Passage six(Dropouts for Ph. D. s)

  Educators are seriously concerned about the high rate of dropouts among the doctor of philosophy candidates and the consequent loss of talent to a nation in need of Ph. D. s. Some have placed the dropouts loss as high as 50 percent. The extent of the loss was, however, largely a matter of expert guessing. Last week a well-rounded study was published. It was published. It was based on 22,000 questionnaires sent to former graduate students who were enrolled in 24 universities and it seemed to show many past fears to be groundless.

  The dropouts rate was found to be 31 per cent, and in most cases the dropouts, while not completing the Ph. D. requirement, went on to productive work. They are not only doing well financially, but, according to the report, are not far below the income levels of those who went on to complete their doctorates.

  Discussing the study last week, Dr. Tucker said the project was initiated ‘because of the concern frequently expressed by graduate faculties and administrators that some of the individuals who dropped out of Ph. D. programs were capable of competing the requirement for the degree. Attrition at the Ph. D. level is also thought to be a waste of precious faculty time and a drain on university resources already being used to capacity. Some people expressed the opinion that the shortage of highly trained specialists and college teachers could be reduced by persuading the dropouts to return to graduate schools to complete the Ph. D.’

  “The results of our research” Dr. Tucker concluded, “did not support these opinions.”

Lack of motivation was the principal reason for dropping out.

Most dropouts went as far in their doctoral program as was consistent with their levels of ability or their specialities.

Most dropouts are now engaged in work consistent with their education and motivation.

  Nearly 75 per cent of the dropouts said there was no academic reason for their decision, but those who mentioned academic reason cited failure to pass the qualifying examination, uncompleted research and failure to pass language exams. Among the single most important personal reasons identified by dropouts for non-completion of their Ph. D. program, lack of finances was marked by 19 per cent.

  As an indication of how well the dropouts were doing, a chart showed 2% in humanities were receiving $ 20,000 and more annually while none of the Ph. D. ‘s with that background reached this figure. The Ph. D. ‘s shone in the $ 7,500 to $ 15,000 bracket with 78% at that level against 50% for the dropouts. This may also be an indication of the fact that top salaries in the academic fields, where Ph. D. ‘s tend to rise to the highest salaries, are still lagging behind other fields.

  As to the possibility of getting dropouts back on campus, the outlook was glum. The main condition which would have to prevail for at least 25 % of the dropouts who might consider returning to graduate school would be to guarantee that they would retain their present level of income and in some cases their present job.

1.The author states that many educators feel that

A.steps should be taken to get the dropouts back to campus.

B.the fropouts should return to a lower quality school to continue their study.

C.the Ph. D. holder is generally a better adjusted person than the dropout.

D.The high dropouts rate is largely attributable to the lack of stimulation on the part of faculty members.

2.Research has shown that

A.Dropouts are substantially below Ph. D. ‘s in financial attainment.

B.the incentive factor is a minor one in regard to pursuing Ph. D. studies.

C.The Ph. D. candidate is likely to change his field of specialization if he drops out.

D.about one-third of those who start Ph. D. work do not complete the work to earn the degree.

3.Meeting foreign language requirements for the Ph. D.

A.is the most frequent reason for dropping out.

B.is more difficult for the science candidate than for the humanities candidate.

C.is an essential part of many Ph. D. programs.

D.does not vary in difficulty among universities.

4.After reading the article, one would refrain from concluding that

A.optimism reigns in regard to getting Ph. D. dropouts to return to their pursuit of the degree.

B.a Ph. D. dropout, by and large, does not have what it takes to learn the degree.

C.colleges and universities employ a substantial number of Ph. D. dropouts.

D.Ph. D. ‘s are not earning what they deserve in nonacademic positions.

5.It can be inferred that the high rate of dropouts lies in

A.salary for Ph. D. too low.

B.academic requirement too high.

C.salary for dropouts too high.

D.1000 positions.

