单选题 Motivation is necessary in order to succeed. Whether you are working out to feel and look better, participating in the "Day of Silence" to support a cause, or working hard in school to get good grades and get accepted at one's college of choice, everything that people do has a motive behind it.
However, motivation is a quality that many high school students seem to lack. Maybe it is because they feel as though the information that they are learning will never be useful to them, that they think their teachers are terrible, or that they simply "hate school." But no one else is forcing you to do your work. You've decided to take it on. It all comes down to what you want and what you are willing to do in order to get there.
Minor setbacks often discourage people from trying. For example, if a student fails a French quiz, it could lead to him to not studying for a French test, and thereby not scoring well on it. Instead of allowing "feelings of inadequacy to get you down, think about all the things you do have and let those push you to succeed. Don't worry about or dwell on things that go wrong. Concentrate on your successes.
Both UT Austin and Virginia Tech are readable and understandable websites for self help. The UT Austin site presents suggestions in bullet form and separates general motivation skills from academic ones. The Virginia Tech site also suggests ways to increase motivation, and then has a checklist. This list makes it easy for students to target the source of their poor motivation. Both sites seem to be aimed at college students, but they are perfectly suitable for high school students as well.
Both websites were well presented and clear. However, in order to improve the Virginia Tech website, I would include a suggestion box after the checklist so after completing the list, after reading the suggestions from this box, one could have some sort of plan of action.

单选题 What is the author trying to approve with the examples in paragraph 1 ?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】考查举例的功能和作用。任何具体的例子的列举都是作者为了证明文章的中心思想而提出的，只要看到这一点就能正确作答，否则很有可能被就事论事的干扰选项迷惑，比如A项这样的选项就是这样设计的；B项本身看上去有道理，但我们看完所有选项后，发现D项中出现了motivation这样一个全篇都在讨论的核心概念，所以D项是我们的最佳选择；C项完全是捏造出来的搭配选项，排除这一选项的难度不大。

单选题 Which one of the following is NOT one of the reasons why high school students lack motivation?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】考查细节。细节题的命制是规律性最小的，也就是说出题的点可能性很大，但仍然有一定的规律可循，比如这里原文出现了列举和排比，并且数量超过3个的时候，就很有可能成为出题的信息点；对比原文，我们可以看到，A项是对原文信息“they feel as though the information that they are learning will never be useful to them”的改写；B项针对原文“they think their teachers are terrible”；D和原文“they simply hate school”表达的是类似的意思，所以C项是唯一没有在原文出现的例子，退一步来讲，从逻辑上进行思考，即使C项出现在了原文中，它应该是属于对问题的描述而不应该是对造成问题的原因的解释。

单选题 What is the author trying to do with the example in paragraph 3?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】例证题。结合我们第一题进行的分析，始终关注文章核心概念和中心观点，文章始终围绕着motivation，lack of motivation，increase motivation这样话题来写，脱离这一主题的都不可能是文章要论证的观点，只要我们始终清醒的认识到这一点，就可以看到B，C和D项的问题了，如果没有上下文，只是孤立的出现第三段的例子，没有任何附加的评论，其实这三个选项都可以作为这个例子想要证明的观点，但阅读的话题限定性决定了只能是A为正确选项；从另外一个角度来思考这个问题的话，我们也可以发现举例在我们的论证过程中的重要作用，同样的例子在不同的话题中是可以证明不同的观点，这是值得我们思考和练习的。

单选题 What distinguishes UT Austin from Virginia Tech?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】考查对比与比较关系。两个大写首字母的专有名词词组告诉我们，题目出自原文的第四段，“The Virginia Tech site also suggests”表明了这是两者的共同点，所以 A不能作为区别两者的特点；同样的原因决定了C项和D项都不能入选，这都是在讲两者之间的共同点，在原文中对应的出处分别是“Both sites seem to be aimed at college students，but they are perfectly suitable for high school students as well。”和“Both UT Austin and Virginia Tech are readable and understandable websites for self help．”

单选题 What kind of suggestion does the author give to Virginia Tech website at the end of the passage?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】考查细节。文章结尾处，作者对于Virginia Tech提出了自己的改进建议；原文的“I would include a suggestion box”应该是正确答案的出处，C项与这样的描述吻合，为正确选项；A项和B项是脱离原文的建议，比较容易排除；D项中出现的 box和their plan of action都是出自原文的具体信息点，但是这些信息点之间的关系是命题者杜撰出来的，这样的干扰选项的设置方式是我们需要格外注意的，在真实的考试
中经常会碰到。