2020考研英语阅读理解精读100篇：Unit 20

Unit 20

It sounded at first like a familiar story: school administrators, seeking to meet state and federal standards, fraudulently raised students’ scores on crucial exams. But in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all.

It led to a dramatic moment at the federal courthouse this month, when a former schools superintendent, Lorenzo Garcia, was sentenced to prison for his role in orchestrating the testing scandal. But for students and parents, the case did not end there. A federal investigation continues, with the likelihood of more arrests of administrators who helped Mr. Garcia. Federal prosecutors charged Mr. Garcia, 57, with devising an elaborate program to inflate test scores to improve the performance of struggling schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and to allow him to collect annual bonuses for meeting district goals.

The scheme, elements of which were carried out for most of Mr. Garcia’s nearly six-year tenure, centered on a state-mandated test taken by sophomores. Known as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, it measures performance in reading, mathematics and other subjects. The scheme’s objective was to keep low-performing students out of the classroom so they would not take the test and drag scores down, according to prosecutors, former principals and school advocates.

Students identified as low-performing were transferred to charter schools, discouraged from enrolling in school or were visited at home by truant officers and told not to go to school on the test day. For some, credits were deleted from transcripts or grades were changed from passing to failing or from failing to passing so they could be reclassified as freshmen or juniors.

Others intentionally held back were allowed to catch up before graduation with “turbo-mesters,” in which students earned a semester’s worth of credit for a few hours of computer work. A former high school principal said in an interview and in court that one student earned two semester credits in three hours on the last day of school. Still other students who transferred to the district from Mexico were automatically put in the ninth grade, even if they had earned credits for the 10th grade, to keep them from taking the test. The program was known as “the Bowie model,” and Mr. Garcia had boasted of his success in raising test scores, particularly in 2008, when all of the district’s eligible campuses earned a rating of “academically acceptable” or better from the state. But parents and students had another name for what was happening: “los desaparecidos,” or the disappeared.

State education data showed that 381 students were enrolled as freshmen at Bowie in the fall of 2007. The following fall, the sophomore class was 170 students. Dozens of the missing students had “disappeared” through Mr. Garcia’s program, said Eliot Shapleigh, a lawyer and former state senator who began his own investigation into testing misconduct and was credited with bringing the case to light. Mr. Shapleigh said he believed that hundreds of students were affected and that district leaders had failed to do enough to locate and help them.

注（1）：本文选自Times；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象:第1、2、3、4题模仿2010年真题Text 2第1、2、3、4题，第5题模仿2010年真题Text 4第5题。

1. Concern on school administrators has been aroused because ______.

A) the students’ scores have been reduced

B) they devised the cheating program

C) they are manipulating numbers

D) the 64,000-student school district can’t meet state and federal standards

2. Which of the following is true about the scandal?

A) Garcia felt quite regretful for his mistake.

B) It was devised to make the school famous.

C) It has been carried out for more than six years.

D) Many relevant administrators would be hurled in jail because of the scandal.

3. The word “discouraged” （Line 1, Para. 4） most probably indicates ______.

A) the school had great concern for students

B) the school would persuade students to go back to school

C) students were persuaded not to go to this school

D) low-performing students would be expelled later

4. We learn from the last two paragraphs that ______.

A) students were permitted to catch up by paying a sum of money

B) students’ credits and grades were mishandled freely by administrators

C) “the Bowie model” is a very successful trial

D) Mr. Shapleigh condemned district leaders for misleading students

5. The author’s attitude towards the solutions of the scandal is one of ______.

A) resentment

B) skepticism

C) objectiveness

D) sympathy

篇章剖析

本文就学校行政人员在重大考试中舞弊这则新闻展开论述。第一段简单介绍了学校行政人员的舞弊行为。第二段讲述了该行为受到的法律制裁。第三段指出加西亚策划“舞弊”方案的方式及目的。第四、五、六段详细介绍了“舞弊”方案的具体操作方式及内容，呼吁社会各界的关注和帮助。

词汇注释

fraudulently /ˈfrɔːdjələntli/ adv. 欺骗地

manipulate /məˈnɪpjʊleɪt/ v. 操纵；操控；操作

superintendent /ˌsuːpərɪnˈtendənt/ n. 监督人；负责人

orchestrate /ˈɔːkɪstreɪt/ v. 策划；精心安排；编管弦乐曲

prosecutor /ˈprɒsɪkjuːtə(r)/ n. 检察官

elaborate /ɪˈlæbərət/ adj. 精心制作的；煞费苦心的

inflate /ɪnˈfleɪt/ v. 使大幅增长；膨胀；充气；夸大

tenure /ˈtenjə(r)/ n. 任期；占有

truant /ˈtruːənt/ n. 旷课者；懒惰的人

eligible /ˈelɪdʒəbl/ adj. 合格的；符合条件的

难句突破

The scheme, elements of which were carried out for most of Mr. Garcia’s nearly six-year tenure, centered on a state-mandated test taken by sophomores.

