新东方：大学英语四级考试阅读讲义(四十)

Unit 13
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension
(35 minutes)
Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
Cyberspace (网络空间)，data superhighways, multi media — for those who have seen the future, the linking of computers, television and telephones will change our lives for ever. Yet for all the talk of a forthcoming technological utopia(乌托邦) little attention has been given to the implications of these developments for the poor. As with all new high technology, while the West concerns itself with the “how,” the question of “for whom” is put aside once again.
Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communications revolution has affected the world economy. Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries, and transnational corporations take full advantage of it. Terms of trade, exchange and interest rates and money movements are more important than the production of goods. The electronic economy made possible by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets — with destructive impact on the have-nots. For them the result is instability. Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small parts in the international economic machine. As “futures”(期货) are traded on computer screens, developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies.
So what are the options for regaining control? One alterative is for developing countries to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications themselves — so-called “development communications” modernization. Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries' economies. Communications technology is generally exported from the U.S., Europe or Japan; the patents, skills and ability to manufacture remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries. It is also expensive, and imported products and services must therefore be bought on credit—credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain.
Furthermore, when new technology is introduced there is often too low a level of expertise to exploit it for native development. This means that while local elites, foreign communities and subsidiaries of transnational corporations may benefit, those whose lives depend on access to the information are denied it.
21. From the passage we know that the development of high technology is in the interests of .
A) the rich countries
B) scientific development
C) the elite 
D) the world economy
22. It can be inferred from the passage that .
A) international trade should be expanded
B) the interests of the poor countries have not been given enough consideration
C) the exports of the poor countries should be increased
D) communications technology in the developing countries should be modernized
23. Why does the author say that the electronic economy may have a destructive impact on developing countries?
A) Because it enables the developed countries to control the international market.
B) Because it destroys the economic balance of the poor countries.
C) because it violates the national boundaries of the poor countries.
D) Because it inhibits the industrial growth of developing countries.
24. The development of modern communications technology in developing countries may .
A) hinder their industrial production
B) cause them to lose control of their trade
C) force them to reduce their share of exports
D) cost them their economic independence
25. The author's attitude toward the communications revolution is .
A) positive
B) critical
C) indifferent
D) tolerant

Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
The estimates of the numbers of home-schooled children vary widely. The U.S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higher — at about a million.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herd like approach to teaching children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
Says John Marshall, an education official, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers. The idea is, ‘Let's give the kids access to public school so they'll see it's not as terrible as they've been told, and they'll want to come back.’”
Perhaps, but don't count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education — whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child's interests and natural pace — is best.
“The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center For Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn — both intellectually and emotionally — that the family is the most important institution in society.”Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy (异端邪说)，but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,” Van Galen writes. “These parents are highly independent and strive to ‘take responsibility’ for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.”
26. According to the passage, home schoolers are .
A) those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children
B) those who educate their children at home instead of sending them to school
C) those who advocate combining public education with home schooling
D) those who don't go to school but are educated at home by their parents
27. Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because .
A) there isn't much they can do to change the present situation
B) they want to show their tolerance for different teaching systems
C) home schooling provides a new variety of education for children
D) public schools have so ma

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