2020考研英语阅读理解精读100篇：Unit 28

Unit 28

Leandre Nsabi, a senior at Rainier Beach High School here, received some bluntly practical advice from an instructor recently. “My teacher said there’s a lot of money to be made in computer science,” Leandre said. “It could be really helpful in the future.” That teacher, Steven Edouard, knows a few things about the subject. When he is not volunteering as a computer science instructor four days a week, Mr. Edouard works at Microsoft. He is one of 110 engineers from high-tech companies who are part of a Microsoft program aimed at getting high school students hooked on computer science, so they go on to pursue careers in the field. In doing so, Microsoft is taking an unusual approach to tackling a shortage of computer science graduates—one of the most serious issues facing the technology industry, and a broader challenge for the nation’s economy.

There are likely to be 150,000 computing jobs opening up each year through 2020, according to an analysis of federal forecasts by the Association for Computing Machinery, a professional society for computing researchers. But despite the hoopla around start-up celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, fewer than 40,000 American students received bachelor’s degrees in computer science during 2010, the National Center for Education Statistics estimates. And the wider job market remains weak. “People can’t get jobs, and we have jobs that can’t be filled,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel who oversees its philanthropic efforts, said in a recent interview.

Big technology companies have complained for years about a dearth of technical talent, a problem they have tried to solve by lobbying for looser immigration rules to accommodate more foreign engineers and sponsoring tech competitions to encourage student interest in the industry. Google, for one, holds a programming summer camp for incoming ninth graders and underwrites an effort called CS4HS, in which high school teachers sharpen their computer science skills in workshops at local universities.

But Microsoft is sending its employees to the front lines, encouraging them to commit to teaching a high school computer science class for a full school year. Its engineers, who earn a small stipend for their classroom time, are in at least two hourlong classes a week and sometimes as many as five. Schools arrange the classes for first thing in the day to avoid interfering with the schedules of the engineers, who often do not arrive at Microsoft until the late morning.

The program started as a grass-roots effort by Kevin Wang, a Microsoft engineer with a master’s degree in education from Harvard. In 2009, he began volunteering as a computer science teacher at a Seattle public high school on his way to work. After executives at Microsoft caught wind of what he was doing, they put financial support behind the effort—which is known as Technology Education and Literacy in Schools, or Teals—and let Mr. Wang run it full time. The program is now in 22 schools in the Seattle area and has expanded to more than a dozen other schools in Washington, Utah, North Dakota, California and other states this academic year. Microsoft wants other big technology companies to back the effort so it can broaden the number of outside engineers involved.

注（1）：本文选自The New York Times;

注（2）：本文习题模仿对象：第1、5题模仿2011年真题Text 1的第1、5题；第2题模仿2010年真题Text 2的第2题；第3、4题模仿2011年真题Text 2的第3、4题。

1. We can learn from the first two paragraphs that ______.

A) America faces a serious issue—lack of computer science graduates

B) computer science is promising

C) Microsoft sends its employees to high schools to be the computer science instructors

D) there are not enough people hunting for jobs in the computer field

2. All the below are the solutions to the lack of qualified technical talents, except ______.

A) persuading the government to make looser immigration rules to introduce more foreign talents

B) funding the technology competitions to inspire more students on tech

C) holding a programming summer camp for incoming ninth graders

D) making students improve their science skills in CS4HS

3. The word “stipend” （Line 2, Paragraph 4） most probably means ______.

A) salary

B) reputation

C) prize

D) respect

4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ______.

A) the program is a grass-roots effort originally

B) Kevin Wang was praised by the executives at Microsoft

C) 22 schools in the Seattle area have involved in the program

D) Microsoft’s plan has already caused attention of other schools and Microsoft hopes for more companies to participate

5. From the text we can see that the writer seems ______.

A) positive

B) negative

C) uncertain

D) neutral

篇章剖析

本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍了美国当前面临着科技人员短缺的问题。面对这一问题，微软做出新的举措试图挽救这一局面。前两段首先指出，美国出现的科技人才短缺危机已影响到国民经济，微软采取一些计划试图改变这一现状；紧接着第三段讲述了美国其他大型科技公司采取的各种挽救措施；第四段介绍了微软把自己的员工派驻到学校进行科技课程的指导，也就是所谓的“校园科技教育与扫盲”活动；最后一段讲述了这一草根行动受到许多学校的大力支持，微软鼓励其他公司也参与进来，以吸引更多外部工程师的参与。

词汇注释

bluntly /ˈblʌntli/ adv. 坦率地；迟钝地

hoopla /ˈhuːplɑː/ n. 大吹大擂，喧闹；投环套物游戏

philanthropic /ˌfɪlənˈθrɔpɪk/ adj. 慈善的；博爱的

underwrite /ˌʌndəˈraɪt/ v. 同意资助；签署（保险单）；认购

stipend /ˈstaɪpend/ n. 薪水，薪金

难句突破

He is one of 110 engineers from high-tech companies who are part of a Microsoft program aimed at getting high school students hooked on computer science, so they go on to pursue careers in the field.

