英语阅读-阅读练习

Information Matching: Directions: You are going to read a passage with 10 statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Passage 1 Hard times A Money worries are part and parcel of university life, but recent events in the world of finance, not to mention rising food prices, are making it tougher for students- from living costs as undergraduates to employment prospects once they have graduated. But are they bothered? B Raymond Sawyer, a graphic design undergraduate at New College Durham, says he is concerned by the naivety of some of his fellow students when dealing with their finances. “I’m surprised by the lack of maturity some of them have when it comes to money,” he says. “We had been at college for just over a week when some of my fellow students got their grants through-and their first thought was spending money on clothes and planning nights out, which I couldn’t believer. Many students seem unaware of the state of the economy right now.” Sawyer says the prevailing economic conditions have influenced his choice of where to study. He lives at home, just a few miles from his college, which means he is able to run a Web design business that helps ease his money worries. “Rent and mortgages are costly these days and I guess that’s what swayed me toward studying locally,” he says. “I only have to spend three days a week at college and I can travel easily by car, devoting the rest of my time to developing my business.” C Sawyer counts himself fortunate that he is self-employed. A recent survey commissioned by recruitment agency Reed reckons that over half of graduates are “concerned” with finding a job in the current climate. Job security is also becoming a major concern; one in four graduates say they would be willing to sacrifice up to five percent of their income in exchange for job security for three years. A significant number of graduates are moving toward creative marketing and media sectors, shunning City jobs, and watching banks and other financial services firms fall over has been particularly disheartening for students who had planned to work in the Square Mile(伦敦金融城). Reports suggest that many are now also considering teaching as an option. D “With many recent graduates still looking for jobs in a difficult economic climate, undergraduates need to remember there is a serious side to university,” cautions Reed’s marketing head, Mark Rhodes. “It’s important that incoming university students have an eye on their future.” Rhodes warns students not to leave their job-hunting too late. “If you are trying to get on to a graduate program for the year you graduate, you may have to start preparing at the start of your third year to avoid missing the deadlines,” he says. Rhodes also advises speaking with a university careers adviser at the earliest opportunity to get the latest news on jobs available. E Nick Wasson-Jones, who has recently graduated in engineering from the University of Sheffield, says the next few months will be tough. “My advice to students is to get some relevant work experience,” he says. “I haven’t been able to get past the CV stage and I think that’s because I can’t demonstrate that I have worked in the field I am looking to enter. It I could go back to my university days, I would definitely do some work experience in my first or second year before I got stuck into my dissertation and exams in my final year.” F Third-year student Danielle Maughan has worked a part-time job since she started her criminology and psychology course at Liverpool John Moores University, but she says she’s finding it tougher to make ends meet. “I’ve worked in a local pub since starting university,: she says, “but things are getting harder now. my student loan just covers my rent for the year , so having a job is essential.” Yet Maughan admits to being poor at managing her finances. “I’m not great with money to start with, so things can get a little tough.” G Unfortunately many students are responding to the financial crisis by burying their head in the sand, allowing money problems to snowball as graduation draws nearer. A survey conducted by the National Union of Students concludes that many students are unaware of even the basic costs of living, and don’t have the information and guidance they need to manage their own finances. The survey suggests that the average cost of university life is nearly $450 a year higher than students expect. H In addition, some students are overly optimistic about being able to receive financial support in the form of bursaries(奖学金). The survey show that 42 percent believe they will be eligible, whereas only 28 percent receive one. The issue of bursaries is further complicated by confusion over what students are actually entitled to –leading to thousands of eligible students failing to claim last year, says the Office for Fair Access. I “It’s clear that students have no idea of the costs of living when going to university,” says Lucy Payne, HSBC’s youth and student manager, “but let’s face it, how many of us did?” HSBC has developed a website to offer advice in addition to the student advisers in its branches. J “ We are getting a steady stream of enquiries, especially from mature students,” says Jemma Samuels, manager of student charity Uniaid. “Our aim is to help students plan for the costs of living before they get to university. There is plenty of support around, but students don’t always know where to get it. Most tend to rely on friends and parents for advice, which may be inaccurate or simply out of date. The problem is particularly bad for international students, who can run into hardship very quickly.” Uniaid runs training events for students and has a series of online tools that can be used to calculate costs and keep undergraduates abreast of what support they can access. ______1. University students’ life is hard due to the increase of living costs and their uncertain employment prospects. ______2.Statistics show that 42 percent of the students believe they are qualified to get bursaries but some fail to receive one at last. ______3. Twenty-five percent of graduates are willing to sacrifice up to five percent of their income for three-year employment stability. ______4. Undergraduates can calculate their living costs and know what support they can get through training events and some online tools. ______5. An undergraduate with the plan for graduate study should start the preparation work as early as the beginning of his third year. ______6. It is helpful to get some relevant work experience n the first or second year at university to get a job in the field one wants to