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Test 1
Many schools argue that the “sticker” prices shown in the U.S. News index are misleading, since most students, not just those who might be described as truly “needy”, usually are eligible for some form of financial aid. (1) In fact, tuition discounting has become so widespread that on many campuses what began as a subsidy for the minority has turned into an entitlement for the majority. Some schools actually encourage students to bargain for larger aid packages by implicitly—or explicitly—promising “to meet the competition”. (2) Naturally, the somethingfornothing generosity of this strange system comes at a price, as increases in financial aid usually have to be funded by raising already high tuition higher still.
(3) Unhappily, college loans have become as much a part of student life as Friday night beer busts. Between 1990 and 1995, the S｜103 billion combined with the total of undergraduate loans exceeded the sum of all the debt incurred by all the college students during the preceding three decades. (4) Statistics like these trouble Charles Manning, chancellor of the West Virginia University System, who worries that high levels of debt could “wind up negatively influencing students lifestyles, their choices of careers, their willingness to go to graduate and professional schools and their ability to buy homes, cars and other consumer products.”
Of even greater concern is that many of these debtors may also wind up, at least temporarily, in jobs that do not offer what have come to be thought of as collegelevel salaries. The disturbing truth is that there are simply too many college graduates competing for too few collegelevel jobs. In her latest study, Kristina J. Shelley, a Bureau of Labor Statistics specialist in the postcollegeemployment market, estimates that at least 22 percent of all college graduates entering the work force between 1994 and 2005 were or will be either unemployed or in jobs for which a bachelors degree is not ordinarily considered a necessity. (5) Working with some big companies is an honorable first job, but the salaries they offer rarely enable graduates both to repay a student loan and to enjoy a lifestyle appropriate with their expectations.
Test 2
We are learning new computer knowledge everyday. The technology, which has already transformed newspapering, doesnt sit still. We journalists have ceased all that grieving about how we were going to hang on to our typewriters and how this new staff was simply barbaric, an affront to the very concept of the written word. (1) Thats gone, as everything we know about human history should have told us that in all the current worries over problems created by the arrival of the computer age, one thing that should be exempted from worry is the capacity of human beings to adapt to it.
Our grandparents, for instance, easily traversed lifetimes that saw at least as much astonishing change as we have—from horsedrawn carriages to jet air travel, from pretelephone communication by written letter to communication by car phone, or fax. (2) Just as people around the world have in recent times shown themselves remarkably able to accommodate this kind of rapid change, so it didnt ever seem to trouble them. They absorbed the developing bounty without a peep and quickly came to depend on it, even though it collapsed all their accustomed notions of time and distance. (3) The human machine, in this infinite ability to adjust to radically changed environments, seems considerably more wondrous than the invented machine.
But it is not the individual human ability to adapt that is the problem in the new age. Rather, the problem is the ability of our institutions and economics and societies to do so. (4) No matter how upbeat one is about all the blessings that flow to this country from the new technology in terms of teaching, medicine, marketing, law enforcement and the rest, it is necessary to acknowledge that the blessing is mixed. You can accept that in the long run jobs will be created, not lost, as a result of the innovation. But in the short run there is bound to be economic displacement and loss. (5) You can also believe that our legal systems can in time withstand the challenge all this presents and still acknowledge that at least for the moment judicial problems have been created by it in the realms of privacy, competition, property rights and many others. The question is not whether we adjust to the electronic miracles all around us, but whether, as a society, we do it enthusiastically and well.
Test 3
Man may be called the animal with language. Only by language can man create and carry with him the body of concepts, attitudes and skills that constitute civilization. (1) Only by language can he have a clear notion of himself as an individual: “I think, therefore I am” and forge the bonds of a society—a society as distinguished from some sort of instinctual herd.
Ordinarily and superficially, we regard language as merely a convenient device for communicating preexisting ideas or attitudes. It is indeed hard to overestimate the value of language in communication but it is even harder to overestimate it in thinking. (2) How often have we felt that we knew our own minds on something, or knew all about something, only to find, when we started to put what we knew into words, that we didnt know our own minds at all. When we frame even the simplest sentence, we are forced to establish a set of meaningful relations. That is, we are forced to think more clearly. Writing things out is only a more rigorous way of trying to understand a subject and understand oneself in relation to that subject.
We not only think things out, we feel things out, too. And language is fundamental to this “feeling out”. (3) A human being isnt merely a machine for logical thought. A considerable part of our use of language involves our instinctive attempt to clarify our feelings. It helps us to understand feelings as well as ideas, and thus in the end, helps us to understand ourselves.
