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2016英語(yǔ)六級(jí)考試閱讀理解模擬題及答案
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Higher Grades Challenge College Application Process
A) Josh Zalasky should be the kind of college applicant with little to worry about. The high school senior is taking three Advanced Placement courses. Outside the classroom, he，s involved in mock trial, two Jewish youth groups and has a job with a restaurant chain. He，s a National Merit semifinalist and scored in the top ? percent of all students who take the ACT.
B) But in the increasingly frenzied world of college admissions, even Zalasky is nervous about his prospects. He doubts he#ll get into the University of Wisconsin, a top choice. The reason: his grades. It$s not that they%re bad. It&s that so many of his classmates are so good. Zalasky’s GPA is nearly an A minus, and yet he ranks only about in the middle of his senior class of 543 at Edina High School outside Minneapolis, Minnesota. That means he will have to find other ways to stand out.
C) “It’s extremely difficult,” he said. “I spent all summer writing my essay. We even hired a private tutor to make sure that essay was the best it can be. But even with that, it’s like I*m just kind of leveling the playing field.” Last year, he even considered transferring out of his highly competitive public school, to some place where his grades would look better.
D) Some call the phenomenon that Zalasky’s fighting “grade inflation”—implying the boost is undeserved. Others say students are truly earning their better marks. Regardless, it’s a trend that’s been building for years and may only be accelerating: many students are getting very good grades. So many, in fact, it is getting harder and harder for colleges to use grades as a measuring stick for applicants.
E) Extra credit for AP courses, parental lobbying and genuine hard work by the most competitive students have combined to shatter any semblance of a Bell curve, one in which A，s are reserved only for the very best. For example, of the 47,317 applications the University of California, Los Angeles, received for this fall’s freshman class, nearly 23,000 had GPAs of 4.0 or above.
F) That’s also making it harder for the most selective colleges—who often call grades the single most important factor in admissions—to join in a growing movement to lessen the influence of standardized tests.
G) “We，re seeing 30, 40 valedictorians at a high school because they don，t want to create these distinctions between students,” said Jess Lord, dean of admission and financial aid at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. “ If we don’t have enough information, there’s a chance we’ll become more heavily reliant on test scores, and that’s a real negative to me.”
H) Standardized tests have endured a heap of bad publicity lately, with the SAT raising anger about its expanded length and recent scoring problems. A number of schools have stopped requiring test scores, to much fanfare.
I) But lost in the developments is the fact that none of the most selective colleges have dropped the tests. In fact, a national survey shows overall reliance on test scores is higher in admissions than it was a decade ago. “It’s the only thing we have to evaluate students that will help us tell how they compare to each other,” said Lee Stetson, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania.
J) Grade inflation is hard to measure, and experts，caution numbers are often misleading because standards and scales vary so widely. Different practices of “weighting” GPAs for AP work also play havoc. Still, the trend seems to be showing itself in a variety of ways.
K) The average high school GPA increased from 2.68 to 2.94 between 1990 and 2000, according to a federal study. Almost 23 percent of college freshmen in 2005 reported their average grade in high school was an A or better, according to a national survey by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute. In 1975, the percentage was about half that.
L) GPAs reported by students on surveys when they take the SAT and ACT exams have also risen—and faster than their scores on those tests. That suggests their classroom grades aren’t rising just because students are getting smarter. Not surprisingly, the test-owners say grade inflation shows why testing should be kept: it gives all students an equal chance to shine.
M) The problems associated with grade inflation aren’t limited to elite college applicants. More than 70 percent of schools and districts analyzed by an education audit company called SchoolMatch had average GPAs significantly higher than they should have been based on their standardized test scores—including the school systems in Chicago, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Denver, Colorado, San Bernardino, California, and Columbus, Ohio. That raises concerns about students graduating from those schools unprepared for college. “They get mixed in with students from more rigorous schools and they just get blown away,” said SchoolMatch CEO William Bainbridge.