主体句式：The scheme centered on a test...

结构分析：该句结构并不复杂，但其修饰成分较多。主干部分为The scheme centered on a test...。分句elements of which...是插入语，也是the scheme的同位语，起补充说明的作用。分词短语taken by sophomores作后置定语用来修饰test。

句子译文：加西亚的计谋在他将近六年的任期中频频上演，主要运用在大二学生参加的一项国家规定的测试上。

题目分析

1. B 细节题。文章开门见山地指出学校行政人员在重大考试中舞弊，提高学生成绩，以达到州和联邦政府的标准。A、D项的说法与原文相反，C选项与原文不符，只有B选项正确。

2. D 细节题。A选项的说法文中并未提及。考试舞弊并不是为了使学校出名，而是使学校达标，故B项错误。C选项扩大了时间范围，可排除。D选项符合文意，为正确答案。

3. C 语义题。discourage意为“阻止；使气馁”，文中指出：表现不佳的学生被转到特许学校，或在报名时被劝阻，或者训导员会登门造访并要求他们考试当天不要去学校。A、B、D均与题意不符，只有C选项正确。

4. B 推理题。第五、六段指出，故意被留级的学生可以通过参加毕业前的“集中讲座”而赶上来，并举例指出学生的学分和年级被学校随意篡改。可知A、C项不正确，B项正确。文中沙普利先生呼吁地区领导人的帮助，但并未进行指责，因此D项错误。故答案为B。

5. C 情感态度题。从对整个事件的描述到文章最后对沙普利先生呼吁的引用，作者全篇都使用了比较客观的口吻。作者虽然措辞上对该舞弊丑闻表示不满，但对该丑闻的处理办法立足点比较客观。故答案为C。

参考译文

这乍听起来似乎是一则常见的新闻：学校行政人员在重大考试中舞弊，提高学生成绩，以达到州和联邦政府的标准。但是，这个舞弊丑闻震惊了边境城市拥有64000名学生的学区，在这一舞弊丑闻中行政人员操控的不仅仅是数字。他们被指控驱逐低分学生，通过不恰当地让一些学生留级，让另一些学生快速升入高年级，以及阻止许多学生参加考试或根本不让其入学等手段来达到目的。

这个月，这一事件导致了联邦法院备受关注的一幕：前学校督学洛伦佐·加西亚由于策划了这起考试丑闻而锒铛入狱。但对于学生和家长来说，此事并未结束。一项联邦调查仍在继续，更多协助过加西亚的管理人员或将入狱。联邦检察官指控57岁的加西亚先生煞费苦心的经营策划，“提高”考试成绩，来帮助那些其实达不到《不落下一个学生》法案要求的学校达标，且他可因达到学区目标而获得年度奖金。

加西亚的计谋在他将近六年的任期中频频上演，主要运用在大二学生参加的一项国家规定的测试上。该测试叫做得克萨斯知识技能评估，考查学生在阅读、数学和其他一些科目上的表现。根据检察官、前校长和学校代讼人的说法，该计谋的目的是不允许差生进入课堂，这样他们就不用参加考试，拉低平均分。

表现不佳的学生被转到特许学校，或在报名时被劝阻，或者训导员会登门造访并要求他们考试当天不要去学校。某些学生的学分从成绩单上删除了，或者分数从合格改为不合格或者从不合格改为合格，这样他们就可以被重新归类到大一新生或大三学生中。

其他故意被留级的学生可以通过参加毕业前的“集中讲座”而赶上来。在此期间，学生通过几个小时的电脑作业就可以获得一个学期的学分。一位前任高中校长在接受采访时以及在法庭上都指出，一个学生在毕业前最后一天的三个小时内就获得了两个学期的学分。还有一些从墨西哥转到该校区的学生被自动归入了9年级，以避免他们参加该考试，尽管他们已经获得了10年级的学分。该项目被称为“鲍伊模式”，加西亚先生曾吹嘘自己在提高考试成绩上的成就，特别是在2008年，该地区所有的合格学校都获得了国家“学术认可”等级或者更好的成绩。但家长和学生对这样的情况有另外一种说法，即“失踪的学生”或消失的学生。

国家教育数据表明，381名学生于2007年秋天在鲍伊入学成为大一新生。但到第二年的秋天，大二班里只剩下170名学生。埃利奥特·沙普利说，很多失踪的学生都是在加西亚先生的项目中“消失”的。沙普利先生是一位律师，也是前州参议员，是他最先着手调查这项考试的渎职行为并将其公布于众的。沙普利先生说，他相信很多学生都受到了影响，但是地区领导人却没有给予他们足够的关心和帮助。