英语六级阅读套题模拟（一）
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Unit1 Passage 1 Cheating:“But Everybody’s Doing It” Digital Deception Thanks to a part-time job in the university’s information-technology department, the young man ? a born-and-bred Midwesterner who loved reading and played trumpet in his high school band ? had access to his professor’s online grade book. With a few quick keystrokes, he was able to give himself passing scores for the tests he hadn’t taken. He wasn’t clever enough, though, to cover his tracks. He was soon caught and suspended ? and has been racked (折磨) with guilt ever since. “There is no excuse or justification for my actions,” he wrote to the university’s Honor Council in the wake of the spring 2005 episode. (He prefers to remain anonymous.) The reason for his violation, he added, was simple: “I did what I did out of panic.” While this student and his professors say the incident resulted from a momentary lapse in judgment, the sad fact is that, in a broader sense, it’s hardly an isolated act. There’s plenty to suggest that academic cheating is epidemic in the country’s high schools and colleges. Consider a few examples: nine business students at the University of Maryland caught receiving text??essaged answers on their cell phones during an accounting exam; a Texas teen criminally charged for selling stolen test answers ? allegedly swiped via a keystroke-decoding device affixed to a teacher’s computer ? to fellow students; seven Kansas State students in one class accused of plagiarizing papers off the Internet. Beyond the anecdotes, experts point to a stream of data ? much of it from students themselves ? that indicates cheating is rampant. A report last June by Rutgers University professor Donald McCabe for The Center for Academic Integrity showed 70 percent of students at 60 colleges admitting to some cheating within the previous year; one in four admitted to engaging in serious cheating (copying from another student, using concealed notes, or helping someone else cheat). McCabe’s high school findings were similarly grim: Of 18,000 high school students surveyed across the country over the past four years, 70 percent of those in public schools admitted to at least one case of serious test cheating; about six in ten admitted to some form of plagiarism. Just under half of all private school students acknowledged similar lapses. Unit 1 A recent Gallup survey reinforced those findings. Polling one group of 13??o 17??ear??lds in 2003 and another in 2004, Gallup reported that 65 percent cited “a great deal” or a “fair amount” of cheating in their schools. About half said they’d cheated on a test themselves at some point. Also in 2004, the Josephson Institute of Ethics ? a Los Angeles nonprofit aimed at boosting personal and organizational ethics ? released the result of a survey of 24,763 high school students: 62 percent admitted cheating on exams. Cheating isn’t new. As long as there have been rules, there have been people intent on breaking them. What’s alarming now, says Institute founder Michael Josephson, is how widespread and rampant the practice has become. “People who cheated were in the minority, and they kept it a secret, even from their friends,” he says. “Now they are the majority, and they are bold about it. Today, if you ask kids about cheating, you will get such cavalier (骑士) attitudes that the statistics are almost secondary.” Success at Any Cost Says David Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture: “It’s the normalization of cheating. Everybody’s doing it. And if you don’t, you feel like achump.” The pressure to succeed that drives some to cheat starts early, says Tomas Rua, a senior at Friends Seminary, a New York City private school. “Everything that you do and work for is to maximize your potential,” he says. “And many people feel driven to use any recourse that they can to get that grade. There is a lot of hysteria about college, and you start hearing about it in the middle school.” Emily Broerman, a senior at North High School in Evansville, Indiana, echoes Rua’s comments: “I would say that I see cheating every day. You see a lot of ‘Succeed at any cost??.” Daniel says that, like many of his friends, he’s lifted material from the Internet and passed it off as his own, received test answers via text messages, and even brought old-fashioned crib sheets in to exams. “I have cheated since the seventh grade,” he claims. “I am competitive, so I’m always trying to find a better way of cheating.” Turlock principal Dana Trevethan says Daniel’s comments capture the brazen (厚颜无耻的) attitude of some students. “He’s a good kid, but he’s competitive,” she says. “And cutthroat should be his middle name.” An Honest Effort A number of institutions now rely on turnitin.com, a website that lets teachers check students?? written work for signs of plagiarism (剽窃). John Barrie, the site’s founder, says the company gets more than 50,000 papers per day. About one??hird aren’t original. Perhaps most encouraging is the way some kids are taking a stand against cheaters. Megan Schisser, a senior at Robinson Secondary School, is one of them. Last spring, after studying intensely for an advanced history final, she was pleased when she got an A. Unfortunately, some students in her class had copied down the questions and sent them to friends who were to take the test later. So everyone had to retake the exam. This time, Megan got a B. She and some friends were so upset, they decided to do something. “Our purpose was to say that there are those of us who are doing the best we can, and we’re not cheating,” she says. “And it is okay not to cheat.” The group formed an honor council, and in November introduced a series of school’s closed-circuit TV show. Using the Twisted Sister hit “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as their theme, the spots discuss the importance of honor and end with a simple tagline, “Robinson Honor Council: Saving Robinson One Cheater At A Time.” It’s a message that could play in classrooms across the country. 1. The young man from Midwest gave himself passing scores by revising information data. |
