2015年6月第三套 Passage Two
A recurring criticism of the UK's university sector is its perceived weakness in translating new knowledge into new products and services.
Recently, the UK National Stem Cell Network warned the UK could lose its place among the world leaders in stem cell research unless adequate funding and legislation could be assured.We should take this concern seriously as universities are key in the national innovation system.
However, we do have to challenge the unthinking complaint that the sector does not do enough in taking ideas to market.The most recent comparative data on the performance of universities and research institutions in Australia, Canada,USA and UK shows that, from a relatively weak starting position, the UK now leads on many indicators of commercialisation activity.
When viewed at the national level, the policy interventions of the past decade have helped transform the performance of U.K. universities.Evidence suggests the UK’s position is much stronger than in the recent past and is still showing improvement.But national data masks the very large variation in the performance of individual universities. The evidence shows that a large number of universities have fallen off the back of the pack, a few perform strongly and the rest chase the leaders.
This type of uneven distribution is not peculiar to the U.K. and is mirrored across other economies. In the UK, research is concentrated: less than 25% of universities receive 75% of the research funding. These same universities are also the institutions producing the greatest share of PhD graduate, science citations, patents and licence income. The effect of policies generating long-term resource concentration has also created a distinctive set of universities which are research-led and commercially active. It seems clear that the concentration of research and commercialisation work creates differences between universities.
The core objective for universities which are research-led must be to maximise the impact of their research efforts. These universities should be generating the widest range of social, economic and environmental benefits. In return for the scale. of investment,they should share their expertise in order to build greater confidence in the sector.
Part of the economic recovery of the UK will be driven by the next generation of research commercialisations pilling out of our universities. There are three dozen universities in the UK which are actively engaged in advanced research training and commercialisation work.
If there was a greater coordination of technology transfer offices within regions and a simultaneous investment in the scale and functions of our graduate schools, universities could, and should, play a key role in positioning the U.K. for the next growth cycle.
51. What does the author think of UK universities in terms of commercialisation?
A)They still have a place among the world leaders.
C) They do not regard it as their responsibility.
B) They have lost their leading position in many ways.
D) They fail to convert knowledge into money.
52. What does the author say about the national data on UK universities’ performance in commercialisation?
A) It masks the fatal weaknesses of government policy.
B) It does not reflect the differences among universities.
C) It does not rank UK universities in a scientific way.
D) It indicates their ineffective use of government resources.
53. We can infer from paragraph 5 that “policy interventions”(Line 1, Para. 4) refers to .
A) concentration of resources in a limited number of universities
B) compulsory cooperation between universities and industries
C) government aid to non-research-oriented universities
D) fair distribution of funding for universities and research institutions
54. What does the author suggest research-led universities do?
A)Fully utilise their research to benefit all sectors of society.
B) Generously share their facilities with those short of funds.
C) Publicise their research to win international recognition.
D) spread their influence among top research institutions.
55.How can the university sector play a key role in the UK’s economic growth?
A) By establishing more regional technology transfer offices.
B) By asking the government to invest in technology transfer research.
C) By promoting technology transfer and graduate school education.
D) By increasing the efficiency of technology transfer agencies.
2015年12月第一套 Passage One
One hundred years ago, “Colored” was the typical way of referring to Americans of African descent. Twenty years later, it was purposefully dropped to make way for “Negro.” By the late 1960s, that term was overtaken by “Black.” And then, at a press conference in Chicago in 1988, Jesse Jackson declared that “African American” was the term to embrace. This one was chosen because it echoed the labels of groups, such as “Italian Americans” and “Irish Americans,” that had already been freed of widespread discrimination.
A century’s worth of calculated name changes point to the fact that naming any group is a politically freighted exercise. A 2001 study cataloged all the ways in which the term “Black” carried connotations(涵义)that were more negative than those of “African American.”
But if it was known that “Black” people were viewed differently from “African Americans,” researchers, until now, hadn’t identified what that gap in perception was derived from. A recent study, conducted by Emory University’s Erika Hall, found that “Black” people are viewed more negatively than “African Americans” because of a perceived difference in socioeconomic status. As a result, “Black” people are thought of as less competent and as having colder personalities.
