Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
While America’s grade-school and high-school system is coming under attack, one fact remains: U.S. universities are among the best in the world. Since World War II, American scientists-mostly working in universities or colleges-have won more than half of all Nobel Prizes in physics and medicine. Foreign students rush to the United States by the tens of thousands; last year they earned more than one quarter of the doctoral degrees awarded in the country. Yet while American universities produce great research and great graduate programme, they some-times pay little attention to the task that lies at their very core: the teaching of undergraduate students.
In an era of $20,000 academic years, college presidents can no longer afford to ignore the creeping rot at their core. In speeches and interviews the nation’s higher educators have rediscovered teaching. Robert Rosenzweig, president of the Association of American Universities, said: “Our organization was never very concerned about teaching. In the last 18 months, we have spent more time on undergraduate education than on any other subject.”
Despite such promising efforts, no one doubts that research still outranks teaching at the leading universities, not least because it is a surer and faster way to earn status. Some people don’t think it has to be that way. They argue that the reward system for college faculty can be changed, so that professors will be encouraged to devote more time and effort to teaching. They say that they are beginning to believe that the 1990s may come to be remembered as the decade of the undergraduate.
That would bring ‘it full circle. For more than two centuries after the founding of Harvard College in 1636, the instruction of undergraduate students was an essential condition of American higher education.
31. Which of the following would be the best TITLE for this passage?
A) University Education in the U.S.
B) University Education Challenged
C) Teaching and Research in Universities
D) Undergraduate Teaching Rediscovered
32. The first sentence in the second paragraph means that ________.
A) with a budget of $ 20,000, presidents find it difficult to keep their universities going
B) with the increase in fees, educators feel obliged to improve undergraduate teaching
C) with a $ 20,000 budget, presidents find it difficult to stop the creeping rot in their universities
D) with the decrease in fees, educators can’t afford to lay equal stress on both research and teaching
33. According to paragraph 3, some people think that the reward system for teachers should be changed so that ________.
A) more emphasis will be laid on teaching
B) leading universities can further raise their status
C) effort can be directed to graduate instruction
D) the 1990’s will become a decade of the-undergraduate
34. According to the passage, at the leading American universities ________.
A) research is declining in importance
B) teaching is now ranked above research
C) teaching is a sure way to gain position
D) more importance is attached to research than to teaching
35. It is implied in the passage that about 150 years ago undergraduate instruction ________.
A) was already threatened by research work
B) began to be neglected in most universities
C) constituted the fundamental part of higher education
D) began to undergo rapid changes
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
In the final years before the beginning of the Civil War, the view that the Negro was different, even inferior, was widely held in the United States. At Peoria, Illinois, in October 1854, Abraham Lincoln asked what stand the opponents of slavery should take regarding Negroes.
“Free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass, of white people will not.
Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judgement, is not the sole question, if indeed, it is any part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disregarded.
We cannot, then, make them equals.”
The Lincoln statement was clear and direct, and it doubtless represented the views of most Americans in the 1850’s. Most of those who heard him or read his speech were of the same opinion as he. In later years, the Peoria speech would be used by those who taught to damage Lincoln’s reputation as a champion of the rights of the Negro. In 1964, the White Citizens’ Councils reprinted portions of the speech in large advertisements in the daily press and insisted that Lincoln shared their views on the desirability of maintaining two distinct worlds of race.
Lincoln could not have overcome the nation’s strong inclination toward racial separation if he had tried. And he did not try very hard. When he set about forming Negro troops later, he was content not only to set Negroes apart in a unit called “U.S. Colored Troops, “but also to have Negro privates (列兵) receive $10 per month including clothing, while whites of the same rank received $13 per month plus clothing. Only the firm refusal of many Negro troops to accept unequal pay finally forced Congress to equalize compensation, for white and Negro soldiers.
The fight for union that became also a fight for freedom never became a fight for equality or for the creation of one racial world.
36. In 1854, Abraham Lincoln believed that ________.
A) it was practical to give equal rights to Negroes
B) Negroes should have equal rights
C) racial equality for Negroes was impossible
D) most white people would oppose giving freedom to Negroes
37. In the 1850’s, the nation’s inclination toward racial separation was ________.
A) disregarded by Congress
B) challenged by Lincoln
C) too strong to overcome
D) based on round judgement
38. In 1964, the White Citizens’ Councils reprinted the Peoria speech in order to ________.
A) damage Lincoln’s reputation
B) defend their own viewpoints
C) criticize Lincoln’s views on racial equality
D) defend Lincoln’s reputation
39. From the passage, we can conclude that Lincoln ________.
A) helped Negroes fight for freedom only
B) gave Negroes equal pay
C) treated white and Negro soldiers equally
D) helped to create one racial world
40. The purpose of the Civil War was ________.
A) to establish equality of all people
B) to maintain the union of the country
C) to do away with racial separation
D) to end racial in justice
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