2016年6月大学英语六级考试阅读模拟题及答案12

　　Is Education A Robbery?

　　One of our expectations about education is that itwill pay off1 in terms of upward mobility. Historically, the correlation between education and income hasbeen strong. But in the early 1970 s a contradictiondeveloped between education and the economy. Ourvalue of education and our average educationalattainment outstripped the capacity of the economyto absorb the graduates. Since the 1970s, high-school graduates have experienced astriking decrease in earnings, making them the first generation since World WarⅡ to face alower standard of living than their parents had.

　　Experts have argued that this contradiction is at the heart of the problem of public educationtoday. It is not, as business leaders claim, that the schools are failing to properly educatestudents, that they are turning out2 young people who are inadequately prepared to functionin the workplace. The real problem is a dearth of economic opportunities for students who arenot continuing on to college.

　　College graduates also are having difficulty finding jobs. Even when they do, the jobs may notbe commensurate with3 their training and expectations. Part of the problem is that too manyyoung Americans aspire to have professional jobs, making disappointment and frustrationinevitable for some. Many students assumed that what was true of an individu-al — that thehigher the education, the better the job opportunities —would also be true for an entiresociety4. But when the numbers of better-educated young people became too great, theeconomy could no longer absorb them

　　Another part of the problem is the assumption that greater educational attainment guaranteescareer advancement. In fact, employers do not routinely reward educational attainment; rather,they reward it only when they believe it will contribute to the employee's productivity.

　　We should not overlook the fact that there is still a strong correlation between education,occupation, and income. College graduates have a strong advantage over those with lesseducation. But the payoff is neither as large nor as certain as it once was.

　　Unfortunately, Americans have focused so strongly on the economic payoff that many considertheir college education useless if it does not yield a desirable, well-paying job. Only in thissense can we speak of an "oversupply" of college graduates. 5 We could argue that all or atleast the majority of Americans would profit by some degree because higher education canenable the individual to think more deeply, explore more widely, and enjoy a greater range ofexperiences.

　　阅读自测

　　Ⅰ. Choose the be st answer to fill in the blanks :

　　1. In the eyes of the public , higher education can_______ in terms of obtaining a decent job.

　　A. pay back B. pay off C. pay out D. pay up

　　2. Things_______ to be exactly as the professor had foreseen.

　　A. turned up B. turned on C. turned out D. turned over

　　3. He was satisfied with the salary that was_________ with his abilities.

　　A. familiar B. proportional C. content D. commensurate

　　Ⅱ. Write these sentences in inverted order beginning ea ch one with the words in italics :

　　1. I realized what was happening only then. 2. There were piles of books, magazines andnewspapers on the floor.

　　3. I have never heard such nonsense in all my life .

　　参考答案

　　Ⅰ. 1. B 2. C 3 . D

　　Ⅱ. 1. Only thendid I realize what was happening.

　　2. On the floor were piles of books, magazines andnewspapers.

　　3. Never in all my life have I heard such nonsense.

　　参考译文

　　教育是抢劫吗?

　　我们对教育的一个期望是它能帮我们在工作中获得晋升。历史上，教育与收入的关系十分密切。然而，在20世纪70 年代早期，教育和经济之间产生了矛盾。我们对教育的重视和平均受教育水平超过社会经济吸纳毕业生的能力水平。自20 世纪70 年代开始，高中毕业生的收入大幅度下降，致使他们成为自二战以来生活水平比父辈低的第一代人。

　　专家们宣称，这种矛盾是当今大众教育的核心问题所在。一些商界要人声称：学校没 能教育好学生，学校培养的年轻人对工作还没做好充分准备，但事实并不是这样。真正的问题是：对那些没能继续到大学里深造的学生来说，他们缺少工作机会。大学毕业生找工作也有困难。即使他们找到工作，这份工作也可能与他们接受的培训和工作期望值不相符。问题部分出在有太多的美国年轻人渴望获得一份专门职业，这使许多人不可避免地会产生失落感和挫败感。许多学生认为适用于个人的道理(教育程度越高，工作机会就越好)同样也适用于整个社会。但是，如果获得良好教育的年轻人的数量过于庞大的话，国家经济就不能吸纳这么多人。

　　问题的另一方面是，人们总是认为较高的教育程度能保证事业上的先进。事实上，雇主不会总是对高学历给予特殊关照。相反，只有当雇主认为雇员所受的教育能帮助雇员提高生产力的时候，他们才会给予特别关照，增加薪水。

　　我们不能忽视这样一个事实：教育、职业和薪水之间仍然存在着密切的关系。大学毕业生比起那些教育程度低的人还是有很强的竞争优势，但回报既不会像从前那样丰厚，也不会像从前那样确定无疑。

　　不幸的是，美国人特别注重经济回报，以至于如果教育没能使人得到一份令人满意、薪水丰厚的工作的话，许多人就会认为大学教育毫无用处。也只有从这个意义上看，我们才能说大学毕业生“ 供过于求”。我们有理由认为，所有美国人或至少大部分美国人都能或 多或少从大学教育中获益，因为高等教育能使人更深入地思考，进行更广泛的探索，获得更 全面的体验。

大学英语六级寒假全程班