The study’s most striking findings shed light on the racial biases permeating the professional world. Even seemingly harmless details on a resume, it appears, can tap into recruiters’ biases. A job application might mention affiliations with groups such as the “Wisconsin association of African-American Lawyers” or the “National Black Employees Association,” the names of which apparently have consequences, and are also beyond their members’ control.
In one of the study’s experiments, subjects were given a brief description of a man from Chicago with the last name Williams. To one group, he was identified as “African-American,” and another was told he was “Black.” With little else to go on, they were asked to estimate Mr. Williams’s salary, professional standing, and educational background.
The “African-American” group estimated that he earned about $37,000 a year and had a two-year college degree. The “Black” group, on the other hand, put his salary at about $29,000, and guessed that he had only “some” college experience. Nearly three-quarters of the first group guessed that Mr. Williams worked at a managerial level, while only 38.5 percent of the second group thought so.
Hall’s findings suggest there’s an argument to be made for electing to use “African American,” though one can’t help but get the sense that it’s a decision that papers over the urgency of continued progress. perhaps a new phrase is needed, one that can bring everyone one big step closer to realizing Du Bois’s original, idealistic hope: “It’s not the name—it’s the Thing that counts.”
46. Why did Jesse Jackson embrace the term “African American” for people of African descent?
A) It is free from racial biases.
B) It represents social progress.
C) It is in the interest of common Americans.
D) It follows the standard naming practice.
47. What does the author say about the naming of an ethnic group?
A) It advances with the times. C) It merits intensive study.
B) It is based on racial roots. D) It is politically sensitive.
48. What do Erika Hall’s findings indicate?
A) Racial biases are widespread in the professional world.
B) Many applicants don’t attend to details on their resumes.
C) Job seekers should all be careful about their affiliations.
D) Most recruiters are unable to control their racial biases.
49. What does Erika Hall find in her experiment about a man with the last name Williams?
A) African Americans fare better than many other ethnic groups.
B) Black people’s socioeconomic status in America remains low.
C) People’s conception of a person has much to do with the way he or she is labeled.
D) One’s professional standing and income are related to their educational background.
50. What is Dr. Du Bois’s ideal?
A) All Americans enjoy equal rights.
B) A person is judged by their worth.
C) A new term is created to address African Americans.
D) All ethnic groups share the nation’s continued progress.
2015年12月第一套 Passage Two
Across the board, American colleges and universities are not doing a very good job of preparing their students for the workplace or their post-graduation lives. This was made clear by the work of two sociologists, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. In 2011 they released a landmark study titled “Academically Adrift,” which documented the lack of intellectual growth experienced by many people enrolled in college. In particular, Arum and Roksa found, college students were not developing the critical thinking, analytic reasoning and other higher-level skills that are necessary to thrive in today’s knowledge-based economy and to lead our nation in a time of complex challenges and dynamic change.
Arum and Roksa placed the blame for students’ lack of learning on a watered-down college curriculum and lowered undergraduate work standards. Although going to college is supposed to be a full-time job, students spent, on average, only 12 to 14 hours a week studying and many were skating through their semesters without doing a significant amount of reading and writing. Students who take more challenging classes and spend more time studying do learn more. But the priorities of many undergraduates are with extracurricular activities, playing sports, and partying and socializing.
Laura Hamilton, the author of a study on parents who pay for college, will argue in a forthcoming book that college administrations are overly concerned with the social and athletic activities of their students. In Paying for the Party, Hamilton describes what she calls the “party pathway,” which eases many students through college, helped along by various clubs that send students into the party scene and a host of easier majors. By sanctioning this water-down version of college, universities are “catering to the social and educational needs of wealthy students at the expense of others” who won’t enjoy the financial backing or social connections of richer students once they graduate.
These students need to build skills and knowledge during college if they are to use their degrees as a stepping-stone to middle-class mobility. But more privileged students must not waste this opportunity either. As recent graduates can testify, the job market isn’t kind to candidate who can’t demonstrate genuine competence, along with a well-cultivated willingness to work hard. Nor is the global economy forgiving of an American workforce with increasingly weak literacy, math and science abilities. College graduates will still fare better than those with only a high school education, of course. But a university degree unaccompanied by a gain in knowledge or skills is an empty achievement indeed. For students who have been coasting through college, and for American universities that have been demanding less work, offering more attractions and charging higher tuition, the party may soon be over.
