Section Ⅱ Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

Text 1

With the extension of democratic rights in the first half of the nineteenth century and the ensuing decline of the Federalist establishment, a new conception of education began to emerge. Education was no longer a confirmation of a pre-existing status, but an instrument in the acquisition of higher status. For a new generation of upwardly mobile students, the goal of education was not to prepare them to live comfortably in the world into which they had been born, but to teach them new virtues and skills that would propel them into a different and better world. Education became training; and the student was no longer the gentleman-in-waiting, but the journeyman apprentice for upward mobility.

In the nineteenth century a college education began to be seen as a way to get ahead in the world. The founding of the land-grant colleges opened the doors of higher education to poor but aspiring boys from non-Anglo-Saxon, working-class and lower-middle-class backgrounds. The myth of the poor boy who worked his way through college to success drew millions of poor boys to the new campuses. And with this shift, education became more vocational: its object was the acquisition of practical skills and useful information.

For the gentleman-in-waiting, virtue consisted above all in grace and style, in doing well what was appropriate to his position; education was merely a way of acquiring polish. And vice was manifested in gracelessness, awkwardness, in behaving inappropriately, discourteously, or ostentatiously. For the apprentice, however, virtue was evidenced in success through hard work. The requisite qualities of character were not grace or style, but drive, determination, and a sharp eye for opportunity. While casual liberality and even prodigality characterized the gentleman, frugality, thrift, and self-control came to distinguish the new apprentice. And while the gentleman did not aspire to a higher station because his station was already high, the apprentice was continually becoming, striving, struggling upward. Failure for the apprentice meant standing still, not rising.

1. Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?

[A] Democratic ideas started with education.

[B] Federalists were opposed to education.

[C] New education helped confirm people’s social status.

[D] Old education had been in tune with hierarchical society.

2.The difference between “gentleman-in-waiting” and “journeyman” is that _____ .

[A] education trained gentleman-in-waiting to climb higher ladders

[B] journeyman was ready to take whatever was given to him

[C] gentleman-in-waiting belonged to a fixed and high social class

[D] journeyman could do practically nothing without education

3. According to the second paragraph, land-grant College _____.

[A] belonged to the land-owning class

[B] enlarged the scope of education

[C] was provided only to the poor

[D] benefited all but the upper class

4.Which of the following was the most important for a “gentleman-in-waiting”?

[A] Manners. [B] Education. [C] Moral. [D] Personality.

5. The best title for the passage is _____.

[A] Education and Progress

[B] Old and New Social Norms

[C] New Education: Opportunities for More

[D] Demerits of Hierarchical Society

答案

1.D 2.C 3.B 4.A 5.C