Part III Reading Comprehension (25 points)

　　Section A

　　Directions: In this section, there arefourpassages followed by questions or unfinishedstatements, each with four suggested answers A, B, C and D. Choose thebest answer and mark your answer on the Answer Sheet.

　　Passage One

　　Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal has been that

　　Americans aren’t so good at money-management. We take out home loans we can't

　　afford.We run up sky-high credit-card debt. We don't save nearly enough forretirement.

　　In response, supporters of financial-literacy education are moving with renewed

　　enthusiasm. School districts in states such as New Jersey and Illinois are adding

　　money-management courses to their curriculums . The Treasury and Education

　　departments are sending lesson plans to high schools and encouraging students to

　　compete in the National Financial Capability Challenge that begins in March.

　　Students with top scores on that exam will receive certificates –but chances for

　　long-term benefits are slim. As it turns out, there is little evidence that traditional effortsto boost financial know-how help students make better decisions outside the classroom.Even as the financial-literacy movement has gained steam over the past decade, scores have been falling on tests that measure how well students learn about things such asbudgeting, credit cards, insurance and investments. A recent survey of college studentsconducted for the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found thatstudents who'd had a personal-finance or money-management course in high schoolscored no better than those who hadn't.

　　"We need to figure out how to do this the right way,"says Lewis Mandell, a

　　professor at the University of Washington who after 15 years of studyingfinancial-literacy programs has come to the conclusion that current methods don't work.A growing number of researchers and educators agree that a more radical approach isneeded. They advocate starting financial education a lot earlier than high school, puttingreal money and spending decisions into kids' hands and talking openly about theemotions and social influences tied to how we spend .

　　Other initiatives are tacking such real-world issues as the commercial andsocial

　　pressures that affect purchasing decisions.Why exactly do you want those expensive

　　brand-name shoes so badly? "It takes confidence to take a stand and to thinkdifferently," saysJerooBillimoria ,founder of Aflatoun,a nonprofit whose curriculum,

　　used in more than 30 countries ,aims to help kids get a leg up in their financial lives .”

　　“This goes beyond money and savings .”

　　21. The financial-literacy education is intended to________.

　　A. help Americans to overcome the financial crisis

　　B. enable Americans to manage money wisely

　　C. increase Americans' awareness of the financial crisis

　　D. renew Americans' enthusiasm about money-management

　　22. According to the author, the National Financial Capability Challenge will be_______.

　　A. well-receivedB. costly

　　C. rewardingD. ineffective

　　23.Bysaying that "the financial-literacy movement has gained steam"(Para .3) ,theauthor means that the movement______.

　　A.has gone through financial difficulties

　　B. has received much criticism

　　C. has been regarded as imaginative

　　D. has been more and more popular

　　24. Lewis Mandell suggests that we should figure out how to ________.

　　A.help students scorebetter in money-management courses

　　B. improve the social awareness of financial education

　　C. carry out financial-literacy education properly

　　D. manage money in a more efficient way

　　25. Jeroo Billimoria is most likely to agree thatcommercial and social pressures makeone's purchasing decisions________.

　　A. difficultB.feasible

　　C. unwiseD. acceptable

　　Passage Two

　　Cheating is nothing new,But today,educators and administrators are finding that

　　instances of academic dishonesty on the part of students have become more frequent –and are less likely to be punished – than in the past . Cheating appears to have gainedacceptance among good and poor students alike .

　　Why is student cheating on the rise? No one really knows .Some blame the trend on a general loosening of moral values among today's youth. Others have attributedincreased cheating to the fact that today's youth are far more pragmatic(實(shí)用主義的)than their more idealistic predecessors.Whereas in the late sixties and early seventies，students were filled with visions about changing the world，today’s students feel greatpressure to conform and succeed. In interviews with students at high schools andcolleges around the country, both young men and women said that cheating had becomeeasy. Some suggested they did it out of spite for teachers they did not respect. Others looked at it as a game. Only if they were caught, some said, would they feel guilty."People are competitive," said a second-yearcollege student named Anna, fromChicago. There's an underlying fear. If you don't do well, your life is going to be ruined.The pressure is not only form parents and friends but from oneself .To achieve .To succeed .It’s almost as though we have to outdo other people to achieve our own goals,

　　Edward Wynne , a magazine editor ,blames the rise in academic dishonesty on the schools. He claims that administrators and teachers have been too hesitant to take action .Dwight Huber ,chairman of the English department at Amarillo .sees the matterdifferently, blaming the rise in cheating on the way students are evaluated. "I wouldcheat if I felt I was being cheated," Mr. Huber said. He feels that as long as teachers gives short-answer testsrather than essay questions and rate students by the number of facts they can memorize rather than by how well they can put information together,students will try to beat the system. "The concept of cheating is based on the false assumption that the system is legitimate and there is something wrong withthe individual who are doing it," he said. "That's too easy an answer. We've got to start looking at the system."

　　26. Educators are finding that students who cheat_______.

　　A. are not only those academically weak

　　B. tend to be dishonest in later years

　　C.are more likely to be punished than before

　　D. have poor academic records

　　27. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

　　A. Reform in the testing system will eliminate cheating.

　　B. Punishment is an effective method to stop cheating . .

　　C. Students' cheating has deep social roots.

　　D. Students do not cheat on essay tests.

　　28. Which of the following points of view would Mr. Huberagree with ?

　　A. Cheating would be reduced through an educational reform.

　　B. Students who cheat should be expelled from school.

　　C. Punishment for cheaters should be severe in this country.

　　D. Parents must take responsibility for the rise in cheating.

　　29. The expression "the individuals" (the last paragraph) refers to ________

　　A. school administrators

　　B. students who cheat

　　C. parents

　　D. teachers

　　30. The passage mainly discusses_______

　　A: ways to eliminate academic dishonesty

　　B: factors leading to academic dishonesty

　　C: the decline of moral standards of today's youth

　　D: people's tolerance of students' cheating