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Part I Writing (30minutes) Directions:
For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topic \"I Have a Dream...\" You should write at least 120 words following the outline given below in Chinese:
1. 描述你的梦想„„
2. 讲述你选择这个作为梦想的原因。 Part II Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (15minutes) Directions:
In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly. Forquestions1-7, mark Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage; N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage; NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage. For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
How College Rankings Work
Among the many methods people use to judge colleges and universities, few are as widely used as simple rankings. These lists, usually ordered by numerical scores or letter grades, are inherently appealing because they’re easily understood and they tell us exactly where the authors think a given school stands. But they can also be confusing be-cause some magazine, book and online publishers use vastly different criteria when determining academic status.
The most prominent set of college rankings in the United States is published by U.S. News & World Report. Every year since 1987, it has published its rankings in magazine form, and more recently in paperback guidebooks. The magazine now ranks graduate schools, too. Many schools use these rankings as part of their promotional materials, trumpeting a rise in standing, hanging celebratory banners or posting the good news on their websites.
Some companies simply offer rankings of what they consider the best schools, with a variety of criteria used to calculate an overall score. Others break down lists of top schools into categories like academics, social life, small colleges, big colleges, liberal arts schools, public schools, undergraduate experience and happiest students. Besides U.S.News&WorldReport, other popular rankings include Princeton Review guidebooks and those produced by the Center for University Rankings, which rates research universities.
Books like College Prowler offer an insider view from current students and recent graduates. These guidebooks present information about topics as varied as a school’s party scene. Several websites, like studentsreview.com, pro-vide
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college rankings completed by actual students, and these sites also offer a behind-the-scenes view with information not found in traditional guidebooks. In other countries, newspapers often provide rankings, such as Maclean’s annual guide to Canadian colleges and universities. The European Union has also published reports on universities that included rankings. In addition, News week published a list in August 2006 of the \"Top 100 Global Universities\". The list focuses on a school’s inter-national makeup, global impact, connections to other parts of the world and research accomplishments.
Inevitably, most rankings are based on raw data, but the way that data are calculated and weighted varies significantly between publishers. Sometimes publishers receive the data directly from schools, as is the case with U.S.News & World Report. Others rely on data drawn from university websites, research foundations or academic organizations. For example, Vanguard’s college rankings, which focus on faculty quality, rely on data from the National Research Council. When examining college rankings, it’s important to look at what data the publication used and how it used the data. Many publications use other data sources or their own specialized surveys. Data that are commonly used in rankings include: ●SAT and ACT scores of incoming students ●Students’high school GPAs ●Acceptance rate ●Alumni donations
●Student-to-faculty ratio ●Graduation rate ●Financial aid
●Transfer rate (also called student retention) ●Average class size ●Quality of faculty, which may be measured by research grants and prizes awarded and the frequency of publications, among other factors.
●Results from surveys completed by students or administrators
Although it’s clear that ranking methods differ between publications, some use more unusual criteria to determine college standings. For example, Washington Monthly, a political magazine, says that its rankings —echoing John F. Kennedy —\"ask what colleges are doing for the country\" rather than \"what colleges can do for you\". This list focuses on how schools contribute to \"social mobility\" or raising people up from poverty, as well as how they promote \"an ethic of service to the country\" and pursue \"scientific and humanistic research\". The Washington Monthly rankings also focus on how taxpayer money, such as in federal research grants, is used, and whether they consider that money well spent.
Of course, the Internet now holds some influence over rankings, both in how they’re calculated and how they’re publicized. Some companies provide additional college and university information on subscription-only sites. Other organizations collect data from nontraditional sources like a school’s number of Google hits and links to the university’s website from the sites of other universities. This
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method of ranking is often called the G-Factor.
Any discussion of how rankings are compiled inevitably leads back to U.S. News & World Report. Its rankings at-tract a lot of controversy. Let’s look at how they rank schools. U.S. News & World Report presents each school with a numerical score and ranks them accordingly, with schools divided into separate categories. They are:
●National universities ●Liberal arts colleges ●Master’s universities ●Comprehensive colleges ●Business programs ●Engineering programs
The magazine provides further rankings for some categories based on regions or if a school awards doctoral degrees.
In calculating each score, U.S.News & World Report relies on data supplied to them by the schools they’re ranking. Each piece of data is measured differently in calculating the overall score. The composition of a score given to a school by U.S.News&WorldReportis as follows: ●5 percent: alumni donations
●5 percent: graduation rate (for liberal arts and national universities)
●10 percent: financial aid
●15 percent: faculty resources (which is a collection of factors like average class size and student-to-teacher ratio) ●15 percent: acceptance rate
●20 percent or 25 percent (depending on the school type): student retention ●25 percent: peer assessment of the performance of other schools, performed by the top three officials of each school
That last part, the peer assessment, is the trickiest bit —and it’s one of the big reasons that U.S.News&WorldReportis one of the chief targets of the campaign against college rankings.
1. Rankings are the most widely used method to judge universities and colleges. 2. Every year since 1987, U.S.News&World Reporthas published rankings in magazines and guidebooks.
3. Research universities are rated by U.S.News& World Report and PrincetonReviewguidebooks.
4. Some websites provide a behind-the-scenes view with information which is absent from traditional guidebooks.
5. How a publication chooses and uses the data is crucial when examining the rankings.
6. Though different, the criteria used by various publications are not unusual. 7. The acceptance rate of better universities is usually low.
8. Rankings can be confusing because when ___________, some books and magazines may use different criteria.
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9. The list published by Newsweek in August 2006 focuses on the universities’_________________ and research achievements.
10. ______________ is one of the main reasons that U.S.News& World Report is criticized fiercely by people against college rankings. Part III Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25minutes) Section A Directions:
In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage.
Most magazines you see on news-stands every day rely on freelance writers for their content. From fillers to features, most parts of a publication are fair games for 11 hoping to break in. You don’t have to have a cousin in the 12 world to see your name in print. But, you’ll have to 13 to the editor that you can write for his or her target audience, and the best way to learn how to do this is through research. Take note of the publication’s different departments, columns, and fillers. You will be more likely to get an editor’s attention if you pitch an idea that 14 fits an existing page. If you are part of the people the magazine targets, you may have an easier time getting your story 15 .
For example, the first 16 I wrote was for College Bound magazine. I had just finished writing for that age group at my student paper, and I was 21 years old myself. It would have been quite a 17 to get published in Modern Maturity, so I didn’t even consider it. Selling this feature was quite 18 . It was a full three months later before I heard anything. I received a letter in the mail 19 me that my feature would be accepted. I signed a rights contract and four months later I 20 a check and two copies of the magazine with my feature as the cover story! A) declared I) straightforward B) publishing J) sold C) writers K) prove
D) feature L) permanently E) magazine M) informing F) perfectly N) received G) teachers O) scary H) feat
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