六級閱讀理解.docx

Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. 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 Answer Sheet 2. with a single line through the centre.Passage OneQuestions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.Technology can make us smarter or stupider, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not hindering our mental processes. One of the big questions being debated today is: What kind of information do we need to have stored in our heads, and what kind can we leave in the cloud, to be accessed as necessary?An increasingly powerful group within education are championing digital literacy. In their view, skills beat knowledge, developing digital literacy is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Google-able and therefore unworthy of committing to memory. But even the most sophisticated digital literacy skills wont help students and workers navigate the world if the), dont have broad base of knowledge about how the world actually operates. If you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, youre doing kids a disservice.Indeed, evidence from cognitive science challenges the notion that skills can exist independent of factual knowledge. Data from the last thirty years leads to a conclusion that is not scientifically challengeable: thinking well requires knowing facts, and thats true not only because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care about most-critical thinking processes-are intimately intertwined (交織) with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.In other words, just because you can Google the date of Black Tuesday doesnt mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump. There is no doubt that the students of today, and the workers of tomorrow, will need to innovate, collaborate and evaluate. But such skills cant be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge youve already mastered.So heres a principle for thinking in a digital world, in two parts. First, acquire a base of factual knowledge in any domain in which you want to perform well. This base supplies the essential foundation for building skills, and it cant be outsourced (外包) to a search engine. Second, take advantage of computers invariable memory, but also the brains elaborative memory.Computers are great when you want to store information that shouldnt change. But brains are the superiorchoice when you want information to change, in interesting and useful ways: to connect up with other facts and ideas, to acquire successive layers of meaning, to steep for a while in your accumulated knowledge and experience and so produce a richer mental brew.56. What is the authors concern about the use of technology? A It may leave knowledge in the cloud. B It may misguide our everyday behavior. C It may cause a divide in the circles of education. D It may hinder the development of thinking skills.57. What is the view of educators who advocate digital literacy? A It helps kids to navigate the virtual world at will. B It helps kids to broaden their scope of knowledge. C It increases kids efficiency of acquiring knowledge. D It liberates kids from the burden of memorizing facts.58. What does evidence from cognitive science show? A Knowledge is better kept in long-term memory. B Critical thinking is based on factual knowledge. C Study skills are essential to knowledge acquisition. D Critical thinking means challenging existing facts.59. What does the author think is key to making evaluations? A Gathering enough evidence before drawing conclusions. B Mastering the basic rules and principles for evaluation. C Connecting new information with ones accumulated knowledge. D Understanding both what has happened and why it has happened.60. What is the authors purpose in writing the passage? A To warn against learning through memorizing facts. B To promote educational reform in the information age. C To explain human brains function in storing information. D To challenge the prevailing overemphasis on digital literacy.Passage TwoQuestions 61 to 65 are based on the following passage.Americas recent history has been a persistent tilt to the West-of people, ideas, commerce and even political power. California and Texas are the twin poles of the West, but very different ones. For most of the 20th century the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood has been the brainier and trendier of the two. Texas has trailed behind: its stereotype has been a conservative Christian in cowboy boots. But twins can change places. Is that happening now?It is easy to find evidence that California is in a panic. At the start of this month the once golden state started paying creditors in IOUs (欠條). The gap between projected outgoings and income for the current fiscal (財政的) year has leapt to a horrible $26 billion. With no sign of a new budget to close this gulf, one credit agency has already downgraded Californias debt. As budgets are cut, universities will let in fewer students, prisoners will be released early and schemes to protect the vulnerable will be rolled back.By contrast, Texas has coped well with the recession, with an unemployment rate two points below the national average and one of the lowest rates of housing repossession. In part this is because Texan banks, hard hit in the last property bust, did not overexpand this time. Texas also clearly offers a different model, based on small government. It has no state capital-gains or income tax, and a business-friendly and immigrant-tolerant attitude. It is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.Despite all this, it still seems too early to hand over Americas future to Texas. To begin with, that lean Texan model has its own problems. It has not invested enough in education, and many experts rightly worry about a lost generation of mostly Hispanic Texans with insufficient skills for the demands of the knowledge economy.Second, it has never paid to bet against a state with as many inventive people as California. Even if Hollywood has gone into depression, it still boasts an unequalled array of sunrise industries and the most brisk venture-capital industry on the planet. The state also has an awesome ability to reinvent itself-as it did when its defense industry collapsed at the end of the cold war.The truth is that both states could learn from each other. Texas still lacks Californias great universities and lags in terms of culture. California could adopt not just Texass leaner state, but also its more bipartisan (兩黨的) approach to politics. There is no perfect model of government: it is Americasgenius to have 50 public-policy laboratories competing to find out what works best.61. What does the author say about California and Texas in Paragraph 17 A They have been competing for the leading position. B California has been superior to Texas in many ways. C They are both models of development for other states. D Texass cowboy culture is less known than Californias.62. What does the author say about todays California? A Its debts are pushing it into bankruptcy. B Its budget