Part III Reading Comprehension (40 minutes)
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. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
It seems to be a law in the technology industry that leading companies eventually lose their positions, often quickly and brutally. Mobile phone champion Nokia, one of Europe’s biggest technology success stories, was no 36 , losing its market share in just a few years.
In 2007, Nokia accounted for more than 40% of mobile phone sales 37 But consumers’ preferences were already 38 toward touch-screen smartphones. With the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in the middle of that year, Nokia’s market share 39 rapidly and revenue plunged. By the end of 2013, Nokia had sold its phone business to Microsoft.
What sealed Nokia’s fate was a series of decisions made by Stephen Elop in his position as CEO, which he 40 in October 2010. Each day that Elop spent in charge of Nokia, the company’s market value declined by $ 23 million, making him, by the numbers, one of the worst CEOs in history.
But Elop was not the only person at 41 Nokia’s board resisted change, making it impossible for the company to adapt to rapid shifts in the industry. Most 42 , Jorma Ollila, who had led Nokia’s transition from an industrial company to a technology giant, was too fascinated by thecompany’s 43 success to recognize the change that was needed to sustain its competitiveness.
of thousands of jobs. This contributed to the 45 of the company’s once-spirited culture which had motivated employees to take risks and make miracles. Good leaders left the company, taking Nokia’s sense of vision and directions with them. Not surprisingly, much of Nokia’s most valuable design and programming talent left as well.
A) assumed I) previous B) bias J) relayed C) desperate K) shifting D) deterioration L) shrank E) exception M) subtle F) fault N) transmitting G) incidentally O) worldwide H) notably |
Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once.Each paragraph is marked with a letter.Answer the questions by .marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
First-Generation College-Goers: Unprepared and Behind
Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation.
[A] When Nijay Williams entered college last fall as a first-generation student and Jamaican immigrant, he was academically unprepared for the rigors of higher education. Like many first-generation students, he enrolled in a medium-sized state university many of his high school peers were also attending, received a Pell Grant, and took out some small federal loans to cover other costs. Given the high price of room and board and the closeness of th
e school to his family, he chose to live at home and worked between 30 and 40 hours a week while taking a full class schedule.
[B] What Nijay didn’t realize about his school—Tennessee State University—was its frighteningly low graduation rate: a mere 29 percent for its first-generation students. At the end of his first year, Nijay lost his Pell Grant of over $5,000 after narrowly missing the 2.0 GPA cut-off, making it impossible for him to continue paying for school.
[C] Nijay represents a large and growing group of Americans: first-generation college students who enter school unprepared or behind. To make matters worse, these schools are ill-equipped to graduate these students—young adults who face specific challenges and obstacles. They typically carry financial burdens that outweigh those of their peers, are more likely to work while attending school, and often require significant academic remediation (补习).
[D] Matt Rubinoff directs I’m First, a nonprofit organization launched last October to reach out to this specific population of students. He hopes to distribute this information and help p
rospective college-goers find the best post-secondary fit. And while Rubinoff believes there are a good number of four-year schools that truly care about these students and set aside significant resource sand programs for them, he says that number isn’t high enough.
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