N) In Georgia, high school grades rose after the state began awarding HOPE scholarships to students with a 3.0 high school GPA. But the scholarship requires students to keep a 3.0 GPA in college, too, and more than half who received the HOPE in the fall of 1998 and entered the University of Georgia system lost eligibility before earning 30 credits. Next year, Georgia is taking a range of steps to tighten eligibility, including calculating GPA itself rather than relying on schools, and no longer giving extra GPA weight to vaguely labeled “honors” classes.
O) Among those who work with students gunning for the more selective colleges, opinions differ as to why there seem to be so many straight-A students. “I think there are more pressures now than there used to be, because 20 or 30 years ago kids with a B plus average got into some of the best colleges in the country,” said William Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin College in Maine. “It didn，t matter if you had a 3.9 instead of a 3.95. I don，t know if it matters now either, but people are more likely to think it does.”
P) Lord, the Haverford dean, sees grade inflation as the outcome of an irrational fear among students to show any slip up—in grades or discipline. In fact, colleges like his are often more interested in students who have overcome failure and challenge than robots who have never been anything less than perfect. “There，s a protection and encouragement of self-esteem that I don’t agree with, but I think it’s a lot of what’s going on here,” he said. “And the college admissions process feeds into that.”
Q) Back in Minnesota, Edina may join a growing number of schools that no longer officially rank students—a move that could help students like Zalasky, who says he was told by Wisconsin his class rank makes him a longshot. “They feel they’re being left behind or not getting into the schools that they’re applying to because of a particular class rank,” says Edina counselor Bill Hicks. “And there is some validity with respect to some certain schools that use certain formulas.”
R) But the colleges most popular with Edina students already know how strong the school is: students’ median verbal and math SAT scores are 1170 out of 1600. Hicks isn’t willing to blame the concentration grades at the top on spineless teachers, or on grade-grubbing by parents and students. Expectations are high, and grades are based on student mastery of the material, not a curve. Wherever teachers place the bar for an A, the students clear it.
S) “Everyone here is like, ‘ if I can get a 98 why would I get a 93? said Lavanya Srinivasan, who was ranked third in her Edina class last year. Far from being pushovers, she says, Edina teachers are tougher than those in a course she took at Harvard last summer. Zalasky agrees the students work hard for their high grades. “The mentality of this school is, if you’re not getting straight A，s you’re not doing well,” he said. “There’s just so much pressure on us day in and day out to get straight A’s that everybody does.” Hicks compares the atmosphere at Edina to the World Series expectations that always surround the superstar lineup of the New York Yankees. “If they don’t win it,” he said, “then it’s failure.”
1. Nearly half of the applications that the University of California received this autumn had GPAs of 4.0 or above.
2. It，s also harder for the most selective colleges to lessen the effect of standardized tests.
3. More than 30 years ago, about 11.5 percent of college freshmen reported their average grade in high school was an A or better.
4. Because of the negative effects of standardized tests recently, a lot of universities have no longer required test scores.
5. Some think Zalasky’s improvement unworthy, while others think his high grades win the praise for him.
6. Because many of his classmates are so outstanding, Zalasky is nervous about his college application.
7. Some colleges would like to admit students who have conquered failure and challenge rather than those who have never been anything less than perfect.
8. In the next year, Georgia is taking a series of measures to tighten qualification, including calculating GPA itself and avoiding paying too much attention to vaguely labeled “honors” classes.
9. In Zalasky，s opinion, students are put under great pressure to work hard to get straight A"s, or they will be regarded as losers.
