单选题 The Government has almost doubled its spending on computer education in schools. Mr. William Shelton, junior Education Minister, announced that the Microelectronics education Programm (MEP) is to run for two more years with additional funding of at least ￡ 9 million.
The programme began in 1980, was originally due to end next year, and had a budget of ￡ 9 million. This has been raised in bits and pieces over the past year to ￡ 11 million. The programme will now run until March 1986, at a provisional cost of around ￡ 20 million.
MEP provides courses for teachers and develops computer programme for classroom use of personal computers. It is run in partnership with a Department of Industry programme under which British-made personal computer are supplied to schools at half-price.
In that way, virtually every secondary school has been provided with at least one computer at a central cost to the taxpayer of under ￡ 5 million. The primary schools are now under way at the turn of the year.
But, as Mr. Shelton admitted yesterday: "It"s no good having the computers without the right computer programmes to put into them and a great deal more is still needed." Hence, MEP"s new funds.
Mr. Shelton said yesterday that MEP"s achievements in curriculum development and teacher training had shown that the computer could be used in all courses. About 15,000 secondary teachers have taken short courses in "computer awareness" —that is a necessary part of the half-price computer offer—and training materials are now being provided for 50,000 primary teachers. The reasoning behind MEP is that no child now at school can hope for a worthwhile job in the future economy unless he or she understands how to deal with computers —not in vocational training sense, but in learning the general skill to extract the required information of the moment from the ever-spreading flood.

单选题 The original MEP programme was expected to ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是MEP计划原先预期持续多长时间，耗资多少。根据第6行至第7行“... had a budget of ￡9 million.”可知原计划耗资9 million pounds. 回答原先预期持续多长时间，则需要认真推算。从文中得知MEP计划开始于1980年，现在要比原计划多持续2年(is to run for two more years)，于1986年结束。因此，可推算出原计划于1984年结束。1980年开始，计划于1984年结束，则原计划持续4年。故正确答案为B。

单选题 The main aim of MEP is to help curriculum development and ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是MEP计划的目的。根据第12行至第14行“It is run in partnership with a Department of Industry programme under which British-made personal computer are supplied to schools at half-price.”可知选项A和选项B为另一项计划的内容，与题意不符。文章中第23行至第25行“MEP achievements in curriculum development and teacher training had shown that the computer could be used in all courses.”表明计算机可用于全部课程。由此可知，该项计划的目的在于训练教师在课程中使用计算机教学，正确答案为D。