1、专业八级-606 及答案解析(总分：100.10，做题时间：90 分钟)一、READING COMPREHENSIO(总题数：2，分数：100.00)Section A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by fourteen multiple-choice questions. For each multiple-choice question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose t
2、he one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. Passage One The United States produced more crude oil in October than it imported for the first time since early 1995, as domestic shale oil output continued to surge and U.S. consumption of petroleum products remain
3、ed relatively flat, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. The figures mark a milestone in the rebound of U.S. oil production since drillers started using a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to unlock oil previously trapped in layers of shale rock in state
4、s such as North Dakota and Texas. At the same time, gains in automobile fuel efficiency and other areas have been curbing U.S. oil consumption. The trend is expected to continue for another decade as U.S. domestic oil supplies grow and reliance on imports shrinks, easing one of the main sources of p
5、ressure on global oil markets. For now, however, the United States remains the world“s biggest oil-consuming nation and the largest importer of crude oil. Moreover, global crude oil prices remain high by historic measures. U.S. crude oil production reached 7.74 million barrels a day in October, down
6、 slightly from September because of disruptions from Tropical Storm Karen, but up 17 percent from the year before. Aside from September, U.S. production in October was the highest level of any month since May 1989. Net crude oil imports in October fell to 7.57 million barrels a day, down from 7.92 m
7、illion barrels in September and down 8 percent from the year before. The White House sought to take credit for the figures, It issued a statement calling them “a result of both increased production and administration policies like increased fuel economy standards that cut oil consumption, cut carbon
8、 pollution, and cut consumer bills.“ Economists welcomed the figures. “It highlights the reversal of fortune in our energy sector, that we are increasingly energy independent and prospects are good that we“ll be more energy independent going forward“, said Mark M. Zandi, chief economist of Moody“s A
9、nalytics. “It“s one of the reasons to be optimistic about our growth prospects.“ Zandi added that rising domestic oil production “means a smaller trade and current account deficit, which is a big plus for the economy. We“ll be less sensitive to increases in global oil prices“. According to figures c
10、ompiled by Zandi, the oil import bill as a percentage of the gross domestic product in the third quarter of this year was lower than any quarter since 1986. The firm estimates that shale oil output will result in an $80 billion reduction in imports this year. Frank Verrastro, senior vice president a
11、nd energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the milestone was important, although he warned that higher costs, geological variations and constrained exploration budgets at many independent drillers could make it a “challenge“ to meet expectations for future crude oil
12、 output growth. The turnaround in U.S. oil fortunes has been rapid. Five years ago, U.S. oil production hit a 62-year low. Since then, domestic production has increased by more than 50 percent. Prices remain high. This is the third consecutive year in which the price has hovered above $105 a barrel
13、for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. The U.S. benchmark for crude oil, West Texas Intermediate, has tumbled to about $95 a barrel, down from $110 a barrel in September, but that is still high by historic standards. Some oil analysts note that prices would
14、be even higher without the increase in U.S. production, which has helped offset oil disruptions in Libya, Iraq and Nigeria and sanctions on Iran. (此文选自 The Washington Post ) Passage Two Imagine taking a university exam in your own home, under the watchful eye of a webcam or with software profiling y
15、our keystrokes or your syntax to see whether it really is you answering the questions. Online university courses have become the Next Big Thing for higher education, particularly in the United States, where millions of students have signed up for courses from some of the most upmarket universities.
16、With spiralling costs and student loan debts crossing the trillion dollar barrier this year, the online university has been seen as a way of reaching many more people for much less money. But a major stumbling block has been how such digital courses are assessed. When students are at home how do you
17、 know whether they are cheating? How do you know the identity of the person answering the questions? For the online courses to gain value, they need a credible way of assessing students and an important part of that is preventing fraud. The Open University in the U. K. has been a pioneer of distance
18、 learning. “It“s a common problem across the sectorhow do you know that the individual taking the exam is the right person?“ says Peter Taylor, chair of the Open University“s academic conduct group. “The student“s computer would be locked down so that it can“t use other materials, if you“ve got an a
19、ppropriate webcamthat can provide you with effective invigilation.“ says Prof. Taylor. This still raises the question about how you know who is sitting the exam. “There are various ways you can identify a person,“ says Prof. Taylor. “One system we looked at meant that you had to type in a particular
20、 phraseand the rate and the particular way you type is effectively a signature of the individual.“ These are not distant-horizon ideasProf. Taylor says he would expect such technology to be in place within the next five years. He also says that there is no reason to think more people would necessari
21、ly cheat online. EdX, an online university project set up earlier this year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, wants to make more use of the exam hall rather than less. Students taking edX online courses will be able to sit their final exams in an international network of test
22、 centres, run by Pearson Vue. These will be formally supervised on-screen exams, using the edX website, and those who pass will receive a “proctored certificate“, showing it has been achieved in an invigilated setting. Such online testing techniques are going to have an impact on the traditional uni
23、versity course too, he says. But this volume of testing depends on automated markingand will mean a limit on the range of subjects and type of questions that can be examined. A computer is going to struggle to mark an essay on irony. That“s the challenge for another of the most significant online co
24、urse providers, Coursera, set up by Stanford academics and backed by Silicon Valley investors. It has attracted students remarkably quickly1.6 million have signed up in the first year, taking courses from more than 30 top universities. When the University of London“s international section joined las
25、t month, 9,000 students signed up in the first 24 hours. But how can such large numbers of candidates be reliably marked? Coursera“s co-founder Daphne Koller says trying to find a way to assess so many students is “part of the learning process“. She says automatic marking can generate a score or a g
