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四级单项选择阅读理解附讲解:2012 年 6 月真题(1)
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension(Skimming andScanning)(15minutes)
Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes togo over the passage quic
kly and answer thequestions on Answer sheet 1. For questions 1-7,choose the
best
answer from the four choices marked A)，B)，
C)andD). For questions 8-10,complete the sentences with the information giv
en in the passage.
Small Schools Rising
This year's list of the top 100 high schools shows that today, those with fewer
students areflourishing.
Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, moder
n, suburban highschools with students counted in the thousands. As baby bo
omers(二战后
婴儿潮时期出生的
人) came of high-school age, big schools promised economic efficiency. Agre
ater choice of courses, and, of course, better football teams. Only years
later did we understand the trade-offs this involved: the creation of excessi
vebureaucracies(官僚机构)，
the difficulty of forging personal connections between teachers
and students.SAT scores began dropping in 1963;today,on average,30% of st
udents do notcomplete high school in four years, a figure that rises to 50% i
n poor urban
neighborhoods. While the emphasis on teaching to higher, test-driven stand
ards as set in NoChild Left Behind resulted in significantly better performanc
e in
elementary(and some middle)schools, high schools for a variety of reasons
seemed to havemade little progress.
Size isn't everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a not
iceablecountertrend toward smaller schools. This has been due ,in part ,to th
e Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American hi
gh schools, helpingto open about 1,000 small schools-most of them with abou
t 400 kids each
with an average enrollment of only 150 per grade, About 500 more are on thedrawing board.Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with may
ors in cities
like New York, Chicago and San Diego. The movement includes independen
t public charterschools, such as No.1 BASIS in Tucson, with only 120 high-sc
hoolers and 18
graduates this year. It embraces district-sanctioned magnet schools, such a
s the Talented andGifted School, with 198 students, and the Science and Engi
neering
Magnet,with383,which share a building in Dallas, as well as the City Honors S
chool in Buffalo,N.Y., which grew out of volunteer evening seminars for stude
nts. And it
includes alternative schools with students selected by lottery(抽签)，
such as H-B Woodlawn inArlington, Va. And most noticeable of all, there is t
he phenomenon of
large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units o
f a few hundred,generally housed in the same grounds that once boasted tho
usands of
students all marching to the same band. Hillsdale High School in San Mateo,
Calif, is one ofthose, ranking No.423-among the top 2% in the country-on Ne
wsweek's annual ranking ofAmerica's top high
schools. The success of small schools is apparent in the listings. Ten years a
go, when the firstNewsweek list based on college-level test participation wa
s published,
only three of the top 100 schools had graduating Classes smaller than 100 stu
dents. This yearthere are 22. Nearly 250 schools on the full ,Newsweek list of
the top 5%
of schools nationally had fewer than 200 graduates in 2007.
Although many of Hillsdale's students came from wealthy households, by the l
ate 1990 averagetest scores were sliding and it had earned the unaffectionate
nickname
(绰号) "Hillsjail.
" Jeff Gilbert. A Hillsdale teacher who became principal last year, rememberss
itting with other teachers watching students file out of a
graduation ceremony and asking one another in astonishment,
"How did that studentgraduate?"
So in 2003 Hillsdale remade itself into three "houses," romantically named Flo
rence, Marrakechand Kyoto. Each of the 300 arriving ninth graders are randomly(随机
地) assigned to one of the houses. Where they will keep the same four core s
ubject teachersfor two years, before moving on to another for 11th and 12th
grades. The
closeness this system cultivates is reinforced by the institution of "advisory"
classes Teachersmeet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, fo
r open-
ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-ni
ght dates. Theadvisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch wit
h parents, so
they are deeply invested in the students' success."We're constantly talking a
bout oneanother's advisers," says English teacher Chris Crockett.
"If you hear that
yours isn't doing well in math, or see them sitting outside the dean's office, it'
s like a personalfailure." Along with the new structure came a more demandi
ng
academic program, the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from
17 to 95."It wasrough for some. But by senior year, two-thirds have moved
up to physics,"
says Gilbert "Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there a
re adults herewho know them and care for them."But not all schools show ad
vances after
downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-
all solution.
The Newsweek list of top U.S. high schools was made this year, as in years p
ast, according to asingle metric, the proportion of students taking college-le
vel
exams. Over the years this system has come in for its share of criticism for its
simplicity. Butthat is also its strength: it's easy for readers to understand,
and to
do the arithmetic for their own schools if they'd like.
Ranking schools is always controversial, and this year a group of 38 superin
tendents(地区教育主
管)from five states wrote to ask that their schools be excluded from
the calculation."It is impossible to know which high schools are 'the best' i
n the nation, "theirletter read. in part.
"Determining whether different schools door don't offer a high quality of education requires a look at man different me
asures, includingstudents' overall academic accomplishments and their subs
equent
performance in college. And taking into consideration the unique needs of
theircommunities."
In the end, the superintendents agreed to provide the data we sought, which
is, after all, publicinformation. There is, in our view, no real dispute here, we
are
all seeking the same thing, which is schools that better serve our children and
our nation byencouraging students to tackle tough subjects under the guida
nce of gifted
teachers. And if we keep working toward that goal, someday, perhaps a list w
on't be necessary.
注意：此部分试题请在答卡 1 上作答.
1. Fifty years ago. big. Modern. Suburban high schools were establish
ed in the hope of__________.
A) ensuring no child is left behind
B) increasing economic efficiency
C) improving students' performance on SAT
D)providing good education for baby boomers
2. What happened as a result of setting up big schools?
A)Teachers' workload increased.
B)Students' performance declined.
C)Administration became centralized.
D)Students focused more on test scores.
3.What is said about the schools forded by the Bill and Melinda Gates
foundation?
A)They are usually magnet schools.
B)They are often located in poor neighborhoods.
C)They are popular with high-achieving students.
D)They are mostly small in size.
4.What is most noticeable about the current trend in high school educ
ation?
A)Some large schools have split up into smaller ones.
B)A great variety of schools have sprung up in urban and suburban areas.
C)Many schools compete for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds.D)Students have to meet higher academic standards.
5.Newsweek ranked high schools according to .
A)their students' academic achievement
B)the number of their students admitted to college
C)the size and number of their graduating classes
D)their college-level test participation
6.What can we learn about Hillsdale's students in the late 1990s?
A)They were made to study hard like prisoners.
B)They called each other by unaffectionate nicknames.
C)Most of them did not have any sense of discipline,
D)Their school performance was getting worse.
7.According to Jeff Gilbert, the "advisory" classes at Hillsdale were se
t up so thatstudents could .
A)tell their teachers what they did on weekends
B)experience a great deal of pleasure in learning
C)maintain closer relationships with their teachers
D)tackle the demanding biology and physics courses
8. is still considered a strength of Newsweek's school ranking system
in spite of thecriticism it receives.
9.According to the 38 superintendents, to rank schools scientifically, i
t is necessary touse .
10.To better serve the children and our nation, schools students to ta
ke .
【参考答案】
1. D) providing good education for baby boomers。
2. D) Students' performance declined。
3. D) They are mostly small in size。
4. D) Some large schools have split up into smaller ones。
5. C) their college-level test participation。6. B) Their school performance was getting worse。
7. A) maintain closer relationships with their teachers。
8. Simplicity
9. different measures
10. tough subjects
