Section B    Skimming and Scanning (10 MIN.)

In this section there are seven passage followed by ten multiple-choice questions. Skim or scan them as required and then mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.

TEXT E

First read the question.

26. In this passage Bill Gates mainly discuss    _______.
        A. a person's opportunity of a lifetime
        B. the success of the computer industry
        C. the importance of education
        D. high school education in the US
正确答案是

Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer the question.

Hundreds of students send me e-mail each year asking for advice about education. They want to know what to study, or whether it's OK to drop out of college since that's what I did.

My basic advice is simple and heartfelt. "Get the best education you can. Take advantage of high school and college. Learn how to learn."

It's true that I dropped out of college to start Microsoft, but I was at Harvard for three years before dropping out -- and I'd love to have the time to go back. As I've said before, nobody should drop out of college unless they believe they face the opportunity of a lifetime. And even then they should reconsider.

The computer industry has lots of people who didn't finish college, but I'm not aware of any success stories that began with somebody dropping out of high school. I actually don't know any high school dropouts, let alone any successful ones.

In my company's early    early years we had a bright part-time programmer who threatened to drop out of high school to work full-time. We told him no.

Quite a few of our people didn't finish college, but we discourage dropping out.

College isn't the only place where information exists. You can learn in a library. But somebody handing you a book doesn't automatically foster learning. You want to learn with other people, ask questions, try out ideas and have a way to test your ability. It usually takes more than just a book.

Education should be broad, although it's fine to have deep interests, too.

In high school there were periods when I was highly focused on writing software, but for most of my high school years I had wide-ranging academic interests. My parents encouraged this, and I'm grateful that they did.

One parent wrote me that her 15-year old son "lost himself in the hole of the computer." He got an A in Web site design, but other grades were sinking, she said.

This boy is making a mistake. High school and college offer you the best chance to learn broadly -- math, history, various sciences -- and to do projects with other kids that teach you firsthand about group dynamics. It's fine to take a deep interest in computers, dance, language or any other discipline, but not if it jeopardizes breadth.

In college it's appropriate to think about specialization. Getting real expertise in an area of interest can lead to success. Graduate school is one way to get specialized knowledge. Choosing a specialty isn't something high school students should worry about. They should worry about getting a strong academic start.

There's not a perfect correlation between attitudes in high school and success in later life, of course. But it's a real mistake not to take the opportunity to learn a huge range of subjects, to learn to work with people in high school, and to get the grades that will help you get into a good college.

TEXT F

First read the question.

27. The passage focuses on _______.
        A. the history and future of London
        B. London's manufacturing skills
        C. London's status as a financial center
        D. the past and present roles of London
正确答案是

Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer the question.

What is London for? To put the question another way why was London, by 1900, incomparably the largest city in the world, which it remained until the bombardments of the Luftwaffe? There could be many answers to this question, but any history of London will rehearse three broad explanations. One is the importance of its life as a port. When the Thames turned to ice in February 1855, 50,000 men were put out of work, and there were bread riots from those whose livelihoods had been frozen with the river. Today the Thames could be frozen for a year without endangering the livelihoods of any but a few pleasure-boatmen.

The second major cause of London's wealth and success was that it was easily the biggest manufacturing center in Europe. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Dutch looms and the stocking knitting frame were first pioneered in London. The vast range of London's manufacturing skills is another fact; almost any item you can name was manufactured in London during the days of its prosperity. In 1851, 13.75 percent of the manufacturing work-force of Great Britain was based in London. By 1961, this had dramatically reduced. By 1993, there were a mere 328,000 Londoners engaged in manufacturing. In other words, by our own times, two of the chief reasons for London's very existence -- its life as a port and as a center of manufacture -- had dwindled out of existence.

London's third great function, since the seventeenth century, has been that of national and international bourse: the exchange of stocks and shares, banking, commerce and, increasingly, insurance. Both Inwood and Francis Sheppard, in London: A history, manage to make these potentially dry matters vivid to the general reader, and both authors assure us that "The City" in the financial sense is still as important as ever it was. Both, however, record the diminution of the City as an architectural and demographic entity, with the emptying of many city offices (since the advent of the computer much of the work can be done anywhere) and the removal of many distinctive landmarks.

TEXT G

First read the question.

28. The primary purpose of the passage is to _____
        A. discuss the impact of the internet
        B. forecast the future roles of the bookstore
        C. compare the publisher with the editor
        D. evaluate the limitations of the printed page
正确答案是

Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer the question.

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