10. More and more schools no longer officially rank students by grade, which can help students like Zalasky.
文章精要
文章指出，目前美國(guó)大學(xué)在錄取新生時(shí)，仍然比較看重分?jǐn)?shù)。在一些學(xué)校里由 于獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金政策的執(zhí)行，學(xué)生的分?jǐn)?shù)迅速攀升�？荚嚨膿碜o(hù)者指出，考試有必要存在， 因?yàn)樗o學(xué)生提供了展示自我的平臺(tái)，而這也無(wú)疑會(huì)給學(xué)生帶來(lái)巨大的壓力。
答案解析
1. E 本題的出題點(diǎn)在E段的最后一句話，屬于數(shù)字題。從原文可以看出，申請(qǐng) 者的人數(shù)為47,317，而獲得4.0或者4.0以上分?jǐn)?shù)者的人數(shù)接近23,000，由此 可知比例接近50%。
2. F 本題是F段的總結(jié)。原文提到，對(duì)學(xué)生的選拔最為嚴(yán)格的學(xué)校也越來(lái)越難 以參與到降低標(biāo)準(zhǔn)考試的影響的活動(dòng)中來(lái)，也就是說(shuō)，這些學(xué)校很難降低 標(biāo)準(zhǔn)考試的影響。
3. K 本題的出題點(diǎn)在K段的最后兩句話，屬于數(shù)字題。More than 30 years ago可推測(cè)應(yīng)該是上世紀(jì)七八十年代，對(duì)應(yīng)原文的1975年;從原文可以看出，在 大一新生中，2005年在高中取得A或者更好成績(jī)的人數(shù)差不多是總?cè)藬?shù)的 !%%，而在1975年時(shí)此比例減半，大約為11.5%。
4. H 本題的出題點(diǎn)在H段。原文提到最近標(biāo)準(zhǔn)考試有一些負(fù)面影響，許多學(xué)校已經(jīng)停止要求用考試分?jǐn)?shù)來(lái)評(píng)判學(xué)生。題干的negative effects轉(zhuǎn)述了原文 的bad publicity。
5. D 本題是對(duì)D段前兩句話的同義轉(zhuǎn)述。原文提到：有些人把Zalasky的努力這種現(xiàn)象稱(chēng)為“分?jǐn)?shù)膨脹”，暗示他的這種進(jìn)步不值得接受，而其他人認(rèn)為那 些學(xué)生真正贏得了好的評(píng)價(jià)，題干中的win the praise for him同義轉(zhuǎn)述了原 文中的earning their better marks。
6. B 本題的出題點(diǎn)在B段的第一句和第五句。原文提到even Zalasky is nervous about his prospects。接著在第五句中提到了原因：It’s that so many of his classmates are so good.由此可知題目是這兩句的總結(jié)。
7. P 本題的出題點(diǎn)在P段的第二句話。題目中的Some colleges替換原文中的colleges like his;題目中的conquered和原文中的overcome屬于同義詞轉(zhuǎn)換; 原文中的are more interested in換成了另一種說(shuō)法would like to admit;原文中 的robots是一種比喻的說(shuō)法，比喻那些完美得像機(jī)器人一樣的學(xué)生。
8. N 本題的出題點(diǎn)在N段的最后一句話。題目中的In the next year替換原文中的Next year;題目中的a series of替換原文中的a range of;題目中的avoiding paying too much attention to替換原文中的no longer giving…weight to。
9. S 本題考查人物的觀點(diǎn)。S段后半部分指出，Zalasky表示，學(xué)校的想法是，如果你沒(méi)有得到全A的成績(jī)，你就沒(méi)有學(xué)得很好，學(xué)生們?yōu)榱说玫紸都有很 大的壓力。文章最后提到，Hicks將Zalasky所在的學(xué)校和紐約洋基隊(duì)的情 況作了比較，“如果他們不能取勝，那么他們就失敗了”，即對(duì)于學(xué)生來(lái)說(shuō) 不能得到A就等于失敗。
10. Q本題出題點(diǎn)在Q段的第一句話。題目表達(dá)意思與原句表述一致，題目用非限定性定語(yǔ)從句解釋說(shuō)明原文中破折號(hào)之后的內(nèi)容;題目中的more and more schools和原文中的a growing number of schools屬于同義轉(zhuǎn)述。
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