McDonald's founders Dick and Mac McDonald started with their little drive-in restaurant in San Bernardion ,California in the late 1940s.But McDonald's today serves 38 million customers each day,20 million of them in the USA .It's about 23 000 restaurants in more than 100 countries around the world .It's one of the world's greatest business organizations ,with most restaurants world-wide. It's one of the two most recognized and powerful brands in the world, the other being Coca-cola ,the only soft drink supplier to McDonald's today. It's a growing company, adding more than 2000 new restaurants to their system each year. They means a new McDonald's will open somewhere in the world every five hours of every day .It produces sales of more than 31 billion a year and earns net income of more than $1.5 billion annually. McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Beijing on April 23,1992.?
QSC & V has been the foundation that built McDonald's success. QSC & V stands for the McDonald's means that they ensure their customers receive food products that are result of the best ingredients(成分),strict standards ,andproven
preparation procedures(过程)so that they will be safe, healthy ,andgreat-tasting. Service that's fast and friendly has always been a foundation for success of McDonald's principle .This means having the cleanest and freshest facilities(设备)—from the kitchen and dining-room to the rest rooms and parking lots. Value means low prices at McDonald's. Today ,value is explained to be the total experience ?includes nice food ,friendly folks ,a clean environment ,quick and right service and fun!?
1.The main purpose of the passage is to show.?
A.the start of McDonald's?
B.the hardships of the builders of McDonald's?
C.the service principles of McDonald's?
D.McDonald's success and its foundation QSC & V
2.Which of the following is NOT true??
A.Almost half of the customers of McDonald's are foreigners.?
B.Almost five new McDonald's is opening in the world each day.?
C.McDonald's has put forward its four-word business principles recently.?
D.From the very beginning McDonald's offered fast and friendly service.
3.What's McDonald's business philosophy??
A.QSC. B.QCV. C.QSC & V. D.CQ & V.
4.The underlined word “ensure” most probably means.?
A.advice B.suggest C.feel certain D.make sure

There is no other city in the world that has such a strong connection with the Olympic Games. Athens, the____1____city of the first modern Olympics in 1896, ____2____ into the limelight (焦点) again on March 30,2008 ____3____ the flame for that year’s Olympic Games was ____4____ over to the Beijing Organizing Committee. The Olympic flame was ____5____ on March 24,2008 in Olympia, a place in southwestern Greece. In the ritual (仪式), actresses ____6____ as ancient Greek priestesses (女祭司) used a ____7____ to light the flame. The flame then was carried to the site of public ceremony and handed to the first ____8____, Greek taekwondo(跆拳道) athlete Alexandros Nikolaidis. He carried the flame to the ____9____ of the monument of Baron de Courbertin, the ____10____ of the modern Olympic Games.

Athens was named ____11____ Athena, the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology (神话). It is also one of the world’s oldest cities with a history ____12____ at least 3,000 years. Athens was the ____13____ of arts, learning and philosophy in ancient times and is widely ____14____ to as the cradle (摇篮) of Western civilization.

The heritage of history is ____15____ evident in the city, represented by a number of ancient monuments and works of art. The Acropolis (卫城) is the city’s key ____16____. It overlooks the ____17____ city and dominates the skyline (天际). The main temple of the goddess Athena, ____18____ on the Acropolis, was Parthenon (帕台农神庙). And the National Archaeological Museum, the ____19____ important museum in Greece, holds a priceless ____20____ of treasure, with artifacts (古器物) of almost every culture, which flourished (繁荣) in the Mediterranean (地中海).

1. A. host                     B. traveled             C. ancient              D. oldest

2. A. made             B. got                    C. came                D. became

3. A. where            B. when                C. as                    D. that

4. A. carried           B. gave                  C. handed              D. passed

5. A. fired              B. lit               C. burned                     D. started

6. A. worn             B. acted                C. performed         D. dressed

7. A. mirror           B. reflection           C. cup                  D. pan

8. A. priestesses     B. founder             C. runner               D. player

9. A. foot               B. top                    C. front                 D. back

10. A. founder        B. inventor             C. discoverer         D. finder

11. A. by               B. after                       C. on                    D. in

12. A. dating          B. spanning           C. crossing            D. covering

13. A. center          B. city                   C. place                 D. site

14. A. regarded      B. mentioned          C. referred             D. considered

15. A. yet                     B. however            C. therefore           D. still

16. A. attraction     B. scene                C. entrance            D. platform

17. A. complete      B. whole               C. full                   D. total

18. A. set               B. lay                    C. built                  D. laid

19. A. most            B. more                 C. least                  D. less

20. A. gathering      B. storage              C. jewel                 D. collection

I once had a house guest from Cuba. During his visit, I happened to throw an old broken blender (搅拌机) in the trash. The next day it was sitting on my counter – in working order. In his world, people simply cannot afford to replace an item which doesn't work properly. They take the time and figure out how to fix it. In Cuba, they are still driving cars from the 1960’s, mainly because they do not have a choice. 

In contrast, the U.S. is a “throw-away society.” Statistics show that each American produces six pounds of trash per day. I believe a combination of factors has contributed to this phenomenon.

