I promise. "I swear to you it'll never happen again." "I give you my word" "Honestly. Believe me." Sure，I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity, I read my students' essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism（剽窃）appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won't detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student's work with his or her name even if it's missing from the upper left-hand corner.
Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average (GPA)? When we're threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. "If you let me pass math I will..." "Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I'll..." Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliche to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked; gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract so why should anyone be the exception. Why not?
Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of Ph.D.thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.
I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it I'd understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given, but he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays.
I promise...I'll not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I'm just nervous today.
The head of the English department agreed with my finding, and the meeting with the dean had the boy's parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy's previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicted he was already on academic probation（留校查看）, the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, "He's only a child" and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such... Except in this uncomfortable circumstance.
1.According to the author, students commit plagiarism mainly for_______.
A.money B.degree C.higher GPA D.reputation
2.The sentence "Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises" implies that_______.
A.students usually keep their promises
B.some students tend to break their promises.
C.the promises are always behind the situation
D.we cannot judge the situation in advance, as we do to the promises
3.The words "borderline passing" (Line 3, Para. 3) probably means_______.
A.fairly good B.extremely poor
C.above average D.below average
4.The boy's parents thought their son should be excused mainly because_______.
A.teachers should be compassionate B.he was only a child
C.instructors were wiser D.he was threatened
5.Which of the following might serve as the title for this passage?
A.Human Nurture B.Conditional Promises
C.How to Detect Cheating D.The Sadness of Plagiarism
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1.【答案】C。
【解析】题目中的关键词plagiarism在文章第一段，但是第一段并没有找到解释孩子们剽窃的主要原因，紧接第二段的第一句“Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average (GPA)”这是一个承上启下的句子。可见，孩子们实施剽窃的主要原因是获得更高的GPA，所以应该选C。
2.【答案】B。
【解析】题目的问题在文章第二段，“When we're threatened or sick, we make conditional promises.'if you let me pass math I will 1' Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises.” 当我们受到威胁或生病的时候，我们就会作出有条件的承诺，如果你让我通过数学考试我将……一旦有这样的情况，我们就作出如此的承诺。也就暗示了人们总是在出现情况之后才作出承诺，没有问题时，誓言也就不复存在了。可见人们总是食言。B项的答案最为符合，所以应该选B。
3.【答案】D。
【解析】文章第四段“He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of Ph.D. thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.” 直到那个时间以前，他上交了一篇具有博士学位词汇和句子的散文，由时间前后的对比，可以推断以前他的功课可能不好，即borderline passing是贬义的。排除A、C，但又因为passing是“通过，及格”的意思，所以这里应该表示刚好通过分数，B项语气太强烈，所以应该选D。
4.【答案】B。
【解析】本题在文章的最后一段，“His parents protested, 'He's only a child' and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate.”由于A和C项在文中是并列的，不能同时成为题目的答案，所以排除它们，D项文章中没有提到，所以男孩的父母认为他们的孩子应该被原谅的主要原因是：他还仅仅是个孩子，应该选B。
5.【答案】D。
【解析】主旨题，看几个选项知A、C、D项都只是文章中的细节不能表达文章的中心思想，并且文章中plagiarism贯穿全文。所以文章的题目是剽窃的悲哀，应该选D。
