2015年專四真題

Part ⅥREADING COMPREHENSION [30 MIN.]

SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN.]

In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer. Mark your choice on your answer sheet.

TEXT A

Surprisingly, no one knows how many children receive education in English hospitals, still lethe content or quality of that education. Proper records are jus t not kept. We know that more than 850.000 children go through hospital each year, and that every child of school age has a legal right to continue to receive education while in hospital. We also know there is only one hospital teacher to every 1,000 children in hospital.

Little wonder the latest survey concludes that the extent and type of hospital teaching available differ a great deal acrothe country. It is found that half the hospitals in England which admit children have no teacher. A further quarter has only a part-time teacher. The special children’s hospitals in major cities do best; general hospitals in the country and holiday areas are worst off. From this survey, one can estimate that fewer than one in five children have some contact with a hospital teacher—and that contact may be as little as two hour s a day. Most children interviewed were surprised to find a teacher in hospital at all. They had not been prepared for it by parents or their own school. If the re was a teacher they were much more likely to read books and do math or number work; without a teacher they would only play games.

Reasons for hospital teaching range from preventing a child falling behind and m maintaining the habit of school to keeping a child occupied, and the latter is often all the teacher can do. The position and influence of many teachers was summed up when parents referred to them as “the library lady” or just “the helper”. Children tend to rely on concerned school friends to keep in touch with school work. Several parents spoke of requests for work being ignored or refused by the school. Once back at school children rarely get extra teaching, and are told to catch up as best they can.

Many short-stay child-patients catch up quickly. But schools do very little to e ase the anxiety about falling behind expressed by many of the children interview ed.

author points out at the beginning that___.

A. every child in hospital receives some teaching

B. not enough is known about hospital teaching

C. hospital teaching is of poor quality

D. the special children’s hospitals are worst off

67. It can be inferred from the latest survey that___.

A. hospital teaching acrothe country is similar

B. each hospital has at least one part-time teacher

C. all hospitals surveyed offer education to children

D. only one-fourth of the hospitals have full-time teachers

68. Children in hospital usual1y turn to___in order to catch up with their school work.

A. hospital teachers

B. schoolmates

C. parents

D. school teachers

69. We can conclude from the passage that the author is___.

A. unfavorable towards children receiving education in hospitals

B. in favor of the present state of teaching in hospitals

C. unsatisfied with the present state of hospital teaching

D. satisfied with the results of the latest survey

TEXT B

Computer people talk a lot about the need for other people to become “computer-l iterate”, in other words, to learn to understand computers and what makes them tick. Not all experts agree, however, that is a good idea.

One pioneer, in particular. who disagrees is David Tibbett, the founder of Computer town UK. Although many people see this as a successful attempt to bring people e closer to the computer, David does not see it that way. He says that Computer own UK was formed for just the opposite reason, to bring computers to the people and make them “people-literate”.

David first got the idea when he visited one of America’s best-known computer “guru” figure, Bob Albrecht，in the small university town of Palo Alto in Northern California. Albrecht had started a project called Computer town USA in the local library, and the local children used to call round every Wednesday to borrow some time on the computers there, instead of borrowing library books. Albrecht was always on hand to answer any questions and to help the children discover about computers in their own way.

Over here, in Britain, Computer towns have taken off in a big way，and there are now about 40 scattered over the country. David Tibbett thinks they are most successful when tied to a computer club. He insists there is a vast and important difference between the two, although they complement each other. The clubs cater f or the enthusiasts, with some computer knowledge already, who get together arid eventually form an expert computer group. This frightens away non-experts, who a re happier going to Computer towns where there are computers available for them t o experiment on, with experts available to encourage them and answer any questions; they are not told what to do, they find out.

David Tibbett finds it interesting to see the two different approaches working side by side. The computer experts have to learn not to tell people about computers, but have to be able to explain the answers to the questions that people really want to know. In some Computer towns there are question sessions, rather like radio phone-ins, where the experts listen to a lot of questions and then try to work out some structure to answer them. People are not having to learn computer jargons, but the experts are having to translate computer mysteries into easily understood terms; the computers are becoming “{people-literate”.

70. According to David Tibbett, the purpose of Computer town UK is to