四 阅读理解A

Part Ⅵ READING COMPREHENSION  ［30 MIN.］

SECTION A READING COMPREHENSION    ［25 MIN.］

    In this section there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished stat ements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one th at 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 hospit als, still less the 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 wh ile 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 t eaching available differ a great deal across the country. It is found that half the hospitals in England which admit children have no teacher. A further quarter have 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 som e 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 aintaining the habit of school to keeping a child occupied, and the latter is of ten all the teacher can do. The position and influence of many teachers was summ ed 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 w ork. 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.

66． The 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___.
al teaching across the country is similar
B.    each hospital has at least one part-time teacher
C. all hospitals surveyed offer education to children
one-fourth of the hospitals have full-time teachers 

68.    Children in hospital usual1y turn to___in order to catch up with  the ir school work.
A.    hospital teachers     B.    schoolmates C.    parents     D.    school teachers 

69.  We can conclude from the passage that the author is___.
A.    unfavourable towards children receiving education in hospitals
B.    in favour 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 t ick. Not all experts agree, however, that is a good idea.

      One pioneer, in particular. who disagrees is David Tebbutt, the founder of Compu tertown UK. Although many people see this as a successful attempt to bring peopl e closer to the computer, David does not see it that way. He says that Computert 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 “g uru” figure, Bob Albrecht，in the small university town of Palo Alto in Northern California. Albrecht had started a project called Computertown USA in the local library, and the local children used to call round every Wednesday to borrow so me 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，Computertowns have taken off in a big way，and there are now about 40 scattered over the country. David Tebbutt thinks they are most succ essful when tied to a computer club. He insists there is a vast and important di fference 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 Computertowns 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 Tehbutt finds it interesting to see the two different approaches working s ide by side. The computer experts have to learn not to tell people about compute rs, but have to be able to explain the answers to the questions that people real ly want to know. In some Computertowns 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 Tebbutt, the purpose of Computertown UK is to___
A.    train people to understand how computers work
B.    make more computers available to people
C.    enable more people to fix computers themselves
D.    help people find out more about computers 

71.    We Learn from the passage that Computertown USA was a ___.
A. town      B.   project      C.   library      D.   school 

72.  Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
A.    Computertowns in the UK have become popular.
B.    Computertowns and clubs cater for different people.
C.    Computertowns are more successful than clubs.
D.    It’s better that computertowns and clubs work together. 

73.    Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computertowns?
A.    Experts give lectures and talks on computers.
B.    Experts are on hand to answer people’s questions.
C. People are left to discover computers on their own.
D.    There are computers around for people to practise on. 