Section II Reading Comprehension

　　Part A

　　Directions:

　　Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)

　　Text 1

　　People often complain that plastics are too durable. Water bottles, shopping bags, and other trash litter the planet, from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, because plastics are everywhere and don’t break down easily. But some plastic materials change over time. They crack and frizzle. They “weep” out additives. They melt into sludge. All of which creates huge headaches for institutions, such as museums, trying to preserve culturally important objects. The variety of plastic objects at risk is dizzying: early radios, avant-garde sculptures, celluloid animation stills from Disney films, the first artificial heart.

　　Certain artifacts are especially vulnerable because some pioneers in plastic art didn’t always know how to mix ingredients properly, says Thea van Oosten, a polymer chemist who, until retiring a few years ago, worked for decades at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. “It’s like baking a cake: If you don’t have exact amounts, it goes wrong,” she says. “The object you make is already a time bomb.”

　　And sometimes, it’s not the artist’s fault. In the 1960s, the Italian artist Piero Gilardi began to create hundreds of bright, colorful foam pieces. Those pieces included small beds of roses and other items as well as a few dozen “nature carpets”—large rectangles decorated with foam pumpkins, cabbages, and watermelons. He wanted viewers to walk around on the carpets—which meant they had to be durable.

　　Unfortunately, the polyurethane foam he used is inherently unstable. It’s especially vulnerable to light damage, and by the mid-1990s, Gilardi’s pumpkins, roses, and other figures were splitting and crumbling. Museums locked some of them away in the dark.

　　So van Oosten and her colleagues worked to preserve Gilardi’s sculptures. They infused some with stabilizing and consolidating chemicals. Van Oosten calls those chemicals “sunscreens” because their goal was to prevent further light damage and rebuild worn polymer fibers. She is proud that several sculptures have even gone on display again, albeit sometimes beneath protective cases.

　　Despite success stories like van Oosten’s, preservation of plastics will likely get harder. Old objects continue to deteriorate. Worse, biodegradable plastics, designed to disintegrate, are increasingly common.

　　And more is at stake here than individual objects. Joana Lia Ferreira, an assistant professor of conservation and restoration at the NOVA School of Science and Technology, notes that archaeologists first defined the great material ages of human history—Stone Age, Iron Age, and so on—after examining artifacts in museums. We now live in an age of plastic, she says, “and what we decide to collect today, what we decide to preserve … will have a strong impact on how in the future we’ll be seen.”

　　21. According to Paragraph 1, museums are faced with difficulties in ______.

　　[A] maintaining their plastic items

　　[B] obtaining durable plastic artifacts

　　[C] handling outdated plastic exhibits

　　[D] classifying their plastic collections

　　22. Van Oosten believes that certain plastic objects are ______.

　　[A] immune to decay

　　[B] improperly shaped

　　[C] inherently flawed

　　[D] complex in structure

　　23. Museums stopped exhibiting some of Gilardi’s artworks to ______.

　　[A] keep them from hurting visitors

　　[B] duplicate them for future display

　　[C] have their ingredients analyzed

　　[D] prevent them from further damage

　　24. The author thinks that preservation of plastics is ______.

　　[A] costly

　　[B] unworthy

　　[C] unpopular

　　[D] challenging

　　25. In Ferreira’ s opinion, preservation of plastic artifacts ______.

　　[A] will inspire future scientific research

　　[B] has profound historical significance

　　[C] will help us separate the material ages

　　[D] has an impact on today’s cultural life

　　Section II Reading Comprehension

　　答案解析：

　　21. [A] maintaining their plastic items

　　22. [C] inherently flawed

　　23. [D] prevent them from further damage

　　24. [D] challenging

　　25. [B] has profound historical significance

　　Text 2

　　As the latest crop of students pen their undergraduate application form and weigh up their options, it may be worth considering just how the point, purpose and value of a degree has changed and what Generation Z need to consider as they start the third stage of their educational journey.

　　Millennials were told that if you did well in school, got a decent degree, you would be set up for life. But that promise has been found wanting. As degrees became universal, they became devalued. Education was no longer a secure route of social mobility. Today, 28 per cent of graduates in the UK are in non-graduate roles, a percentage which is double the average among OECD countries.

　　This is not to say that there is no point in getting a degree, but rather stress that a degree is not for everyone, that the switch from classroom to lecture hall is not an inevitable one and that other options are available.

　　Thankfully, there are signs that this is already happening, with Generation Z seeking to learn from their millennial predecessors, even if parents and teachers tend to be still set in the degree mindset. Employers have long seen the advantages of hiring school leavers who often prove themselves to be more committed and loyal employees than graduates. Many too are seeing the advantages of scrapping a degree requirement for certain roles.

　　For those for whom a degree is the desired route, consider that this may well be the first of many. In this age of generalists, it pays to have specific knowledge or skills. Postgraduates now earn 40 per cent more than graduates. When more and more of us have a degree, it makes sense to have two.

　　It is unlikely that Generation Z will be done with education at 18 or 21; they will need to be constantly up-skilling throughout their career to stay employable. It has been estimated that this generation, due to the pressures of technology, the wish for personal fulfilment and desire for diversity, will work for 17 different employers over the course of their working life and have five different careers. Education, and not just knowledge gained on campus, will be a core part of Generation Z’s career trajectory.

　　Older generations often talk about their degree in the present and personal tense: ‘I am a geographer’ or ‘I am a classist’. Their sons or daughters would never say such a thing; it’s as if they already know that their degree won’t define them in the same way.

　　26. The author suggests that Generation Z should ______.

　　[A] be careful in choosing a college

　　[B] be diligent at each educational stage

　　[C] reassess the necessity of college education

　　[D] postpone their undergraduate application

　　27. The percentage of UK graduates in non-graduate roles reflect ______.

　　[A] Millennial’s opinions about work

　　[B] the shrinking value of a degree

　　[C] public discontent with education

　　[D] the desired route of social mobility

　　28. The author considers it a good sign that ______.

　　[A] Generation Z are seeking to earn a decent degree

　　[B] school leavers are willing to be skilled workers

　　[C] employers are taking a realistic attitude to degrees

　　[D] parents are changing their minds about education

　　29. It is advised in Paragraph 5 that those with one degree should ______.

　　[A] make an early decision on their career

　　[B] attend on the job training programs

　　[C] team up with high-paid postgraduates

　　[D] further their studies in a specific field

　　30. What can be concluded about Generation Z from the last two paragraphs?

　　[A] Lifelong learning will define them.

　　[B] They will make qualified educators.

　　[C] Degrees will no longer appeal them.

　　[D] They will have a limited choice of jobs.

　　答案解析：

　　26. [C] reassess the necessity of college education

　　27. [B] the shrinking value of a degree

　　28. [C] employers are taking a realistic attitude to degrees

　　29. [D] further their studies in a specific field

　　30. [A] Lifelong learning will define them.

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