61. What is Arum and Roksa’s finding about higher education in America?
A) It aims at stimulating the intellectual curiosity of college students.
B) It fails to prepare students to face the challenges of modern times.
C) It has experienced dramatic changes in recent years.
D) It has tried hard to satisfy students’ various needs.
62. What is responsible for the students’ lack of higher-level skills?
A) The diluted college curriculum. C) The absence of rigorous discipline.
B) The boring classroom activities. D) The outdated educational approach.
63. What does Laura Hamilton say about college administrations?
A) They fail to give adequate help to the needy students.
B) They tend to offer too many less challenging courses.
C) They seem to be out of touch with society.
D) They prioritize non-academic activities.
64. What can be learned about the socially and financially privileged students?
A) They tend to have a sense of superiority over their peers.
B) They can afford to choose easier majors in order to enjoy themselves.
C) They spend a lot of time building strong connections with businesses.
D) They can climb the social ladder even without a degree.
65. What does the author suggest in the last paragraph?
A) American higher education has lost its global competitiveness.
B) People should not expect too much from American higher education.
C) The current situation in American higher education may not last long.
D) It will take a long time to change the current trend in higher education.
2015年12月第二套 Passage One
Saying they can no longer ignore the rising price of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care.
The shift, little noticed outside the medical establishment but already controversial inside it, suggests that doctors are starting to redefine their roles, from being concerned exclusively about individual patients to exerting influence on how healthcare dollars are spent.
In practical terms, the new guidelines being developed could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment—at the end of life, for example—is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form of rationing.
Traditionally, guidelines have heavily influenced the practice of medicine, and the latest ones are expected to make doctors more conscious of the economic consequences of their decisions, even though there’s no obligation to follow them. Medical society guidelines are also used by insurance companies to help determine reimbursement(报销)policies.
Some doctors see a potential conflict in trying to be both providers of patient care and financial overseers. “There should be forces in society who should be concerned about the budget, but they shouldn’t be functioning simultaneously as doctors,” said Dr. Martin Samuels at a Boston hospital. He said doctors risked losing the trust of patients if they told patients, “I’m not going to do what I think is best for you because I think it’s bad for the healthcare budget in Massachusetts.”
Doctors can face some grim trade-offs. Studies have shown, for example, that two drugs are about equally effective in treating macular degeneration, an eye disease. But one costs $50 a dose and the other close to $2,000. Medicare could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year if everyone used the cheaper drug, Avastin, instead of the costlier one, Lucentis.
But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved Avastin for use in the eye, and using it rather than the alternative, Lucentis, might carry an additional, although slight, safety risk. Should doctors consider Medicare’s budget in deciding what to use?
“I think ethically(在道德层面上)we are just worried about the patient in front of us and not trying to save money for the insurance industry or society as a whole,” said Dr. Donald Jensen.
Still, some analysts say that there’s a role for doctors to play in cost analysis because not many others are doing so. “In some ways,” said Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, “it represents a failure of wider society to take up the issue.”
46. What do some most influential medical groups recommend doctors do?
A) reflect on the responsibilities they are supposed to take.
B) Pay more attention to the effectiveness of their treatments.
C) Take costs into account when making treatment decisions.
D) Readjust their practice in view of the cuts in health care.
47. What were doctors mainly concerned about in the past?
A) specific medicines to be used. C) professional advancement.
B) Effects of medical treatment. D) Patients’ trust.
48. What may the new guidelines being developed lead to?
A) The redefining of doctors’ roles. C) Conflicts between doctors and patients.
B) Overuse of less effective medicines. D) The prolonging of patients’ suffering.
49. What risk do doctors see in their dual role as patient care providers and financial overseers?
A) They may be involved in a conflict of interest.
B) They may be forced to divide their attention.
C) They may have to use less effective drugs.
D) They may lose the respect of patients.
50. What do some experts say about doctors’ involvement in medical cost analysis?
A) It may add to doctors’ already heavy workloads.
B) It will help to save money for society as a whole.
C) It results from society’s failure to tackle the problem.
D) It raises doctors’ awareness of their social responsibilities.
