Section C: Reading Comprehension
Directions: 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 One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
Some people in the US have asserted that forgiving student loan debt is one way to stimulate the economy and give assistance to those in need. One government proposition is to eliminate $10,000 of debt for ‘economically distressed’ students. Some in US Congress have gone so far as to suggest forgiving up to $50,000 in debt per student borrower, but does forgiving student debt necessarily correlate to helping the economically disadvantaged?
The answer is no. This policy is just giving money away to universities and the most affluent students in attendance. Federal Reserve data reveals that the highest-income 40 percent of households owe approximately 60 percent of outstanding student debt, while the lowest 40 percent owe just under 20 percent. This could be due to a combination of factors: students from high-income households are more likely to go to expensive colleges, less likely to receive financial aid, and more likely to have high incomes post-graduation. Plus, the majority of student debt is held by graduate degree earners, who earn approximately 25 percent more than their undergraduate counterparts. Clearly, giving free reign to banks to forgive student debt is a step in the wrong direction.
Other proposals for broader, long-term student loan plans have some fundamental problems. One idea is to cancel student debt only for undergraduate degrees and for students making less than $125,000.
This attempts to address the fact that Congress’ previously mentioned student loan forgiveness plan largely helps out the wealthy, but is an adverse incentive for universities to keep raising tuition and for students to choose to major in low-earning degree programs. Colleges have no reason to make their programs more affordable if they believe students will just take out more debt. And, students will feel more comfortable making the irresponsible decision to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt to major in impractical or idealistic subjects if they know their loans will be forgiven.
This is especially concerning given the pandemic (大流行病) has rendered a college education practically worthless. Students are paying tens of thousands of dollars per year to live at home and be lectured on the Internet. Do we really want to tell colleges that they can get away with providing below-average service for an outrageous cost?
In the case of any of these student debt plans, working-class Americans who chose not to or could not afford to go to college will be subsidizing the education of the professional class. Plumbers and retail workers will be paying for the degrees of doctors and lawyers.
The US government’s effort to help those in debt is commendable but is this really the solution that will help the poor financially recover?
46. Why do some people advocate forgiving student loan debt?
47. What do we learn from the Federal Reserve data?
48. What does the author say students are likely to do if they know they needn’t repay their loans?
49. What does the author imply about colleges offering online education?
50. What will happen if any of the proposed student debt plans is implemented?
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
If there’s one rule that most parents cling to in the confusing, fast-changing world of kids and media, it’s “No screens before age 2.”
As of today, that rule has been thrown out the window.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which first issued that recommendation back in 1999, has extensively updated and revised its guidelines for children and adolescents to reflect new research and new habits.
The new guidelines, especially for very young children, shift the focus from WHAT is on the screen to WHO else is in the room. And in doing so, they raise some intriguing points about the future of learning from media.
For babies younger than 18 months, AAP still says no screens at all are the best idea—with one notable exception: Live video chat. Surveys indicate that families already popularly believe that “Face time doesn’t count”, or at least that the benefit of virtual visits with grandparents or other relatives outweighs the potential cost of exposing babies to the laptop or smartphone.
The AAP doesn’t cite positive evidence that infants actually get something out of this kind of “conversation”, the way that they clearly do from live social interaction. But there’s some observational research that infants as young as six months old are emotionally engaged by playing live peekaboo (躲猫猫游戏) with Grandma online.
For infants and toddlers (学步儿童), ages 15 months to 2 years old, there’s limited evidence from a couple of very small studies that they can learn new words from educational media, if and only if parents are watching alongside them, repeating what the video says and/or drawing attention to what is on the screen. In other words, treating a video or an app like a picture book is the best bet.
The flip side of this is that many studies have actually shown poorer language skills correlated with earlier solo viewing of “educational” videos. There’s also research that shows language delays in children who watch more TV and start watching earlier. In both cases, the problem seems to be media replacing interaction with people. For this reason, the new AAP guideline has changed from “avoid all screens under age 2” to “avoid solo media use in this age group.”
For preschoolers ages 2 to 5, there’s more evidence that they have the ability to transfer knowledge from screens to the real world, including early literacy and math. For this age group, AAP recommends no more than an hour a day of screen use. And, just as with younger children, they want care-givers to take part in screen time: “Co-view with your children, help children understand what they are seeing, and help them apply what they learn to the world around them.”