enter. ______7. With banks and financial services firms collapsing one after another, many students who planned to work in the field of finance fell disheartened and turn to other jobs like teaching. ______8. Many students neglect the financial crisis, and thus face more and more serious money problems with graduation coming nearer and nearer. ______9. Some students are unaware of the present economic state and immediately think of spending the money on clothes and entertainment once they get their grants. ______10. Friends and parents may offer unreliable or outdated advice on financial issues. Passage 2 Degrees Are Great, but Internships Make a Difference A Traditionally, earning a college degree has been cause for celebration. For most, the achievement signaled the onset of adulthood and offered the promise of a career that would start in mere months, if not weeks. But in today's job market, undergraduates who leave school armed only with a degree may not be so fortunate. B In 2000, more than 1.2 million people received bachelor's degrees in the United States. This year, that number is expected to rise 30 percent to more than 1.6 million, according to estimates by the National Center for Education Statistics. That hike has far outpaced the country's increase in population over the past decade, tripling the Census Bureau's projected rate of population growth over the same period. "With the increased number of students, if I'm an employer or a medical school or business school, finding a student who has a good GPA isn't particularly tough anymore," says Dan Gomez-Palacio, assistant director of career services at Westminster College in Missouri. "So, what is going to separate you from your peers?" C The answer: internships. University officials and employers almost universally maintain that partaking in an internship—or several, which sets a student apart from his or her peers even more—before graduation is integral to finding meaningful employment in today's seemingly impenetrable job market. More than ever, schools across the country are pushing students of all majors toward internships, and several have even added them to their graduation requirements. "These internships give these students an edge that they would not have otherwise," says Patricia Cormier, president of Longwood University in Virginia, which requires an internship of all graduates. "It always amazes me that higher education didn't think of this sooner. For me it's a no-brainer. If you're going to position your students well, you've got to give them this exposure before they graduate." D Longwood, with an enrollment of roughly 4,800, saw 74 percent of their 2008 graduating class attain jobs within six months of graduation, despite the fact that students were thrust into one of the worst job markets on record. Two years ago, officials at Eastern Connecticut State University decided to institute a pre-professional experience requirement for students. Rhona Free, vice president of academic affairs at Eastern Connecticut, says the school wants not only to educate students but to prepare them for their working lives after school through experience-based learning. "[Students] worry, 'If I'm an English major, can I get a job?' " she says. "We want them to know that before they leave here, they will have been in a setting that's like one they'll go to work in." E While smaller schools are able to ensure that their students can meet the internship requirement by forming partnerships with local companies and working one-on-one with students to facilitate their hunt for an internship, the task is more daunting for larger schools. Finding an employer base near a large university that can support the influx of thousands of interns is a daunting, if not impossible, task. For that reason, many large schools have shied away from requiring internships but still take pains to impart the importance of work experience to their students. Plus, some programs within larger institutions do require internships. It's a common practice in fields where prior work experience is integral to the hiring process, like business and journalism/communications. F The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Villanova University in Pennsylvania does not require internships, but students are E-mailed a weekly list of internship openings and are constantly reminded of their importance. The college's website even proclaims: "INTERNSHIPS . . . don't leave Villanova without one!" Such marketing efforts have paid off. The school has seen a 30 percent jump in enrollment in internships in the past three years alone. Such efforts are lauded （称赞） by large employers that hire a bulk of their interns. Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, for instance, draws more than 70 percent of its new hires from its internship program. "Schools that focus in on accommodating internships as part of their course curriculum position their students very well for future employment," says Holly Paul, national recruiting leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers. G Recent graduates who've listened to such advice are reaping the rewards. Ryan Mossman, who graduated from Boston College with a degree in English in May 2009, said that although BC did not require that he take an internship, the school regularly touted their importance. After a discouraging job search in the months leading up to his graduation, Mossman decided an internship was the best, if not only, way for him to launch his career. Instead of aimlessly searching for job openings as he claims many of his peers did after graduation, he took an internship at LVM Group, a public-relations firm, soon after graduating. The internship eventually led to a full-time position as an assistant account executive with the company. Meanwhile, he says many of his friends sit at home with their degrees, waiting for a job to fall in their laps. "Had I not taken a post-graduation internship, I think I'd be in the same position they are," he says. _____1. The growth rate of people who received bachelor’s degrees was three times that of population over the same period in the United States. _____2. Nowadays, undergraduates who leave school only with a degree may have difficulty in finding a job. _____3. A college in Pennsylvania often reminds its students of the importance of internships. ______4. Universities across the United States are encouraging internships among their students and some even include them in their graduation requirements. ______5. It is very difficult for a large university to find a nearby internship base for its students. ______6. Graduates