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Section III Reading Comprehension

Directions:

Each of the passages below is followed by some questions. For each question there are four answers marked [A], [B], [C] and [D]. Read the passages carefully and choose the best answer to each of the questions. Then mark your answer on ANSWER SHEET 1 by blackening the corresponding letter in the brackets with a pencil. (40 points)

Text 1

Specialization can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialization was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.

No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. Nevertheless, the word “amateur” does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialization in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United Kingdom.

A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different way.

Although the process of professionalisation and specialization was already well under way in British geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.

51. The growth of specialization in the 19th century might be more clearly seen in sciences such as ________.

[A] sociology and chemistry

[B] physics and psychology

[C] sociology and psychology

[D] physics and chemistry

52. We can infer from the passage that ________.

[A] there is little distinction between specialization and professionalisation

[B] amateurs can compete with professionals in some areas of science

[C] professionals tend to welcome amateurs into the scientific community

[D] amateurs have national academic societies but no local ones

53. The author writes of the development of geology to demonstrate ________.

[A] the process of specialization and professionalisation

[B] the hardship of amateurs in scientific study

[C] the change of policies in scientific publications

[D] the discrimination of professionals against amateurs

54. The direct reason for specialization is ________.

[A] the development in communication

[B] the growth of professionalisation

[C] the expansion of scientific knowledge

[D] the splitting up of academic societies

Text 2

A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so-called digital divide -- the division of the world into the info (information) rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.

There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access -- after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we’ve ever had.

Of course, the use of the Internet isn’t the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.

To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure (the basic structural foundations of a society) in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn’t have the capital to do so. And that is why America’s Second Wave infrastructure -- including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on -- were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain’s former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans. I believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you’re going to be. That doesn’t mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.

55. Digital divide is something ________.

[A] getting worse because of the Internet

[B] the rich countries are responsible for

[C] the world must guard against

[D] considered positive today

56. Governments attach importance to the Internet because it ________.

[A] offers economic potentials

[B] can bring foreign funds

[C] can soon wipe out world poverty

[D] connects people all over the world

57. The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of ________.

[A] providing financial support overseas

[B] preventing foreign capital’s control

[C] building industrial infrastructure

[D] accepting foreign investment

58. It seems that now a country’s economy depends much on ________.

[A] how well-developed it is electronically

[B] whether it is prejudiced against immigrants

[C] whether it adopts America’s industrial pattern

[D] how much control it has over foreign corporations

Text 3

Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.

Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.

But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns) into which they plug each day’s events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.

There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the “standard templates” of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.

Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they’re less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.

Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn’t rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.

This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.

59. What is the passage mainly about?

[A] needs of the readers all over the world

[B] causes of the public disappointment about newspapers

[C] origins of the declining newspaper industry

[D] aims of a journalism credibility project

60. The results of the journalism credibility project turned out to be ________.

[A] quite trustworthy

[B] somewhat contradictory

[C] very illuminating

[D] rather superficial

61. The basic problem of journalists as pointed out by the writer lies in their ________.

[A] working attitude

[B] conventional lifestyle

[C] world outlook

[D] educational background

62. Despite its efforts, the newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing to its ________.

[A] failure to realize its real problem

[B] tendency to hire annoying reporters

[C] likeliness to do inaccurate reporting

[D] prejudice in matters of race and gender