Question

Eleven top universities are joining the Open University to launch free Internet courses. King’s College London, along with the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick, has partnered with FutureLearn, a company set up by the Open University that will offer free and non-credit bearing courses to Internet-users around the world.

The courses are modeled on the US phenomenon “Massive open online courses” ( Moocs ), which have attracted millions of users around the world and are especially popular in emerging economies.

FutureLearn will improve UK institutions for international students, said Prof Martin Bean, voice-chancellor of the Open University. “At the moment, foreign students’ perception of UK Universities is: wonderful history, great tradition, really good teaching, but a bit boring.”

Leeds University says the partnership will benefit students studying on campus. “Students will have access to a rich set of resources from both Leeds and our partners. They can also broaden their education beyond their main subject areas.”

The UK higher education industry stands among the top five export earners for Britain Moocs have grown rapidly in the US over the past year, with two providers leading the field. Coursera offers courses from 33 Universities, including Princeton, Brown, Columbia and Duke, and has reached more than 1.7 million users, EdX, a nonprofit start-up from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology courses this autumn.

Simon Nelson, one of the key architects of BBC Online, will head FutureLearn as launch CEO. “It’s really meaningful for these universities to come together –we’ll punch much harder collectively than any other university will individually,” he said.

Partner Institutions will be responsible for their own content while the OU, which has been providing distance-learning courses since 1971, will assist with course delivery and infrastructure. Details of further universities will be revealed next year, as will the courses on offer.

1. What does the underlined word “perception” in paragrah3 mean?

A．expectation        B．view             C．dream            D．proposal

2. We can learn from the passage that              

A．Coursera, one of the two providers, leads the online courses in the US.

B．Economics is the most popular subject among these online courses.

C．FutureLearn is only set up for the Internet-users.

D．About 1,7million users are taking the free courses launched by UK.

3.What is implied in Simon’s words?

A．It’s really meaningful for these universities to cooperate.

B．Single university can’t do the work very well.

C．These universities will compete with each other.

D．Joint efforts by these top universities will help the program go more smoothly.

4.All of the following statements are true except             

A．Internet-users don’t need to get credit for the courses.

B．UK may top the list of online education one day.

C．The UK higher education industry stands among the top five export earners for England.

D．Some foreign students may think UK universities are not so satisfying.

5. In which magazine would you most likely find this passage?

A．Entertainment      B．Science           C．Education         D．Business Week

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.C

5.C

【解析】

試題分析：文講述的是英國的開放性教育，讓更多的大學參加進入這一項目。

1.B 推理題。根據本句“At the moment, foreign students’ perception of UK Universities is: wonderful history, great tradition, really good teaching, but a bit boring.”說明這里是指外國學生對于英語大學的觀點，故該詞是指觀點。故B正確。

2.A 推理題。根據本段he UK higher education industry stands among the top five export earners for Britain Moocs have grown rapidly in the US over the past year, with two providers leading the field. Coursera offers courses from 33 Universities, including Princeton, Brown, Columbia and Duke, and has reached more than 1.7 million users說明Coursera是這兩種providers之一，故A正確。

3.D 推理題。根據倒數第二段It’s really meaningful for these universities to come together –we’ll punch much harder collectively than any other university will individually,”說明這些大學一起努力，讓情況很不一樣。故D正確。

4.C 細節題。根據The UK higher education industry stands among the top five export earners for Britain 是在不列顛，而不是England.這里作者偷梁換柱，偷換概念了。故C項不正確。

5.C 推理題。本文講述的是英國的開放性教育，讓更多的大學參加進入這一項目。屬于教育類的話題，故C正確。

考點：考查教育類短文閱讀

點評：文講述的是英國的開放性教育，讓更多的大學參加進入這一項目。測試考生在閱讀基礎上的邏輯推理能力，要求考生根據文章所述事件的邏輯關系，對未說明的趨勢或結局作出合理的推斷；或根據作者所闡述的觀點理論，對文章未涉及的現象、事例給以解釋。考生首先要仔細閱讀短文，完整了解信息，準確把握作者觀點。