Unit 2

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.

Questions 21 to 24 are based on the following passage:

Automation refers to the introduction of electronic control and automatic operation of productive machinery. It reduces the human factors, mental and physical in production, and is designed to make possible the manufacture of more goods with fewer workers. The development of automation in American industry has been called the “Second Industrial Revolution.”
Labour’s concern over automation arises from uncertainty about the effects on employment, and fears of major changes in jobs. In the main, labour has taken the view that resistance to technical change is unfruitful. Eventually, the result of automation may well be an increase in employment, since it is expected that vast industries will grow up around manufacturing, maintaining, and repairing automation equipment. The interest of labour lies in bringing about the transition with a minimum of inconvenience and distress to the workers involved. Also, union spokesmen emphasize that the benefit of the increased production and lower costs made possible by automation should be shared by workers in the form of higher wages, more leisure, and improved living standards.
To protect the interests of their members in the era of automation, unions have adopted a number of new policies. One of these is the promotion of supplementary unemployment benefit plans. It is emphasized that since the employer involved in such a plan has a direct financial interest in preventing unemployment, he will have a strong drive for planning new installations so as to cause the least possible problems in jobs and job assignments. Some unions are working for dismissal pay agreements, requiring that permanently dismissed workers be paid a sum of money based on length of service. Another approach is the idea of the “improvement factor”, which calls for wage increases based on increases in productivity. It is possible, however, that labour will rely mainly on reduction in working hours in order to gain a full share in the fruits of automation.

21. Though labour worries about the effects of automation, it never doubts that .
A) automation will eventually prevent unemployment
B) automation will help workers acquire new skills
C) automation will eventually benefit the workers no less than the employers.
D) automation is a trend which cannot be stopped

22. The idea of the “improvement factor”(Para. 3, Line 8) implies roughly .
A) wages should be paid on the basis of length of service
B) the benefit of the increased production and lower costs should be shared by workers
C) supplementary unemployment benefit plans should be promoted
D) the transition to automation should be brought about with the minimum of inconvenience and distress to workers

23. In order to get the full benefits of automation, labour will depend mostly on .
A) additional payment to the permanently dismissed workers
B) the increase of wages in proportion to the increase in productivity
C) shorter working hours and more leisure time
D) strong drive for planning new installations

24. Which of the following can best sum up the passage?
A) Advantages and disadvantages of automation.
B) Labour and the effects of automation.
C) Unemployment benefit plans and automation.
D) Social benefits of automation.

Questions 25 to 30 are based on the following passage:

The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become “better” people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don’t go.
But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don’t fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other’s experiments and writes false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out — often encouraged by college administrators.
Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves — they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that’s a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn’t explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We’ve been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can’t absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.
Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things — maybe it’s just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy (异端邪说) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.

25. According to the author, .
A) people used to question the value of college education
B) people used to have full confidence in higher education
C) all high school graduates went to college
D) very few high school graduates chose to go to college

26. In the 2nd paragraph, “those who don’t fit the pattern” refers to .
A) high school graduates who aren’t suitable for college education
B) college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxis
C) college students who aren’t any better for their higher education
D) high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college

27. The drop-out rate of college students seems to go up because .
A) young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at college
B) many young people are required to join the army
C) young people have little motivation in pursuing a higher education
D) young people don’t like the intense competition for admission to graduate school

28. According to the passage the problems of college education partly arise from the fact that .
A) society cannot provide enough jobs for properly trained college graduates
B) high school graduates do not fit the pattern of college education
C) too many students have to earn their own living
D) college administrators encourage students to drop out

29. In this passage the author argues that .
A) more and more evidence shows college education may not be the best thing for high school graduates
B) college education is not enough if one wants to be successful
C) college education benefits only the intelligent, ambitious, and quick-learning people
D) intelligent people may learn quicker if they don’t go to college

30. The “surveys and statistics” mentioned in the last paragraph might have shown that .
A) college-educated people are more successful than non-college-educated people
B) college education was not the first choice for intelligent people
C) the less schooling one has the better it is for him
D) most people have sweet memories of college life