2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀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）：本文選自The New York Times;

注（2）：本文習題模仿對象：第1、5題模仿2011年真題Text 1的第1、5題；第2題模仿2010年真題Text 2的第2題；第3、4題模仿2011年真題Text 2的第3、4題。

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

本文是一篇說明文，主要介紹了美國當前面臨著科技人員短缺的問題。面對這一問題，微軟做出新的舉措試圖挽救這一局面。前兩段首先指出，美國出現(xiàn)的科技人才短缺危機已影響到國民經(jīng)濟，微軟采取一些計劃試圖改變這一現(xiàn)狀；緊接著第三段講述了美國其他大型科技公司采取的各種挽救措施；第四段介紹了微軟把自己的員工派駐到學校進行科技課程的指導(dǎo)，也就是所謂的“校園科技教育與掃盲”活動；最后一段講述了這一草根行動受到許多學校的大力支持，微軟鼓勵其他公司也參與進來，以吸引更多外部工程師的參與。

詞匯注釋

bluntly /?bl?ntli/ adv. 坦率地；遲鈍地

hoopla /?hu?plɑ?/ n. 大吹大擂，喧鬧；投環(huán)套物游戲

philanthropic /?f?l?n?θr?p?k/ adj. 慈善的；博愛的

underwrite /??nd??ra?t/ v. 同意資助；簽署（保險單）；認購

stipend /?sta?pend/ n. 薪水，薪金

難句突破

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.

主體句式：He is one of 110 engineers.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這個長句看上去結(jié)構(gòu)復(fù)雜，其實主句很短。主句后面的介賓結(jié)構(gòu)作engineers的后置定語，這里面包含一個由who引導(dǎo)的限制性定語從句，先行詞是engineers，用來補充說明這110名工程師的情況，aimed at后面的動名詞短語是目的狀語，so引導(dǎo)一個結(jié)果狀語從句。

句子譯文：他是高科技公司派駐到中學里的110名工程師之一，是微軟發(fā)起的一個項目的成員，這個項目旨在讓高中學生迷上計算機科學，進而在這一領(lǐng)域謀求職業(yè)發(fā)展。

題目分析

1. A 推斷題。B、C和D都只是現(xiàn)象，是文中提到的事實，而A則是在這些事實基礎(chǔ)之上推斷出來的結(jié)果。

2. D 細節(jié)題。A、B和C在文中皆有對應(yīng)的信息。雖文中也提到了CS4HS項目，但該項目的參與者是high school teachers，而非學生。

3. A 語義題。由前后文語義可知，進駐學校的微軟工程師們課時至少每周兩小時，有的多達五小時，講課只能獲得small stipend，根據(jù)常識可推斷stipend為在學校earn的是薪金。

4. D 推斷題。最后一段中提出，微軟推出的這一項目在西雅圖地區(qū)有22所學校參與了并已經(jīng)拓展到華盛頓地區(qū)和其他一些州，由此可以推出，微軟這一計劃已經(jīng)引起了關(guān)注，但僅靠微軟遠遠不夠，它希望有更多的公司參與進來。A、C選項皆是文中表述的事實，B在文中作者并未直接表明，而D則是基于這些事實得出的結(jié)論，體現(xiàn)了段落主旨，故為答案。

5. D 情感態(tài)度題。本文是一篇說明文，旨在陳述客觀事實，因此作者持中立態(tài)度。

參考譯文

萊安德雷·恩薩比是雷尼爾海灘高中的一名高年級學生，最近他得到了一位老師極為直率而又實用的建議。他說：“我的老師告訴我，計算機科學行業(yè)能賺大錢，這門學問在將來真的能派上用場?！边@位老師名叫史蒂文·愛德華。對計算機這門學科，他的確有些了解。除了自愿來這里每周花四天時間擔任計算機教師之外，愛德華還在微軟工作。他是高科技公司派駐到中學里的110名工程師之一，是微軟發(fā)起的一個項目的成員，這個項目旨在讓高中學生迷上計算機科學，進而在這一領(lǐng)域謀求職業(yè)發(fā)展。微軟正在通過這種不尋常的方法來解決計算機專業(yè)本科畢業(yè)生不足的問題，這是美國科技行業(yè)目前面臨的最嚴重的問題之一，也給整個美國經(jīng)濟帶來了更大的挑戰(zhàn)。

美國一個專業(yè)計算機研究者協(xié)會——計算機協(xié)會對聯(lián)邦政府預(yù)測數(shù)據(jù)的分析表明，到2020年美國計算機行業(yè)每年可能將有15萬個計算機崗位空缺。盡管Facebook首席執(zhí)行官馬克·扎克伯格等創(chuàng)業(yè)名人十分風光，但美國國家教育數(shù)據(jù)統(tǒng)計中心估算，2010年美國的計算機本科畢業(yè)生還不到四萬人。此外，整個就業(yè)市場依然低迷。微軟總法律顧問布拉德·史密斯負責監(jiān)督這個無償教育項目。他在最近的受訪中表示：“有些人找不到工作，而我們有些職位卻招不到人?！?

多年來，美國大型科技公司一直對科技人才匱乏的局面怨聲載道。他們也一直在設(shè)法解決這個問題，比如游說政府放寬移民政策以便引進更多的國外工程師，以及出資舉辦科技競賽來提高學生們對這個行業(yè)的興趣。在這些公司中，谷歌為即將上九年級的學生舉辦了編程夏令營活動，并同意資助一項名為CS4HS的計劃。在該計劃中高中教師可以通過參加當?shù)卮髮W主辦的研習班來提升計算機技能。

然而，微軟則把自己的員工派到最前線，鼓勵他們到高中去，教授整整一學年的計算機課。進駐中學的微軟工程師們授課只能獲得很少的報酬，他們的課時至少為每周兩小時，有些人的課時則多達五小時。學校會將他們的課程排在一天中的最前面，以免影響工程師們的日程安排，而他們通常也要到上午比較晚的時候才能到微軟工作。

這個項目本是一項草根行動，由微軟工程師凱文·王首創(chuàng)。他曾在哈佛大學取得教育學碩士學位。2009年，凱文·王志愿在他上班途中的一家西雅圖公立高中擔任計算機科學老師。微軟高管得知他的做法后，為凱文·王提供了財務(wù)支持，也就是“校園科技教育與掃盲”活動，并允許他把全部時間投入到這項工作中。目前，這個項目已經(jīng)在西雅圖地區(qū)的22所學校展開，并且已在這個學年拓展到華盛頓、猶他州、北達科他州、加利福尼亞州和其他州的十多所學校。微軟希望其他大型科技公司也能支持這項活動，這樣可以擴大外部工程師的參與范圍。