(4) If you are beginning your college career, much of your instruction will be in language, and will be required to respond in language. After college, in most occupations, language will become more, not less, important. There are letters and reports to be written, conferences to be held, policies to be drawn up and debated and many other forms of communication that require skill in language. (5) If a man lacks competence in language, he will spend much of his life exploring in a kind of twilight world in which ideas and feelings are perceived only dimly and often in distorted shapes.
Test 4
It is natural for young people to be critical of their parents at times and to blame them for most of misunderstandings between them. (1) They have always complained that their parents are out of touch with modern ways; that they are possessive and dominant; that they do not trust their children to deal with crisis.
(2) It is universally acknowledged that parents often underestimate their teenage children and also fade in their memory how they themselves felt when young.
Young people often irritate their parents with their choices in clothes and hairstyles, in entertainers and music. This is not their motive. (3) They feel cut off from the adult world into which they have not yet been accepted so they create a culture and society of their own. Then, if it turns out that their music or entertainers or vocabulary or clothes or hairstyles irritates their parents, this gives them additional enjoyment. They feel they are superior, at least in a small way, and that they are leaders in style and taste.
Sometimes they are resistant and proud because they do not want their parents to approve of what they do. If their parents did approve, it looks as if they are betraying their own age group. But in that case, they are assuming that they are the underdog: you cant win but at least you can keep your honor. This is a passive way of looking at things. (4) It is natural enough after long years of childhood, when they were completely under their parents domination. But it ignores the fact that they are now beginning to be responsible for themselves.
My advice to young people is as follows: if you plan to control your life, cooperation can be part of that plan. (5) You can charm others, especially your parents, into doing things the way you want. You can impress others with your sense of responsibility and initiative, so that they will give you the authority to do what you want to do.
Test 5
There is a difference between science and technology. Science is a method of answering theoretical questions; technology is a method of solving practical problems. (1) Science has to do with discovering the facts and relationships between observable phenomena in nature and with establishing theories that serve to organize these facts and relationships. Technology has to do with tools, techniques, and procedures for implementing the findings of science.
Another distinction between science and technology has to do with the progress in each. Progress in science excludes the human factor. (2) Scientists, who seek to comprehend the universe and know the truth with the highest degree of accuracy and certainty, cannot pay attention to their own or other peoples likes or dislikes, or to popular ideas about the fitness of things. What scientists discover may shock or anger people—as did Darwins theory of evolution. But even an unpleasant truth is more than likely to be useful; besides, we have the option of refusing to believe it! (3) But hardly so with technology; we do not have the option of refusing to hear the sonic boom produced by a supersonic aircraft flying overhead; we do not have the option of refusing to breathe polluted air. (4) The legitimate purpose of technology is to serve people—people in general, not merely some people; and future generations, not merely those who presently wish to gain advantage for themselves.
We are all familiar with the abuses of technology. (5) Many people blame technology itself for widespread pollution, and even social decay—so much so that the promise of technology is obscured. That promise is a cleaner and healthier world. If wise applications of science and technology do not lead to a better world, what else will?
Test 6
England and France are separated by twentytwo miles of open sea at their closest point. (1) Attempts to swim the English Channel have been made by people of all ages and from various walks of life. Each swimmer is drawn to the famous channel for different reasons, but each has the same goal—to conquer the channel.
The English Channel was first crossed in 1875 by Mathew Webb, an Englishman, who swam breaststroke from Dover, England, to Calais, France. (2) Since then, over 3,700 people have made approximately 4,500 attempts on the channel. Only 297 people, however, have successfully duplicated Webbs remarkable achievement.
Cold water, rough seas, strong currents, heavy winds and jellyfish are among the many reasons why the success rate is so low.
Swimmers and escort crews must wait for periods of calm seas and light winds, lasting 1020 hours. (3) Much tothe frustration of the athletes and their coaches and crews, the weather may only cooperate a few days each year.
Once in the channel, swimmers are always at the mercy of the elements since temperatures, winds and currents can change hourly. (4) Quite often, luck and good timing play as important a role in a swimmers success as proper physical training and mental preparation.
Channel swimmers come in all ages, abilities and backgrounds. (5) But swimming the English Channel will always be the same to all its challengers—an incredible adventure that tests the limit of human endurance, courage and perseverance.