2015年12月第二套 Passage Two
Economic inequality is the “defining challenge of our time,” president Barack Obama declared in a speech last month to the center for American Progress. Inequality is dangerous, he argued, not merely because it doesn’t look good to have a large gap between the rich and the poor, but because inequality itself destroys upward mobility, making it harder for the poor to escape from poverty. “Increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream,” he said.
Obama is only the most prominent public figure to declare inequality Public Enemy No.1 and the greatest threat to reducing poverty in America. A number of prominent economists have also argued that it’s harder for the poor to climb the economic ladder today because the rungs(横档)in that ladder have grown farther apart.
For all the new attention devoted to the 1 percent, a new dataset from the Equality of opportunity project at Harvard and Berkeley suggests that, if we care about upward mobility overall, we’re vastly exaggerating the dangers of the rich-poor gap. Inequality itself is not a particularly strong predictor of economic mobility, as sociologist Scott Winship noted in a recent article based on his analysis of this data.
So what factors, at the community level, do predict if poor children will move up the economic ladder as adults? What explains, for instance, why the Salt Lake City metro area is one of the 100 largest metropolitan areas most likely to lift the fortunes of the poor and the Atlanta metro area is one of the least likely?
Harvard economist Raj Chetty has pointed to economic and racial segregation, community density, the size of a community’s middle class, the quality of schools, community religiosity, and family structure, which he calls the “single strongest correlate of upward mobility.” Chetty finds that communities like Salt Lake City, with high levels of two-parent families and religiosity, are much more likely to see poor children get ahead than communities like Atlanta, with high levels of racial and economic segregation.
Chetty has not yet issued a comprehensive analysis of the relative predictive power of each of these factors. Based on my analyses of the data, of the factors that Chetty has highlighted, the following three seem to be most predictive of upward mobility in a given community:
1. Per-capita(人均)income growth
2. Prevalence of single mothers (where correlation is strong, but negative
3. Per-capita local government spending
In other words, communities with high levels of per-capita income growth, high percentages of two-parent families, and high local government spending—which may stand for good schools—are the most likely to help poor children relive the Horatio Alger’s rags-to-riches story.
51. How does Obama view economic inequality?
A) It is the biggest obstacle to social mobility.
B) It is the greatest threat to social stability.
C) It is the No. 1 enemy of income growth.
D) It is the most malicious social evil of our time.
52. What do we learn about the inequality gap from Scott Winship’s data analysis?
A) It is fast widening across most parts of America.
B) It is not a reliable indicator of economic mobility.
C) It is not correctly interpreted.
D) It is overwhelmingly ignored.
53. Compared with Atlanta, metropolitan Salt Lake City is said to _______.
A) have placed religious beliefs above party politics
B) have bridged the gap between the rich and the poor
C) offer poor children more chances to climb the social ladder
D) suffer from higher levels of racial and economic segregation
54. What is strongly correlated with social mobility according to economist Raj Chetty?
A) Family structure. C) School education.
B) Racial equality. D) Community density.
55. What does the author seem to suggest?
A) It is important to increase the size of the middle class.
B) It is highly important to expand the metropolitan areas.
C) It is most imperative to focus our efforts on the elimination of income inequality.
D) It is better to start from the community to help poor children move up the social ladder.
2015年12月第三套 Passage One
More than a decade ago, cognitive scientists John Bransford and Daniel Schwartz, both then at Vanderbilt University, found that what distinguished young adults from children was not the ability to retain facts or apply prior knowledge to a new situation but a quality they called “preparation for future learning.” The researches asked fifth graders and college students to create a recovery plan to protect bald eagles from extinction. Shockingly, the two groups came up with plans of similar quality (though the college students had better spelling skills). From the standpoint of a traditional educator, this outcome indicated that schooling had failed to help students think about ecosystems and extinction, major scientific ideas.
The researchers decided to go deeper, however. They asked both groups to generate questions about important issues needed to create recovery plans. On this task, they found large differences. College students focused on critical issues of interdependence between eagles and their habitat(栖息地)Fifth graders tended to focus on features of individual eagles (“How big are they?” and “What do they eat?”). The college students had cultivated the ability to ask questions, the cornerstone of critical thinking. They had learned how to learn.