“Planned obsolescence(废弃)” is not a secret. It is a manufacturing (制造业) philosophy developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when mass production became popular. The goal is to make a product or part that will fail, or become less desirable over time or after a certain amount of use. This pressures the consumer to buy again. 

Planned obsolescence does keep costs down. Instead of making an expensive product that will last a long time, businesses produce more affordable, disposable(一次性的) items. Some electronic items have become so inexpensive that it is cheaper to replace them than to repair them.

Busy people often value their time and convenience more than money. If a car starts to have mechanical problems, replacing it with a newer, more reliable model may be more appealing than tolerating it being in the garage for a week.

In addition, advertising trains consumers to want what is new and improved. It convinces them that the more they have, the happier they will be. 

Unlike people in many developing countries, we live in a world of abundance. A study by Dr. Timothy Jones of the University of Arizona also found that in the U.S., 40-50 percent of all food ready for harvest is wasted. Abundance and waste soon became closely associated in the American way of life.

1.In Cuba, people usually fix a broken item instead of buying a new one because __________.

A. wasting is prohibited there                                         B. they are poor

C. they are interested in fixing things                            D. they live a low-carbon life

2.According to the article, planned obsolescence ___________.

A. began before mass production became popular

B. is intended to encourage consumers to buy more things

C. results in higher prices of items

D. requires factories to produce high-quality products

3.Which of the following is NOT true about the “throw-away society” in the U.S.?

A. People prefer to buy a new blender rather than repair the broken one.

B. A large quantity of food has been wasted.

C. People believe that the more they have, the happier they will be.

D. People all hold the belief that money comes first.

4.What may be the writer’s attitude towards a throw-away society?

A. Supportive.                     B. Critical.                    C. Tolerant.                           D. Optimistic.

 

Some students get so nervous before a test, they do poorly even if they know the material. Sian Beilock has studied these highly anxious test-takers.

Sian Beilock: “They start worrying about the consequences. They might even start worrying about whether this exam is going to prevent them from getting into the college they want. And when we worry, it actually uses up attention and memory resources.I talk about it as your cognitive horsepower that you could otherwise be using to focus on the exam.”

Professor Beilock and another researcher, Gerardo Ramirez, have developed a possible solution. Just before an exam, highly anxious test-takers spend ten minutes writing about their worries about the test.

Sian Beilock: “what we think happens is when students put it down on paper , they think about the worst that could happen and they reappraise the situation. They might realize it’s not as had as they might think it was before and, in essence(本质上), it prevents these thoughts from popping up when they’re actually taking a test.”

The researchers tested the idea on a group of twenty anxious college students. They gave them two short math tests. After the first one, they asked the students to either sit quietly or write about their feelings about the upcoming second test.

The researchers added to the pressure. They told the students that those who did well on the second test would get money. They also told them that their performance would affect other students as part of a team effort.

Professor Beilock says those who sat quietly scored an average of twelve percent worse on the second test. But the students who had written about their fears improved their performance by an average of five percent.

Next, the researchers used younger students in a biology class. They told them before final exams either to write about their feelings or to think about things unrelated to the test.

Prefessor Beilock says highly anxious students who did the writing got an average grade of B+, compared to a B- for those who did not.

Sian Beilock: “What we showed is that for students who are highly test-anxious, who’d done our writing intervention, all of a sudden there was no relationship between test anxiety and performance. Those students most likely to worry were performing just as well as their classmates who don’t normally get nervous in these testing situations.”

But what if students do not have a chance to write about their fears immediately before an exam or presentation? Professor Beilock says students can try it themselves at home or in the library and still improve their performance. 

1.What may happen if students have the problem of test anxiety?

A.Test anxiety can improve students’ performance to some degree.

B.Students’ attention and memory resources run out when worried.

C.Students may not be admitted into their favorite college if worried

D.Test anxiety is sure to cause students to fail the test.

2.Which of the following if TRUE?

A.In the first math test, students who sat quietly performed better.

B.In the second math test, students who wrote about their feelings did worse.

C.Some college students are highly anxious test-takers while others are not in the tests.

D.The result in the math test agrees with that in the biology test.

3.What does the underlined phrase “popping up” mean?

A.Giving out         B.Fading away        C.Becoming clearly    D.Appearing suddenly

4.what is most probably Sian Beilock?

A.A psychology professor.                  B.A philosophy researcher.

C.A politics professor                      D.A tutor

5.What is the main idea of the passage?

A.It is a common practice for students being worried before a test.

B.Being worried before tests does harm to students’ performance.

C.Anxious students overcome test anxiety by writing down fears.

D.It is important for students to overcome test anxiety.

 

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