51. What do we learn about the “No screens under 2” rule?
52. What do the new AAP guidelines advocate?
53. What do families think of live video chat according to surveys?
54. What do researches find about kids solo viewing educational videos?
55. What does the author say about preschoolers ages 2 to 5?
Answers & Explanations (答案与解析)
Passage One
46. B。解析：题干问“为什么有些人主张免除学生贷款债务”。第一段指出：“Some people in the US have asserted that forgiving student loan debt is one way to stimulate the economy and give assistance to those in need.”（美国一些人主张，免除学生贷款债务是刺激经济和为有需要的人提供援助的一种方式）。stimulate the economy 对应 benefit the economy，give assistance to those in need 对应 benefit the underprivileged (造福弱势群体)。因此选 B。
47. B。解析：题干问“我们从美联储的数据中了解到了什么”。第二段指出，政策只是把钱给了大学和最富裕的学生，并引用美联储数据：“...the highest-income 40 percent of households owe approximately 60 percent of outstanding student debt...”（收入最高的40%的家庭欠下了大约60%的未偿还学生债务）。这说明免除债务将使这些欠债最多的富裕家庭获益最大。对应选项 B（Cancelling student debt benefits wealthy families most 取消学生债务最有利于富裕家庭）。
48. A。解析：题干问“作者说，如果学生知道他们不需要偿还贷款，他们可能会做什么”。第四段指出：“...students will feel more comfortable making the irresponsible decision to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt to major in impractical or idealistic subjects if they know their loans will be forgiven.”（如果学生知道他们的贷款会被免除，他们会更心安理得地做出不负责任的决定，负债数万美元去主修不切实际或理想主义的学科）。主修不切实际的学科即对应选项 A（They will choose to study subjects without considering their job prospects 他们会选择学习科目而不考虑其就业前景）。
49. C。解析：题干问“作者对大学提供在线教育有何暗示”。第五段指出：“Students are paying tens of thousands of dollars per year to live at home and be lectured on the Internet. Do we really want to tell colleges that they can get away with providing below-average service for an outrageous cost?”（学生们每年支付数万美元在家里上网课。我们真的想告诉大学，他们可以提供低于平均水平的服务却收取令人无法容忍的费用而逃脱惩罚吗？）。这暗示高昂的学费与其低下的网课质量不匹配。对应选项 C（The tuition they charge is not justified by the quality of their service 他们收取的学费与其服务质量不符）。
50. C。解析：题干问“如果实施任何拟议的学生债务计划，将会发生什么”。第六段指出：“In the case of any of these student debt plans, working-class Americans... will be subsidizing the education of the professional class. Plumbers and retail workers will be paying for the degrees of doctors and lawyers.”（在任何这些计划中，工人阶级……将补贴专业阶级的教育。水管工和零售工人将为医生和律师的学位买单）。工人阶级即蓝领，对应选项 C（Blue-collar workers will have to bear the cost of educating would-be high-earners 蓝领工人将不得不承担教育未来高收入者的费用）。
Passage Two
51. D。解析：题干问“关于‘2岁以下无屏幕’的规则，我们了解到了什么”。第一、二段提出该规则，并指出：“As of today, that rule has been thrown out the window.”（时至今日，这条规则已被抛到九霄云外）。第三段接着解释 AAP 根据新的研究更新了指南。thrown out the window 对应 discarded (被废弃)。因此选 D（It has been discarded in line with recent research 根据最近的研究，它已被废弃）。
52. A。解析：题干问“新的 AAP 指南提倡什么”。第四段指出指南的焦点从屏幕上播什么转移到了“谁在房间里”（WHO else is in the room）。第七段明确指出对于学步儿童，看教育媒体的前提是：“if and only if parents are watching alongside them”（当且仅当父母在旁边陪他们一起看）。这对应选项 A（Young children should be accompanied by parents during screen time 幼儿在屏幕时间应有父母陪伴）。
53. A。解析：题干问“根据调查，家庭对实时视频聊天有什么看法”。第五段指出，对于18个月以下的婴儿有一个例外，即实时视频聊天。“Surveys indicate that families already popularly believe that ‘Face time doesn’t count’...” (调查表明，家庭已经普遍认为“面对面视频时间不算数”)。不算数即不应被视为有害的屏幕时间，对应选项 A（It should not be regarded as screen time 它不应被视为屏幕时间）。
54. C。解析：题干问“关于孩子独自观看教育视频，研究发现了什么”。第八段首句指出：“The flip side of this is that many studies have actually shown poorer language skills correlated with earlier solo viewing of ‘educational’ videos.”（反过来看，许多研究实际上表明，较早独自观看“教育”视频与较差的语言技能有关）。这说明独自观看会妨碍语言技能发展，对应选项 C（It hampers their development of language skills 它阻碍了他们语言技能的发展）。
55. D。解析：题干问“作者对2至5岁的学龄前儿童说了些什么”。第九段首句指出：“For preschoolers ages 2 to 5, there’s more evidence that they have the ability to transfer knowledge from screens to the real world...”（对于2到5岁的学龄前儿童，有更多证据表明他们有能力将知识从屏幕转移到现实世界...）。这对应选项 D（They can relate what they learn on the screen to real life situations 他们能把在屏幕上学到的东西与现实生活情况联系起来）。
核心搭配与高分句型
【核心搭配与高频短语】
go so far as to：甚至于，竟然做到...的地步（gone so far as to suggest）
give free reign to：对...放任自流，给予完全的自由（giving free reign to banks）
get away with：侥幸逃脱，做坏事而不受惩罚（get away with providing below-average service）
throw out the window：完全抛弃，不再考虑（that rule has been thrown out the window）
outweigh：在重量或价值上超过，比...更重要（the benefit... outweighs the potential cost）
flip side：另一方面，反面（The flip side of this is that...）
【亮点句型解析】
It is/was not... but... 结构变形：
"The new guidelines... shift the focus from WHAT is on the screen to WHO else is in the room."
（新指南……将焦点从屏幕上的“内容”转移到了房间里的“其他人”身上。）使用疑问词 WHAT 和 WHO 构成对比，生动且极其凝练地概括了指南核心理念的转变。
"The new guidelines... shift the focus from WHAT is on the screen to WHO else is in the room."
（新指南……将焦点从屏幕上的“内容”转移到了房间里的“其他人”身上。）使用疑问词 WHAT 和 WHO 构成对比，生动且极其凝练地概括了指南核心理念的转变。
If and only if 强调条件：
"...they can learn new words from educational media, if and only if parents are watching alongside them..."
（……他们可以从教育媒体学习新词，当且仅当父母在旁边和他们一起看……）在日常或学术英语中，`if and only if`（常简写为 iff）表示唯一且绝对的必要条件，语气非常坚决。
"...they can learn new words from educational media, if and only if parents are watching alongside them..."
（……他们可以从教育媒体学习新词，当且仅当父母在旁边和他们一起看……）在日常或学术英语中，`if and only if`（常简写为 iff）表示唯一且绝对的必要条件，语气非常坚决。