53. The drop-out rate of college students seems to go up because __________.

A.　　 young people are disappointed with the conventional way of teaching at college

B.　　　 many young people are required to join the army

C.　　　 young people have little motivation in pursuing a higher education

D.　　 young people don’t like the intense competition for admission to graduate school

52. In the 2^nd paragraph, “those who don’t fit the pattern” refers to _________.

A.　　 high school graduates who aren’t suitable for college education

B.　　　 college graduates who are selling shoes and driving taxis

C.　　　 college students who aren’t any better for their higher education

D.　　 high school graduates who failed to be admitted to college

51. According to the passage, the author believes that _________.

A.　　 people used to question the value of college education

B.　　　 people used to have full confidence in higher education

C.　　　 all high school graduates went to college

D.　　 very few high school graduates chose to go to college

50. What’s the main idea of the whole passage?

　 A. The students should be responsible for their behavior.

　 B. It’s too late for record companies to protect their rights.

　 C. Record companies have taken action to protect their copyrights by accusing individuals of piracy on file-sharing networks.

D. Some record companies wanted to earn money by accusing people of pirating music.

C

The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go to college, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become “better” people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don’t go.

But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don’t fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis, college students interfere with each other’s experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out --- often encouraged by college administrators.

Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves --- they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that’s condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn’t explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can’t absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year olds, either.

Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those survey and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, and quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy(异端) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good more has to be better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up.

49. What can we conclude from paragraph 6?

　 A. Slump in CD sales is caused by the fact that people can copy songs free of charge on file-sharing networks.

　 B. Many record-company executives should bear the blame for long slump in CD sales.

　 C. People have no desire to buy any CD.

　 D. Nowadays CDs are not as popular as before.

48. What’s the probable meaning of “slump” (Paragraph 6)?

　 A. Decline.　　 B. Increase.　　　 C. Keeping the same.　　　 D. Jump.

47. Which of the following is true?

　 A. The four students planned to violate the company’s copyright.

　 B. They realized they had done a wrong thing.

　 C. They refused to pay money to RIAA.

　 D. They didn’t make any money on file-sharing networks.

46. What does “a hidden price tag” (Paragraph 1) mean?

　 A. Record companies intentionally hide the high price of the music.

　 B. It happens that the music price tag isn’t obvious.

　 C. One has to pay for having downloaded music freely at last.

　 D. One has to pay for the music in the future even if it’s allowed to be downloaded freely now.

45. People who suffer from astigmatism have　　 .

　 A. one eye bigger than the other

　 B. eyes that are not exactly the right shape

　 C. a difficulty that can be corrected by an operation

　 D. an eye difficulty that cannot be corrected by glasses

B

Four American college students learned last week that free music downloads can carry a hidden price tag --- US $ 12,000 to $ 17,500, to be exact.

Major record companies accused the students of fueling music piracy(盗版) by running file-sharing networks on campus allowing hundreds of songs to be downloaded for free.

Last Thursday, the four promised not to violate the companies’ copyrights. Although they did not admit any wrongdoing, they each agreed to pay thousands of dollars to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

“I don’t believe that I did anything wrong,” said Daniel Peng at Princeton University, one of the four. “I hope that for the sake of artists, the larger issues can soon be resolved.” None appears to have made any money off the file-sharing systems they operated, which were confined to their campus’s computer networks.

The payments mark the first time record companies have recovered money from individuals in the US accused of piracy on file-sharing networks. This may be a sign of things to come, as the industry starts taking its battle against online piracy directly to users.

Many record-company executives blame the long slump in CD sales on file-sharing networks, which let users copy songs from each other’s computers for free.

Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for the RIAA, said the settlements, although well below what the companies could have asked for, were “the right amount” given the situation.

He also noted that since the four lawsuits were filed, at least 18 campus file-sharing networks have been taken down by their operators.

44. Having two eyes instead of one is particularly useful for　　 .

　 A. seeing at night　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　 　B. seeing objects far away

　 C. looking over a wide area　　　　 　 　　　D. judging distances