【正文】 had planned to study Latin during his time at Hebron High School in Texas. But when he learned that the school district was going to offer a Mandarin(普通話) class, he quickly changed his mind. I thought Mandarin would be more beneficial than Latin, said Cheatham, who is now in his second year of studying the language. He speaks Mandarin to order food at Chinese restaurants and can read social media posts from his Chinesespeaking friends. While it39。s a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study puter engineering, thinks it will be important for his career. Chinese is a good language to know, especially with China being a growing power, he said. Many experts agree that proficiency(熟練) in a language spoken by a billion people worldwide will give American students an edge in the global economy. People are looking at China as our next economic petitor, and interest in Mandarin is growing fast, said Marty Abbott, director of the American Council(議會(huì)) on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. We39。re seeing it in all parts of the country. Abbott predicts that as many as 100,000 students are now studying Mandarin in public and private schools throughout the US. She said the US government has designated (指定) Mandarin as an important needs language and provides professional development programs for teachers. Our government wants to increase our language ability for national security and economic petitiveness, Abbott added. At the same time, the Chinese government is spreading knowledge of the Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes set up in many US states. For example, the Confucius Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas has been the home of a Confucius Institute for 10 years. It sponsors Confucius Classrooms at 21 local public and private schools, where tens of thousands of students are learning Mandarin.（1）Why did Thomas Cheatham decide to study Mandarin instead of Latin? A.Mandarin was easier to learn than Latin.B.Mandarin could be helpful to his future career.C.Mandarin might help him learn more about China.D.Mandarin could enable him to study puter engineering.（2）The underlined word edge in Paragraph 4 probably means ________. A.a slight advantageB.the outside limitC.a sharp tone of voiceD.an exciting quality（3）Which of the following statements might Marty Abbott agree with? A.Mandarin should be taught in classrooms throughout the US.B.Those skilled at Chinese will be the most petitive in the future.C.The US government39。s policy has helped popularize Mandarin in the US.D.Americans learn Mandarin because they worry about their national security.（4）What does the author mainly talk about in this passage? A.The rising popularity of Mandarin among American students.B.The great benefits of learning Mandarin for American students.C.The influence of China39。s growing power on American education.D.The effect of Confucius Institutes in promoting Mandarin in the US.【答案】 （1）B（2）A（3）C（4）A 【解析】【分析】本文是一篇說(shuō)明文，以一個(gè)美國(guó)學(xué)生的經(jīng)歷為例來(lái)講述隨著中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)的發(fā)展，普通話在美國(guó)校園很流行，這是中國(guó)在世界舞臺(tái)上地位上升的一個(gè)反映。許多美國(guó)學(xué)生認(rèn)為學(xué)習(xí)中文能夠在今后職業(yè)發(fā)展的道路上有所幫助，美國(guó)政府對(duì)中文的重視也促使更多的學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)中文。 （1）考查細(xì)節(jié)理解。根據(jù)第四段中的“While it39。s a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study puter engineering, thinks it will be important for his career.”可知，Thomas希望中文能夠在他今后職業(yè)發(fā)展的道路上對(duì)他有所幫助。故選B。 （2）考查詞義猜測(cè)。根據(jù)本句句意可知，漢語(yǔ)是一門全世界10億人說(shuō)的語(yǔ)言，專家認(rèn)為掌握了它的人會(huì)在全球經(jīng)濟(jì)中有優(yōu)勢(shì)，故選A。 （3）考查細(xì)節(jié)理解。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段中的“She said the US government has designated (指定) Mandarin as an important needs language and provides professional development programs for teachers. ”可知，美國(guó)政府的政策促進(jìn)了普通話在美國(guó)的普及，故選C。 （4）考查主旨大意?？v觀全文，主要介紹了美國(guó)學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)中文熱情升溫的現(xiàn)象，分析了出現(xiàn)該現(xiàn)象的背景和原因，故選A。 【點(diǎn)評(píng)】本題考點(diǎn)涉及細(xì)節(jié)理解，詞義猜測(cè)和主旨大意三個(gè)題型的考查，是一篇社會(huì)文化類閱讀，要求考生在捕捉細(xì)節(jié)信息的基礎(chǔ)上，進(jìn)一步根據(jù)上下文的邏輯關(guān)系，進(jìn)行分析，推理，概括和歸納，從而選出正確答案。8．閱讀理解 GOING TO UNIVERSITY is supposed to be a mindbroadening experience. That statement is probably made in parison to training for work straight after school, which might not be so encouraging. But is it actually true? Jessika Golle of the University of T252。bingen, in Germany, thought she would try to find out. Her result, however, is not quite what might be expected. As she reports in Psychological Science this week, she found that those who have been to university do indeed seem to leave with broader and more inquiring minds than those who have spent their immediate postschool years in vocational (職業(yè)的) training for work. However, it was not the case that university broadened minds. Rather, work seemed to narrow them. Dr. Golle came to this conclusion after she and a team of colleagues studied the early careers of 2,095 German youngsters. The team used two standardized tests to assess their volunteers. One was of personality traits, including openness, conscientiousness（認(rèn)真）and so on. The other was of attitudes, such as realistic, investigative and enterprising. They administered both tests twice—once towards the end of each volunteer39。s time at school, and then again six years later. Of the original group, 382 were on the intermediate track, from which there was a choice between the academic and vocational routes, and it was on these that the researchers focused. University beckoned for 212 of them. The remaining 170 chose vocational training and a job. When it came to the second round of tests, Dr. Golle found that the personalities of those who had gone to university had not changed significantly. Those who had undergone vocational training and then got jobs were not that much changed in personality, either—except in one crucial respect. They had bee more conscientious. That sounds like a good thing, certainly pared with the mon public image of undergraduates as a bunch of lazybones. But changes in attitude that the researchers recorded were rather worrying. In the university group, again, none were detectable. But those who had chosen the vocational route showed marked