26、rade, but students want human feedback. And there isn“t any technology that can judge whether an essay has really connected with a question. The Open University“s Prof. Taylor says their own experiments have shown that any software for assessing free-text answers requires a large amount of human int
27、ervention. Coursera has been experimenting with peer assessment, where students grade each other“s work, following guidelines set by the teacher. This allows for the marking capacity to grow with the class sizebut it also depends on the reliability of fellow students. These online courses are also b
28、eing discussed onlineand blogs from students refer to disagreements over marking. Martin Bean, vice chancellor of the Open University, said: “There is no doubt that this is the “web moment“ for higher education and a battle is shaping up for growing student numbers on global courses online. However
29、this is a battle which will be about brands and the market ability of the providers but also, crucially, about quality of teaching and credibility.“ (此文选自 BBC ) Passage Three Sixty-three years old and retired from a career as a welder, Jim Crawford doesn“t have much use for the Internet. The only ti
30、me he goes online is to read through the automotive listings in the office of a local online auction company. If he sees something he likes, he says, he asks his mechanic to bid on it for him. Crawford is far from alone: About 15 percent of Americans older than 18 don“t use the Internet, according t
31、o a study released in September by the Pew Internet this often occurs with very high arches. An orthotic insert that raise the outer edge of the foot can help stabilize a supinated foot within the clog, Schwartz says. Orthotic inserts, whether purchased at the drugstore or custom-made, are designed
32、to correct the alignment of the foot and ankle, which helps maintain proper positioning of the knees and hips and even the lower back. Clinical studies of orthotics demonstrate their usefulness in many serious foot problems, such as diabetic neuropathy. For the rest of us, with more everyday aches a
33、nd pains of life on our feet, there“s less applicable research. A 2008 review of research on easing foot pain found one small study in which custom orthotics helped people with high-arch, supinated feet. For other conditions, such as swellings, the evidence was equivocal. Foot experts recommend shop
34、ping at shoe stores with experienced staff who take the time to do a good fitting. Schwartz sends her patients to high-end running shoe stores with a description of what to look for and what to avoid. (此文选自 The Washington Post ) Passage Four Do genes determine how well children will do at school? If
35、 so, are teachers and policy-makers wasting their time trying to raise academic standards amongst children who are born “not very bright“? These controversial, indeed uncomfortable, questions are raised by comments from the former Chief Inspector of Schools in England, Chris Woodhead. Now a Professo
36、r at Buckingham University, Mr. Woodhead has never been one to tiptoe around fundamental issues, however explosive they may be. In a newspaper interview, Mr. Woodhead said a child“s family background largely dictated educational success. He argued, less bright children should not be forced clown the
37、 academic route but should be given practical and vocational training. The anecdotal evidence seems to be all around us. The children of parents who have done well in the academic education system seem, mostly, to do well themselves. But is it really true that our chances of being born bright or not
38、 so bright depend entirely on the academic success of our parents? This nature versus nurture question might seem insoluble. But thanks to a remarkable research project there is growing long-term evidence to suggest some insights. The 1970 Birth Cohort Survey has followed over 17,000 babies who were
39、 born in the U. K. during a particular week in April 1970. It has measured their medical, educational and social development at intervals since then. Leon Feinstein, from the Institute of Education at the University of London, has interrogated the educational results of the survey and produced some
40、fascinating findings about how children“s ability levels vary relative to their peers over time. The children were tested for their educational development at 22 months, 42 months, and at age 5 and 10. Later they were assessed at age 26 to see what educational success they had achieved in public exa
41、minations. The striking picture that emerges is one where ability levels at the earliest age are a strong indicator of later educational success. Even when measured at just 22 months, children who started out in the lowest 25% of the ability range mostly remained stuck amongst the lowest achievers a
42、s adults. The pattern of future success is even more completely determined at 42 months, or just three and half years old, still well before the start of formal schooling. Over 25% of those who were in the bottom quartile of ability at this age failed to achieve any educational qualifications by the
43、 age of 26. By contrast, only 6% of the highest scoring 42-month olds failed to get qualifications by the time they were adults. So ability levels soon after birth are a very strong predictor of future educational success. So the deterministic view about genes appears to be borne out by the evidence
44、 so far. Educational achievement would appear to be set in stone well before children even start school. But wait, there is more. The evidence also shows that within this overall picture, there is a fair degree of movement. Children who start out in the least able group can, and do, progress all the
45、 way up to the most able group. For example, 10% of those children who were in the bottom 25% at 42 months had reached the top 25% by the age of 10. In other words, if they had been written off as starting out in life without the genetic advantages of high ability, their longer-term academic potenti
46、al would have been wasted. Leon Feinstein“s research gets even more interesting for policy-makers when he starts to look at the impact of social class on all of this. His findings suggest that it is the combination of starting out in the lowest ability group, whilst also being in the lowest socio-ec
47、onomic group at birth, which more or less condemns a child to educational failure later in life. So, if you do badly in the developmental tests at 22 months, and your parents are in low-paid manual jobs, you are likely to remain on the bottom rungs of the educational ladder. However, children in the
48、 lowest ability groups at 22 months who are born into affluent and white-collar families do not remain stuck on the bottom levels of educational success. Indeedand this is perhaps the most striking findingthe children from affluent families who started out in the bottom ability group overtake those
49、from the poorest backgrounds who started out in the top ability group. In other words, it is true to say that the mental abilities you are born with do tend to shape your future academic success. However, it is also true to say that innate ability is not determined simply by your genetic inheritance, in terms of the socio-economic background of your parents. Whatever the starting point, subsequent educational success is more likely to go to those with affluent, middle-class parents. So Chris Woodhead may well be right if he is talking about children who have already reached secondary
