly in the

fundamental equality of all, yet strive as hard as we can to separate ourselves from our fellow

citizens.

16. What is the essence of the American Dream according to Crevecoeur?

A. People are free to develop their power of imagination.

B. People who are honest and work hard can succeed.

C. People are free from exploitation and oppression.

D. People can fully enjoy individual freedom.

17. By saying "the rewards of a man's industry follow with equal steps the progress of his

labor"(Lines 9-10, Para. 1), the author means _____.

A. the more diligent one is, the bigger his returns

B. laborious work ensures the growth of an industry

C. a man's business should be developed step by step

D. a company's success depends on its employees' hard work

18. The characters described in Horatio Alger's novels are people who _____.

A. succeed in real estate investment

B. earned enormous fortunes by chances

C. became wealthy after starting life very poor

D. became famous despite their modest origins

19. It can be inferred from the last sentence of the second paragraph that______.

A. business success often contributes to a successful marriage

B. Americans wish to succeed in every aspect of life

C. good personal relationships lead to business success

D. successful business people provide good care for their children

20. What is the paradox of American culture according to the author?

A. The American road to success is full of nightmares.

B. Status symbols are not a real indicator of a person's wealth.

C. The American Dream is nothing but ah empty dream.

D. What Americans strive after often contradicts their beliefs.