Museums and other institutions of informal learning may be better suited to teach this skill than elementary and secondly schools. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, we recently studied how learning to ask good questions can affect the quality of people’s scientific inquiry. We found that when we taught participants to ask “What if?” and “How can?” questions that nobody present would know the answer to and that would spark exploration, they engaged in better inquiry at the next exhibit —asking more questions, performing more experiments and making better interpretations of their results. Specially, their questions became more comprehensive at the new exhibit. Rather than merely asking about something they wanted to try, they tended to include both cause and effect in their question. Asking juicy questions appears to be a transferable skill for deepening collaborative inquiry into the science content found in exhibits.
This type of learning is not confined to museums or institutional settings. Informal learning environment tolerate failure better than schools. perhaps many teachers have too little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions and too much ground to cover in the curriculum. But people must acquire this skill somewhere. Our society depends on them being able to make critical decisions about their own medical treatment, say, or what we must do about global energy needs and demands. For that, we have a robust informal system that gives no grades, takes all comers, and is available even on holidays and weekends.
46.What is traditional educators’ interpretation of the research outcome mentioned in the first paragraph?
A) Students are not able to apply prior knowledge to new problems.
B) College students are no better than fifth graders in memorizing issues.
C) Education has not paid enough attention to major environmental issues.
D) Education has failed to lead students to think about major scientific ideas.
47.In what way are college students different from children?
A) They have learned to think critically.
B) They are concerned about social issues.
C) They are curious about specific features.
D) They have learned to work independently.
48.What is benefit of asking questions with no ready answers?
A) It arouses students’ interest in things around them.
B) It cultivates students’ ability to make scientific inquiries.
C) It trains students’ ability to design scientific experiments.
D) It helps students realize not every question has an answer.
49.What is said to be the advantage of informal learning?
A) It allows for failures. C) It charges no tuition.
B) It is entertaining. D) It meets practical need.
50.What does the author seem to encourage educators to do at the end of the passage?
A) Train students to think about global issues.
B) Design more interactive classroom activities.
C) Make full use of informal learning resources.
D) Include collaborative inquiry in the curriculum.
答案解析：
2015年6月第三套 Passage Two
51. 由题干中的关键词“author think of UK universities in terms of commercialisation”定位到第三段。第三段提到“the most recent comparative data...shows that, from a relatively weak starting position, the UK now leads on many indicators of commercialisation activity.”，说明作者认为英国大学在商业化方面仍处于世界领先地位之列，所以选A。
52. 由题干中的关键词“national data on UK universities’ performance in commercialisation”定位到第四段。第四段提到“But national data masks the very large variation in the performance of individual universities.”，说明国家数据并未反映出各大学之间的差异，所以选B。
53. 由题干中的关键词“policy interventions”定位到第四段第一句及第五段。第四段第一句表明政策干预帮助改变了英国大学的表现，第五段详细说明了政策导致资源长期集中在少数大学，由此可推断“policy interventions”指的是资源集中在有限数量的大学，所以选A。