主体句式：He is one of 110 engineers.

结构分析：这个长句看上去结构复杂，其实主句很短。主句后面的介宾结构作engineers的后置定语，这里面包含一个由who引导的限制性定语从句，先行词是engineers，用来补充说明这110名工程师的情况，aimed at后面的动名词短语是目的状语，so引导一个结果状语从句。

句子译文：他是高科技公司派驻到中学里的110名工程师之一，是微软发起的一个项目的成员，这个项目旨在让高中学生迷上计算机科学，进而在这一领域谋求职业发展。

题目分析

1. A 推断题。B、C和D都只是现象，是文中提到的事实，而A则是在这些事实基础之上推断出来的结果。

2. D 细节题。A、B和C在文中皆有对应的信息。虽文中也提到了CS4HS项目，但该项目的参与者是high school teachers，而非学生。

3. A 语义题。由前后文语义可知，进驻学校的微软工程师们课时至少每周两小时，有的多达五小时，讲课只能获得small stipend，根据常识可推断stipend为在学校earn的是薪金。

4. D 推断题。最后一段中提出，微软推出的这一项目在西雅图地区有22所学校参与了并已经拓展到华盛顿地区和其他一些州，由此可以推出，微软这一计划已经引起了关注，但仅靠微软远远不够，它希望有更多的公司参与进来。A、C选项皆是文中表述的事实，B在文中作者并未直接表明，而D则是基于这些事实得出的结论，体现了段落主旨，故为答案。

5. D 情感态度题。本文是一篇说明文，旨在陈述客观事实，因此作者持中立态度。

参考译文

莱安德雷·恩萨比是雷尼尔海滩高中的一名高年级学生，最近他得到了一位老师极为直率而又实用的建议。他说：“我的老师告诉我，计算机科学行业能赚大钱，这门学问在将来真的能派上用场。”这位老师名叫史蒂文·爱德华。对计算机这门学科，他的确有些了解。除了自愿来这里每周花四天时间担任计算机教师之外，爱德华还在微软工作。他是高科技公司派驻到中学里的110名工程师之一，是微软发起的一个项目的成员，这个项目旨在让高中学生迷上计算机科学，进而在这一领域谋求职业发展。微软正在通过这种不寻常的方法来解决计算机专业本科毕业生不足的问题，这是美国科技行业目前面临的最严重的问题之一，也给整个美国经济带来了更大的挑战。

美国一个专业计算机研究者协会——计算机协会对联邦政府预测数据的分析表明，到2020年美国计算机行业每年可能将有15万个计算机岗位空缺。尽管Facebook首席执行官马克·扎克伯格等创业名人十分风光，但美国国家教育数据统计中心估算，2010年美国的计算机本科毕业生还不到四万人。此外，整个就业市场依然低迷。微软总法律顾问布拉德·史密斯负责监督这个无偿教育项目。他在最近的受访中表示：“有些人找不到工作，而我们有些职位却招不到人。”

多年来，美国大型科技公司一直对科技人才匮乏的局面怨声载道。他们也一直在设法解决这个问题，比如游说政府放宽移民政策以便引进更多的国外工程师，以及出资举办科技竞赛来提高学生们对这个行业的兴趣。在这些公司中，谷歌为即将上九年级的学生举办了编程夏令营活动，并同意资助一项名为CS4HS的计划。在该计划中高中教师可以通过参加当地大学主办的研习班来提升计算机技能。

然而，微软则把自己的员工派到最前线，鼓励他们到高中去，教授整整一学年的计算机课。进驻中学的微软工程师们授课只能获得很少的报酬，他们的课时至少为每周两小时，有些人的课时则多达五小时。学校会将他们的课程排在一天中的最前面，以免影响工程师们的日程安排，而他们通常也要到上午比较晚的时候才能到微软工作。

这个项目本是一项草根行动，由微软工程师凯文·王首创。他曾在哈佛大学取得教育学硕士学位。2009年，凯文·王志愿在他上班途中的一家西雅图公立高中担任计算机科学老师。微软高管得知他的做法后，为凯文·王提供了财务支持，也就是“校园科技教育与扫盲”活动，并允许他把全部时间投入到这项工作中。目前，这个项目已经在西雅图地区的22所学校展开，并且已在这个学年拓展到华盛顿、犹他州、北达科他州、加利福尼亚州和其他州的十多所学校。微软希望其他大型科技公司也能支持这项活动，这样可以扩大外部工程师的参与范围。