who take internships may find full-time positions, while those who stick to aimless job searching may end up with nothing. ______7. Holly Paul, a recruitment officer, thinks highly of those universities that include internships in their course curriculum for their students’ better employment prospects. _______8. In the past, a university degree indicated the arrival of adulthood and the beginning of a job within a short time. _______9. For journalism majors, their prior work experience is essential to the hiring process. _______ 10. To the amazement of a university president, higher education was not quick in action to make students take internships before their graduation. Banked Cloze Fill in the blanks by selecting suitable words from the word bank. You may not use any of the word more than once. Passage 3 The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, also known as Carnegie Hero Fund, was established to recognize persons who perform extraordinary acts of heroism in civilian life in the United States and Canada. The Fund aims to provide financial ____1____ for those disabled and the dependents of those____2____ when saving or attempting to save others. Those chosen for recognition____3___ the Carnegie Medal and become eligible for_____4_____ aid and other benefits. A private operating foundation, the Hero Fund was____5____ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1904 with a trust fund of $5 million by Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist(慈善家). On January 25, 1904, ____6___ by the heroism at a coal mine disaster in Harwick, Pennsylvania, Andrew Carnegie decided to toss some of his ______7______wealth to uphold the ideal that “heroes and those dependent upon them should be freed form pecuniary (金钱上的)cares resulting from their heroism.” The commission has just _____8_____ its latest batch of heroes, bringing the total number up to 9,111. This is what they did to become heroes: run into burning buildings and cars; fight off men with knives and snapping dogs; dive into water for flailing people; go after people hanging off cliffs. And those things must be done by a “civilian who knowingly ______9______his or her own life to a(n) _____10_________degree while saving or attempting to save the life of another person.” A receive F industrial K inspired B awarded G recent L assistantance C accept H established M extraordinary D scholarship I risks N killed E endanger J admired O certain 1. _____ 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 5. _____6. _____7. _____8. _____9. _____10. _____ Passage 4 China has about 1.3 billion people with different ethnic, social economic and cultural backgrounds. Here we can, ______1_____,only speak about the traditional or dominant lifestyle which is more or less typical of the Chinese nation as a ____2____. Generally speaking, the Chinese people ______3______a plain lifestyle and live in harmony with nature. A pretty flower or a ____4____moon can mean a lot of things for Chinese people, depending on the circumstance. Chinese culture is omnipresent(无处不在的). Qin(a Chinese stringed instrument), qi(Chinese chess), shu (calligraphy) and hua (painting) are the four most popular traditional forms of ___5____. The point is not how good you can become; ____6____, it is the mood and atmosphere that matter. It is a tempering of the character. There is a dao(literally, way or path) for everything. Playing Chinese chess, for example, is not just for _____7____. In the ____8__ of playing, one can learn the art of self-composure(自我镇定) and the spirit of detachment from fame and gain. Another ____9___ element in Chinese culture is staying in good health. Qigong is a popular form of exercise. By coordinating breathing and mental conditions, qigong ______10_____the traditional thinking of integrating humans into the universe. A entertainment F prominent K prefer B whole G minor L likes C rather H major M process D reflects I therefore N sponsoring E winning J full O regardless 1. _____ 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 5. _____6. _____7. _____8. _____9. _____10. _____ Passage 5 When some college students are enjoying their summer vacation at home at this time of the year, indulging themselves in online games or soap operas, some of their peers choose to ____1___these common ways of recreation, and are marching into a brave new world, struggling in an unfamiliar country to build their ___2_____. According to on ____3___agency which organizes overseas internships for Chinese college students, there are basically two kinds of internship-volunteer work and business-related work with companies. The duration usually lasts ___4____ from six weeks to one year. For the volunteer work, students usually work with non-governmental organizations to promote local health care and environmental _____5_______ services in less-developed areas. As to the business-related programs, students sometimes work with the agency’s long-time partners to ____6__ overseas interns coming into China. Students with such experiences are always given __7____comments by their former employers. For example, the world-leading food manufacturer Mars Inc. once said that interns or employees with internship experience were always ____8__with the necessary skills and leadership ability and usually saw the world with a(n) __9____vision. According to a recent online survey involving 498 interviewees _______10_____by the Shanghai headquartered private education company EF Education, about 61 percent of young people under the age of 28 have experienced studying or interning overseas, a quarter of whom are from first-tier Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. A protection F conventional K stepping B negative G international L bring C well-known H conducted M positive D approximately I futures N armed E introduce J abandon O carried 1. _____ 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 5. _____6. _____7. _____8. _____9. _____10. _____ 姓名______________________ 学号______________ Passage 1: 1. _____2. _____ 3. ____ 4. _____5. _____6. _____7. ____8. ____9. _____10. _____ Passage 2: 1. _____2. _____ 3. ____ 4. _____5. _____6. _____7. ____8. ____9. _____10. _____ Passage 3: 1. _____2. _____ 3. ____ 4. _____5. _____6. _____7. ____8. ____9. _____10. _____ Passage 4: 1. _____2. _____ 3. ____ 4. _____5. _____6. _____7. ____8. ____9. _____10. _____ Passage 5: 1. _____2. _____ 3. ____ 4. _____5. _____6. _____7. ____8. ____9. _____10. _____ Passage 1 A H C J D E C G B J Passage 2 B A F C E G F A E C Passage 3 L N A D H K F B I M Passage 4 I B K J A C E M H D Passage 5 J I C D A E M V G H