54. 由题干中的关键词“author suggest research-led universities do”定位到第六段。第六段提到“The core objective for universities which are research-led must be to maximise the impact of their research efforts. These universities should be generating the widest range of social, economic and environmental benefits.”，说明作者建议研究型大学应充分利用其研究成果，造福社会各阶层，所以选A。
55. 由题干中的关键词“university sector play a key role in the UK’s economic growth”定位到最后一段。最后一段提到“If there was a greater coordination of technology transfer offices within regions and a simultaneous investment in the scale and functions of our graduate schools, universities could, and should, play a key role in positioning the U.K. for the next growth cycle.”，说明大学可以通过促进技术转移和研究生院教育在英国经济增长中发挥关键作用，所以选C。
2015年12月第一套 Passage One
46. 由题干中的关键词“Jesse Jackson embrace the term ‘African American’”定位到第一段最后一句，“This one was chosen because it echoed the labels of groups, such as ‘Italian Americans’ and ‘Irish Americans,’ that had already been freed of widespread discrimination.” 提到选择“African American”这个称呼是因为它和像“Italian Americans”“Irish Americans”这类称呼一样，已经摆脱了广泛歧视，所以选A。
47. 由题干中的关键词“naming of an ethnic group”定位到第二段第一句。“A century’s worth of calculated name changes point to the fact that naming any group is a politically freighted exercise.” 表明给一个族群命名是一个充满政治色彩的行为，也就是政治上很敏感，所以选D。
48. 由题干中的关键词“Erika Hall’s findings”定位到第三段和第四段。“A recent study, conducted by Emory University’s Erika Hall, found that ‘Black’ people are viewed more negatively than ‘African Americans’ because of a perceived difference in socioeconomic status.” 以及“The study’s most striking findings shed light on the racial biases permeating the professional world.” 说明Erika Hall的研究发现种族偏见在职业领域很普遍，所以选A。
49. 由题干中的关键词“Erika Hall find in her experiment about a man with the last name Williams”定位到第五、六段。实验中对同一人分别用“African - American”和“Black”介绍，然后让两组人估计其工资、职业地位和教育背景，结果不同，这表明人们对一个人的看法和他/她被贴的标签有很大关系，所以选C。
50. 由题干中的关键词“Dr. Du Bois’s ideal”定位到最后一段最后一句。“Perhaps a new phrase is needed, one that can bring everyone one big step closer to realizing Du Bois’s original, idealistic hope: ‘It’s not the name—it’s the Thing that counts.’” 提到Du Bois的理想是重要的不是名字，而是人的价值，也就是一个人由其价值来评判，所以选B。
2015年12月第一套 Passage Two
61. 由题干中的关键词“Arum and Roksa’s finding about higher education in America”定位到第一段。“In particular, Arum and Roksa found, college students were not developing the critical thinking, analytic reasoning and other higher-level skills that are necessary to thrive in today’s knowledge-based economy and to lead our nation in a time of complex challenges and dynamic change.” 提到Arum和Roksa发现大学生没有培养在当今知识经济中茁壮成长以及在国家面临复杂挑战和动态变化时引领国家所必需的批判性思维、分析推理和其他高级技能，也就是未能让学生做好面对现代挑战的准备，所以选B。
62. 由题干中的关键词“responsible for the students’ lack of higher-level skills”定位到第二段第一句。“Arum and Roksa placed the blame for students’ lack of learning on a watered-down college curriculum and lowered undergraduate work standards.” 表明学生缺乏高级技能是因为被稀释的大学课程，所以选A。
63. 由题干中的关键词“Laura Hamilton say about college administrations”定位到第三段第一句。“Laura Hamilton, the author of a study on parents who pay for college, will argue in a forthcoming book that college administrations are overly concerned with the social and athletic activities of their students.” 提到Laura Hamilton认为大学管理部门过于关注学生的社交和体育活动，也就是优先考虑非学术活动，所以选D。
64. 由题干中的关键词“socially and financially privileged students”定位到第三段。“Hamilton describes what she calls the ‘party pathway,’ which eases many students through college, helped along by various clubs that send students into the party scene and a host of easier majors.” 以及“universities are ‘catering to the social and educational needs of wealthy students at the expense of others’” 说明在社会和经济上有特权的学生能够选择更容易的专业来享受大学生活，所以选B。
