2003年6月大学英语六级考试真题试卷 - 阅读3

Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.

Take the case of public education alone. The principal difficulty faced by the schools has been he tremendous increase in the number of pupils. This has been caused by the advance of the legal age for going into industry and the impossibility of finding a job even when the legal age has been reached. In view of the technological improvements in the last few years, business will require in he future proportionately fewer workers than ever before. The result will be still further raising of he legal age for going into employment, and still further difficulty in finding employment when hat age has been attained. If we cannot put our children to work, we must put them in school.
We may also be quite confident that the present trend toward a shorter day and a shorter week will be maintained. We have developed and shall continue to have a new leisure class. Already the public agencies for adult education are swamped by the tide that has swept over them since depression began. They will be little better off when it is over. Their support must come from the taxpayer.

It is surely too much to hope that these increases in the cost of public education can be borne by the local communities. They cannot care for the present restricted and inadequate system. The local communities have failed in their efforts to cope with unemployment. They cannot expect to cope with public education on the scale on which we must attempt it. The answer to the problem of unemployment has been Federal relief. The answer to the problem of public education may have to be much the same, and properly so. If there is one thing in which the citizens of all parts of the country have an interest, it is in the decent education of the citizens of all parts of the country. Our income tax now goes in neighbors alive. It may have to go in part as well to make our neighbors intelligent. We are now attempting to preserve the present generation through Federal relief of the destitute (贫民). Only a people determined to ruin the next generation will refuse such Federal funds as public education may require.

31. What is the passage mainly about?
A) How to persuade local communities to provide more funds.
B) How to cope with the shortage of funds for public education.
C) How to solve the rising unemployment problem.
D) How to improve the public education system.

32. What is the reason for the increase in the number of students?
A) The requirement of educated workers by business.
B) Raising of the legal age for going to work.
C) The trend toward a shorter workday.
D) People's concern for the future of the next generation.

33. The public agencies for adult education will be little better off because _____.
A) the unemployed are too poor to continue their education
B) a new leisure class has developed
C) they are still suffering from the depression
D) an increase in taxes could be a problem

34. According to the author, the answer to the problem of public education is that the Federal government _____. .
A) should allocate Federal funds for public education
B) should demand that local communities provide support
C) should raise taxes to meet the needs of public education
D) should first of all solve the problem of unemployment

35. Why does the author say "Only a people determined to ruin the next generation will refuse such Federal funds as public education may require" (Lines 10-11, Para. 3)?
A) Only by appropriating adequate Federal funds for education can the next generation have a bright future.
B) Citizens of all parts of the country agree that the best way to support education is to use Federal funds.
C) people all over the country should make contributions to education in the interest of the next generation.
D) Educated people are determined to use part of the Federal funds to help the poor.