Passage 3
An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of stu- dents' career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. Very few writers on the subject have explored this distinction-in-
deed, contradiction--which goes to the heart of what is wrong with the campaign to put comput- ers in the classroom.
An education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, jus- tified for reasons radically different from why education is universally required by law. It is not simply to raise everyone' s job prospects that all children are legally required to attend school into their teens. Rather, we have a certain conception of the American citizen, a character who is in- complete if he cannot competently assess how his livelihood and happiness are affected by things outside of himself. But this was not always the case; before it was legally required for all children to attend school until a certain age, It was widely accepted that some were just not equipped by nature to pursue this kind of education. With optimism characteristic of all industrialized coun- tries , we came to accept that everyone is fit to be educated. Computer-education advocates forsake this optimistic notion for a pessimism that betrays their otherwise cheery outlook. Banking on the
confusion between educational and vocational reasons for bringing computers into schools, com- puter-ed advocates often emphasize the job prospects of graduates over their educational achieve- ment .
There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student.
Many European schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join. It is, however, pre- sumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists, so many business- men, so many accountants. Besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations.
But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well- developed skills, all other factors being equal , can be the difference between having a job and not.
Of course, the basics of using any computer these days are very simple. It does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. If one wanted to become a computer engineer , that is, of course, an entirely different story. Basic computer skills take--at the very longest-a couple of months to learn. In any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. It should be observed, of course, that no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its purpose.
59. The author thinks the present rush to put computers in the classroom is__
[ A] far-reaching [ B] dubiously oriented [ C] self-contradictory [ D] radically reformatory
60. The belief that educalion is indispensable to all children__
[A]is indicative of a pessimism in disguise
[B]came into being along with the arrival of computers
[C]is deeply rooted in the minds of computer-ed advocates
[ D]originated from the optimistic attitude of industrialized countries
61 . It could be inferred from the passage that in the author' s country the European model of pro-
fessional training is__
[A]dependent upon the starting age of candidates
[B]worth trying in various social sections
[C]of little practical value
[D] attractive to every kind of professional
62 . According to the author, basic computer skills should be__
[A] included as an auxiliary course in school
[ B] highlighted in acquisition of professional qualifications
[ C]mastered through a life-long course
[ D] equally emphasized by any school , vocational or otherwise
Passage 4
When a Scottish research team startled the world by revealing 3 months ago that it had cloned an adult sheep, President Clinton moved swiftly. Declaring that he was opposed to using this unusual animal husbandry technique to clone humans , he ordered that federal funds not be used for such an experiment- although no one had proposed to do so--and asked an independent panel of experts chaired by Prinoeton President Harold Shapiro to report back to the White House in 90 days with recommendations for a na- tional policy on human cloning. That group--the National Bioethics Advisory Commission ( NBAC)-has been working feverishly to put its wisdom on paper, and at a meeting on 17 May, members agreed on a
near-final draft of their recommendations.
NBAC will ask that Clinton ' s 90-day ban on federal funds for human cloning be extended in- definitely , and possibly that it be made law. But NBAC members are planning to word the recom- mendation narrowly to avoid new restrictions on research that involves the cloning of human DNA
or cells-routine in molecular biology. The panel has not yet reached agreement on a crucial ques- tion, however, whether to recommend legislation that would make it a crime for private funding to be used for human cloning.
In a draft preface to the recommendations, discussed at the 17 May meeting, Shapiro sug- gested that the panel had found a broad consensus that it would be "morally unacceptable to at- tempt to create a human child by adult nuclear cloning. " Shapiro explained during the meeting that the moral doubt stems mainly from fears about the risk to the health of the child. The panel then informally accepted several general conclusions , although some details have not been settled.
NBAC plans to call for a continued ban on federal government funding for any attempt to clone body cell nuclei to create a child. Because current federal law already forbids the use of fed-eral funds to create embryos ( the earliest stage of human offspring before birth) for research or to
knowingly endanger an embryo' s life, NBAC will remain silent on embryo research. NBAC members also indicated that they will appeal to privately funded researchers and clinics not to try to clone humans by body cell nuclear transfer. But they were divided on whether to go further by calling for a federal law that would impose a complete ban on human cloning. Shapiro and most members favored an appeal for such legislation , but in a phone interview, he said this is- sue was still "up in the air. "
63. We can learn from the first paragraph that__
[A]federal funds have been used in a project to clone humans
[B] the White House responded strongly to the news of cloning
[C]NBAC was authorized to control the misuse of cloning technique
[D]the White House has got the panel's recommendations on cloning
64. The panel agreed on all of the following except that__
[A]the ban on federal funds for human cloning should be made a law
[B]the cloning of human DNA is not to be put under more control
[C]it is crimtnal to use private funding for human cloning
[D]it would be against ethical values to clone a human being
65 . NBAC will leave the issue of embryo research undiscussed because__
[A]embryo research is just a current development of cloning
[B]the health of the child is not the main concern of embryo research
[C]an embryo' s life will not be endangered in embryo research
[D]the issue is expLicitly stated and settled in the law
66. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that__
[A]some NBAC members hesitate to ban human cloning completely
[B]a law banning human cloning is to be passed in no time
[C] privately funded researchers will respond positively to NBAC' s appeal
[D]the issue of human cloning will soon be settled
