PartⅡ Reading Comprehension (45 points, 50 minutes)
Directions: There are 6 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage 1
Question 51 to 55 are based on the following passage:
Censorship (审查制度) is for the good of society as a whole. Imagine what chaos there would be if we lived in a society without laws. Like the law, censorship contributes to the common good.
Some people think that it is disgraceful that a censor should interfere with works of art. Who is this person, they say, to ban this great book or cut that great film? No one can set himself up as a superior being. But we must remember two things. Firstly, where genuine works of art are concerned, modern censors are extremely liberal in their views----often far more liberal than a large section of the public. Artistic merit is something which censors clearly recognize. And secondly, we must bear in mind that the great proportion of books, plays and films which come before the censor are very far from being "works of art".
When discussing censorship, therefore, we should not confine our attention to great masterpieces, but should consider the vast numbers of publications and films which make up the bulk (大部分) of the entertainment industry. When censorship laws are relaxed, dishonest people are given a licence to produce virtually anything in the name of "art". There is an increasing tendency to equate "artistic" with "pornographic" (色情的).So one of the great things that censorship does is to prevent certain people from making fat profits by corrupting the minds of others. Society would really be poorer if it deprived itself of the wise counsel and the restraining influence which a censor provides.
51.A censor's duty is ____.
A) to see there is no filthy content in publications or films
B) to ban books and cut films
C) to distinguish works of art from others
D) to make sure that no licence is given to dishonest people
52.Some people are against censorship for the reason that ____.
A) censorship is not consistent with the ideals of democracy
B) censors prevent people from making profits
C) censors are conservative and cannot appreciate artistic merit
D) censorship limits the way people feel and think
53.When the writer says "to equate 'artistic' which 'pornographic', he means ____.
A) there is no clear distinction between what is artistic and what is pornographic
B) masterpieces are sometimes offensive to decency
C) many pornographic works will be published in the name of art
D) artistic works and pornographic works have the same market value
54.According to the writer, a society free from censorship ____.
A) would be poor materially
B) would expose its people to dangers of being corrupted
C) could not develop its entertainment industry
D) would allow only a small section of people to make profits
55.All the following are the writer's views except that ____.
A) censors are fully qualified for their job
B) masterpieces even with pornographic content are still masterpieces
C) society will not do without censorship
D) many books, plays and films are not works of art
Passage 2
Question 56 to 60 are based on the following passage:
A few weeks ago I was talking to a school inspector in one of the more fashionable districts of Paris. She astonished me by saying that if she had young children today, she'd probably send them to a private school. She had devoted 25 years of her life to the ideal of free public education, she said, but the truth was the state system was in a mess.
There are two main problems: State schools in France have to accept whatever teachers are assigned to them by the Ministry of Education. As my school inspector friend put it, "one year a school may be excellent; three or four years later, half the teachers may be incapable!" That is not very reassuring if you're a parent. Private schools can choose their own teachers.
The other problem is discipline or, rather, the lack of it. Not long ago a school in Birmingham made headlines in Britain because the teachers were being terrorized by their pupils. In the desolate suburbs of low-cost apartment blocks, thrown together in the 1960s on the outskirts of most big French cities, such stories are commonplace. Vandalism(破坏他人财产的行为), drug-taking and extortion aren't limited to schools in poor areas either. A recent poll found that 88 per cent of French children rate as the biggest problem of their school lives the prevalence (流行, 猖獗)of factions and gangs which spend all their time fighting one another. Small wonder, then, that the private schools, with their emphasis on traditional values, are undergoing a new surge of popularity (despite disapproval from France's new socialist leaders), and competition to get into the best of them has now become intense.