参考译文
〖1〗Test 1
1. 事实上，削减学费变得如此之流行，以至于在许多大学里，那些最初属于少数人的补贴已经成为多数人的权利了。
2. 很自然，这种奇怪的制度要为它只是给予而不求回报的慷慨行为付出代价，因为经济资助的增加通常不得不靠大幅度地提高本已高昂的学费来提供资金。
3. 不幸的是，大学贷款已经像星期五晚上痛饮啤酒一样成为学生生活的一部分。
4. 诸如此类的统计资料使西弗吉尼亚大学校长查尔斯·曼宁感到忧虑。他担心，沉重的债务“最终可能对学生的许多方面产生负面影响，如： 他们的生活方式，对职业的选择，上研究生院和职业学校的意愿以及购买房屋、汽车和其他消费品的能力”。
5. 在一些大公司工作是体面的新工作，但它们所支付的工资不可能使大学毕业生们既能偿还学生贷款又能享受一种与其期望值相称的生活方式。
Test 2
1. 悲伤已经成为过去，因为我们所了解的人类历史都表明，在目前人们对计算机时代的到来所引起的问题的忧虑中，有一个问题不应引起忧虑，那就是人类的适应能力。
2. 近年来，面对这种日新月异的变化，世界各地的人们表现出非凡的适应能力，变化好像从来没有使他们感到过不适应。
3. 人类自身的这部机器，对剧烈变化的环境具有无限的适应能力，在这个方面，它比发明出来的机器要奇妙得多。
4. 不管人们对新技术在教学、医疗、商品销售、执法及其他方面为国家带来的好处多么乐观，必须承认，新技术令人喜忧参半。
5. 你也可以相信，我们的法律制度最终会经受一切挑战，但同时仍要承认，至少目前新技术在隐私权、竞争、产权及许多其他领域已经带来了司法问题。
Test 3
1. 只有借助语言，人类才能够对于作为个体的自身有清晰的认识： “我思故我在”，也才能够形成一个社会——一个不同于靠本能生存的兽群的社会。
2. 我们常常有这种感觉，本以为知道自己对某件事情的想法，或完全了解某件事情，但是，当我们开始要把所了解的内容用语言表达出来时，却发现我们根本不清楚自己的想法。
3. 人不仅仅是逻辑思维的机器。我们运用语言很大程度上在于我们本能地想要把我们的感情表达清楚。
4. 如果你即将开始大学生活，大部分课程都将通过语言来讲授，而且要求你运用语言作出反应。大学毕业之后，在大多数工作中，语言将会更重要，而不是不重要。
5. 一个人如果缺乏语言能力，那么，他一生的大部分时间将在思想和感情表达模糊、而且经常被曲解的朦胧世界中摸索。
Test 4
1. 年轻人总是抱怨，他们的父母与现代生活方式脱节，有占有欲和支配欲，不相信子女应付危机的能力。
2. 普遍认为，做父母的常常低估他们处于青少年时期的孩子，而且还忘记了自己年轻时的感受。
3. 他们觉得被成年人世界排除在外，尚未被大人们所接受，于是就创造了属于他们自己的文化和社会。
4. 在长时间完全受父母控制的童年时代结束之后，产生这种态度非常自然。但是，这种态度忽略了这样一个事实： 此时他们要开始对自己负起责任。
5. 你可以让他人，尤其是你的父母，高高兴兴地按你希望的方式行事。你可以用你的责任感和进取心打动他人，那样他们才会准许你做你想做的事。
Test 5
1. 科学关注的是发现事实，找出自然界可观察的各种现象之间的关系，并建立起一些理论，将这些事实与关系组织起来。
2. 科学家在试图最精确、最可靠地理解宇宙、了解真相时，不能够顾及他们本人或他人的好恶以及关于事物合理性的普遍看法。
3. 不过，技术就不同了。我们无法不去听在头顶掠过的超音速飞机发出的轰鸣，也无法拒绝呼吸被污染了的空气。
4. 技术的正当目的就是服务于人——是服务于所有人，而不仅仅是某些人；是服务于未来一代又一代的人，而不仅仅是那些希望马上从中获益的人。
5. 许多人责怪技术是因为它引起了大规模的污染，甚至社会腐败；人们对技术的指责如此之多，以至于科技发展的前景也模糊不清了。
Test 6
1. 不同年龄和不同职业的人都曾经试图游过英吉利海峡。游泳爱好者被吸引到这个著名的海峡来的原因各不相同，然而他们的目标是一致的——征服海峡。
2. 从那时起，有3700多人进行了大约4500次横渡海峡的尝试，然而，只有297人成功地再现了韦布的惊人成就。
3. 让运动员、教练员和护卫人员颇为泄气的是，一年当中老天爷乐意配合的日子只有几天。
4. 运气的好坏和时机的选择对游泳者的成功所起到的作用常常和适当的体能训练和心理准备所起到的作用相当。
5. 但是，游过英吉利海峡对所有的挑战者来说一直具有同样的意义——它是向人类的耐力、勇气和韧性的极限的挑战，是一次令人难以置信的冒险。
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