Directions:
In this part there are three passages and one chart, each followed by five questions or unfinished statements. For each of them, there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.
Questions 11-15 are based on the following passage:
Not enough American students want to be engineers, mathematicians, or scientists. The Obama administration wants to change that. They are spending money to do it. The government will invest three billion dollars in the education of young Americans in science, technology, engineering, and math. The four areas together are known as STEM. Many jobs in the STEM fields will open in the coming years. The U.S. government's investment aims to increase the number of Americans who can take those jobs.
Yet girls appear far less interested in STEM subjects than boys. Only 25% of STEM students are girls. Camsie McAdams from the U.S. Education Department says girls simply do not feel welcomed in STEM subjects. She says young women look at industries such as engineering and computer science and see most of the leaders are men. “We, as women, want to have people that look like us, people that we can relate to. A lot of times what keeps people from entering the field, even when they get the degree, is because they don’t feel welcomed.”
Engineer Debbie Sterling invented for girls a construction toy named “Goldie Blox”. She hopes Goldie Blox will help girls develop spatial skills, which help engineers and builders to think about objects in three dimensions(维度)).To interest girls, Sterling created the character “Goldie.” Goldie does not care about beauty or clothes. Goldie tells stories, solves difficult problems and creates imaginary worlds.
11. According to the passage, STEM jobs in the US are not ______.
A. taken by old people B. attractive to youngsters
C. respected in society D. very well paid
12. One measure that the Obama administration will take is to ______.
A. raise pays for young engineers
B. encourage girls to go to college
C. create more jobs in the STEM fields
D. invest more money in education
13. Girls lack interest in STEM subjects because they feel ______.
A. unqualified for STEM jobs B. unwelcome in STEM jobs
C. unconfident in themselves D. ignored in those classes
14. Debbie Sterling invented “Goldie Blox” to ______.
A. help girls tell stories better
B. develop strong character in girls
C. provide girls with more entertainment
D. arouse girls5 interest in STEM
15.The last paragraph implies that ______.
A. Goldie has displayed a beautiful imaginary world
B. Goldie has a character that youngsters like
C. Goldie Blox has made girls interested in spatial skills
D. spatial skills are highly demanded in STEM jobs
Questions 16-20 are based on the following passage:
Early last month, Bill Gates released a video of a venture funded by the Gates Foundation: the Omniprocessor, a Seattle-based processing plant that bums sewage (污 水) to make clean drinking water. In the video, Gates raises a glass of water to his lips. Just five minutes ago, he explains, that water was human waste. Gates takes a sip (小口 呷)). “It’s water, ’’ he says. “Having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It’s that safe.”
According to the Foundation^ estimates, at least two billion people lack access to proper sanitation (公共卫生); a report warned that, within the next decade, “many countries will experience water problems— shortages, poor water quality, or floods—that will risk instability and state failure.” The Omniprocessor’s approach seems to be the perfect solution. It offers clean drinking water where access is lacking. In fact, the technology has been around for years, and its effectiveness is an established fact So why hasn’t it been widely adopted yet?
That's precisely the question that Paul Rozin tackled in a series of studies spanning over 2,000 American adults and several hundred college students. The results were published in the journal Judgment and Decision Making. “The problem isn't making the recycled water but getting people to drink it,” Rozin said. “And it’s a problem that isn’t going to be solved by engineers. It will be solved by psychologists.”
16. The video shows that Bill Gates is ______.
A. explaining the water recycling process
B. making water out of sewage C. drinking clean water made from sewage D. risking drinking polluted water
17. The video seems intended to ______.
A. build public confidence in recycled water
B. market the new sewage burning technology
C. persuade people to save water
D. improve Bill Gates, public image
18. According to the report mentioned in Paragraph 2, water problems will ______.
A. become more worrying for economic reasons
B. worsen the sanitation situation in poor countries
C. be solved using the Omniprocessor’s approach
D. endanger the national security in some countries
19. According to the author, the water-recycling technology ______.
A. proves effective
B. is not worth the investment
C. remains to be tested
D. is technically difficult to use
20. This passage is mainly about ______.
A. the importance of psychology
B. the future of the Omniprocessor
C. the ventures of Gates Foundation
D. the acceptance of recycled water