65. 由题干中的关键词“the author suggest in the last paragraph”定位到最后一段最后一句。“For students who have been coasting through college, and for American universities that have been demanding less work, offering more attractions and charging higher tuition, the party may soon be over.” 提到对于那些在大学里混日子以及那些要求更少工作、提供更多吸引力并收取更高学费的美国大学来说，好日子可能很快就要结束了，也就是美国高等教育的现状可能不会持续太久，所以选C。
2015年12月第二套 Passage One
46. 由题干中的关键词“most influential medical groups recommend doctors do”定位到第一段。“Saying they can no longer ignore the rising price of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care.” 提到一些最有影响力的医疗团体建议医生在决定患者护理时，不仅要考虑治疗效果，还要权衡成本，所以选C。
47. 由题干中的关键词“doctors mainly concerned about in the past”定位到第二段。“The shift...suggests that doctors are starting to redefine their roles, from being concerned exclusively about individual patients...” 说明过去医生主要关注的是个体患者，也就是治疗效果等方面，所以选B。
48. 由题干中的关键词“new guidelines being developed lead to”定位到第二段。“The shift...suggests that doctors are starting to redefine their roles...” 以及后面提到的新指南可能导致的实际结果，如医生因成本原因选择一种药物而非另一种等，可知新指南可能导致医生角色的重新定义，所以选A。
49. 由题干中的关键词“risk in their dual role...see”定位到第五段。“Some doctors see a potential conflict in trying to be both providers of patient care and financial overseers.” 表明医生认为他们作为患者护理提供者和财务监督者的双重角色可能存在利益冲突，可能会失去患者的信任，也就是失去患者的尊重，所以选D(他们可能失去患者的尊重，这种尊重的失去是因为信任的失去，与原文意思相符)。
50. 由题干中的关键词“experts say about doctors’ involvement in medical cost analysis”定位到最后一段。“Still, some analysts say that there’s a role for doctors to play in cost analysis because not many others are doing so. ‘In some ways,’ said Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, ‘it represents a failure of wider society to take up the issue.’” 提到一些专家认为医生参与成本分析是因为社会没有解决这个问题，所以选C。
2015年12月第二套 Passage Two
51. 由题干中的关键词 Obama view economic inequality”定位到文章第一段和第二段。第一段提到奥巴马认为不平等是危险的，因为它本身会破坏向上流动性”，第二段进一步说他是将不平等视为头号公敌”的最著名公众人物。综合来看，奥巴马认为不平等是社会流动的最大障碍。所以选 A。
52. 由题干中的关键词 Scott Winship’s data analysis”定位到文章第三段。该段明确指出，基于哈佛和伯克利的新数据，社会学家Scott Winship注意到，不平等本身并不是经济流动性的一个特别有力的预测指标”。所以选 B。
53. 由题干中的关键词 Salt Lake City”和 Atlanta”定位到文章第四段和第五段。第四段提出问题：为什么盐湖城最有可能帮助穷人改变命运，而亚特兰大最不可能?第五段给出了答案，指出像盐湖城这样双亲家庭和宗教信仰水平高的社区，比亚特兰大这种种族和经济隔离程度高的社区，更有可能看到贫困儿童出人头地”。所以选 C。
54. 由题干中的关键词 Raj Chetty”和 strongly correlated with”定位到文章第五段。该段末尾提到，Chetty指出家庭结构是他所称之为向上流动性的最强相关因素”。所以选 A。
55. 由题干可知，本题考查作者的观点或建议。纵观全文，作者先引出奥巴马等人的观点(不平等是核心问题)，然后通过Chetty等人的研究，指出真正影响社会流动性的因素是社区层面的因素，如家庭结构、政府支出、学校质量等。文章最后总结道，具备这些特点的社区最有可能帮助贫困儿童”。这表明作者认为，与其笼统地关注收入不平等，不如从社区层面着手解决问题。所以选 D。
2015年12月第三套 Passage One
由题干中的关键词“traditional educators’ interpretation of the research outcome”定位到第一段。“From the standpoint of a traditional educator, this outcome indicated that schooling had failed to help students think about ecosystems and extinction, major scientific ideas.”，提到从传统教育者的观点来看，这个结果表明学校教育未能帮助学生思考主要的科学观点，如生态系统和物种灭绝，所以选D。
由题干中的关键词“In what way are college students different from children”定位到第二段。“The college students had cultivated the ability to ask questions, the cornerstone of critical thinking.”，说明大学生已经培养了提出问题的能力，这是批判性思维的基石，即他们学会了批判性思考，所以选A。
由题干中的关键词“benefit of asking questions with no ready answers”定位到第三段。“We found that when we taught participants to ask ‘What if?’ and ‘How can?’ questions that nobody present would know the answer to and that would spark exploration, they engaged in better inquiry at the next exhibit...”，表明提出没有现成答案的问题可以激发探索，提升科学探究的质量，即培养了学生科学探究的能力，所以选B。
由题干中的关键词“advantage of informal learning”定位到最后一段。“Informal learning environment tolerate failure better than schools.”，明确指出非正式学习环境的优势是更能容忍失败，所以选A。
由题干中的关键词“encourage educators to do at the end of the passage”定位到最后一段。“For that, we have a robust informal system that gives no grades, takes all comers, and is available even on holidays and weekends.”，作者在结尾提到有一个强大的非正式学习系统，似乎鼓励教育者充分利用非正式学习资源，所以选C。
