1991年1月大学英语四级考试阅读附试题和答案_第2页

　　Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

“... We are not about to enter the Information Age but instead are rather well into it.” Present predictions are that by 1990, about thirty million jobs in the United States, or about thirty percent of the job market, will be computer-related. In 1980, only twenty-one percent of all United States high schools owned one or more computers for student use. In the fall of 1985, a new survey revealed that half of United States secondary schools have fifteen or more computers for student use. And now educational experts, administrators, and even the general public are demanding that all students become “computer literate (慢点…的).” “By the year 2000 knowledge of computers will be necessary in over eighty percent of all occupations. Soon those people not educated in computer use will be compared to those who are print illiterate today.”

What is “computer literacy”? The term itself seems to imply soon extent of “knowing” about computers, but knowing what. The current opinion seems to be that this should include a general knowledge of what computers are, plus a little of their history and something of how they operate.

Therefore, it is vital that educators everywhere take a careful look not only at what is being done, but also at what should be done in the field of computer education. Today most adults are capable of utilising a motor vehicle without the slightest knowledge of how the internal-combustion engine works. We effectively use all types of electrical equipment without being able to tell their histories or to explain how they work. Business people for years have made good use of typewriters and adding machines, yet few have ever known how to repair them. Why, then, attempt to teach computers by teaching how or why they work?

Rather, we first must concentrate on teaching the effective use of the computer as the tool is.

“Knowing how to use a computer is what’s going to be important, we don’t talk about ‘automobile literacy. ‘ We just get in our cars and drive them.”

31. In 1990, the number of jobs having nothing to do with computers in the United States will be reduced to ________.
A) 79 million
B) 30 million
C) 70 million
D) 100 million（C）

32. The expression “Print illiterate” (Para. 1, Line 16) refers to ________.
A) one who has never learnt printing
B) one who is not computer literate
C) one who has never learnt to read
D) one who is not able to use a typewriter（C）

33. The first paragraph is mainly about ________.
A) recent predictions of computer-related jobs
B) the wide use of computers in schools
C) the urgency of computer education
D) public interest in computers（C）

34. According to the author, the effective way to spread the use of computers is to teach ________.
A) what computers are
B) how to use computers
C) where computers can be used
D) how computers work（B）

35. Which of the following statements is FALSE?
A) What to teach about computers should be reconsidered.
B) Those who are not educated in computer use will find it difficult to get a job.
C) Human society has already entered the Information Age.
D) Those who want to use computers should know how computers operate.（D）
　　　Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.

Editor:
While a new school term is about to begin, perhaps we should reconsider the matter of examinations. In July, two writers (Letters to the Editor) praised the cancellation of exams because they believe “tests don’t tell the whole story.”
As a teacher who has worked in four countries, I have had the experience that a student who earns good marks is generally a good student, and that a student’s final mark in a subject is usually a grade average of the year’s work. Of course there are exceptions, but they do not have the frequency that would give an unfair picture of a student’s ability.
The simple fact is that proper class work, diligent exam studies and good marks are almost certain indicators of a student’s future performance. The opposite, almost certainly, incompetence.

There is no acceptable substitute for competition and examination of quality. How can teachers and future officials determine what a student has learned and remembered? Should we simply take the student word for it? Any institution that “liberates” students from fair and formal exams is misguided, if not ignorant. And surely the “graduates” of such institutions will lack trustworthiness, not to mention being rejected by foreign universities for graduate or other studies.

When all is said and done, I sense that a fear of failure and a fear of unpleasant comparison with others is at the bottom of most ban-exams (废除考试) talk. Excellence and quality fear nothing. On the contrary, they seek competition and desire the satisfaction of being the best.

36. Which of the following will the author of this passage probably agree with?
A) Tests are not effective in measuring the students’ abilities.
B) Tests are an effective measure of the students’ abilities.
C) Tests can only measure some of the students’ abilities.
D) Tests may not be useful for measuring students’ abilities.（B）

37. The two writers mentioned in the first paragraph ________.
A) opposed judging students by the results of exams
B) must have proposed other ways of testing students
C) regarded exams as a way of punishing students
D) seem to be worried about the poor marks of their students（A）

38. According to the letter, a student’s final mark ________.
A) is often encouraging
B) often gives a fair picture of the year’s work
C) often proves unreliable
D) often tells whether he likes the subject of not（B）

39. If a student graduated from a university which does not require exams he would ________.
A) have to continue his studies
B) have a feeling of failure
C) be incompetent
D) not be admitted by foreign institutions（D）

40. According to the letter, those who dislike the idea of examinations are probably afraid of ________.
A) competing with other students
B) being graded unfairly
C) working too hard
D) being dismissed from school（A）