单选题 Several years ago I was teaching a course on the philosophical assumptions and cultural impact of massive multi-user online games at Williams College. The students in the course were very intelligent and obviously interested in the topic.
But as the semester progressed, I began to detect a problem with the class. The students were working hard and performing well but there was no energy in our discussions and no passion in the students. They were hesitant to express their ideas and often seemed to be going through the motions. I tried to encourage them to be more venturesome with tactics I had used successfully in the past but nothing worked.
One day I asked them what was or, perhaps better, was not going on. Why were they so cautious and where was their enthusiasm for lean, g? They seemed relieved to talk about it and their response surprised me. Since pre-kindergarten, they explained, they had been programmed to perform well so they could get to the next level. They had been taught the downside of risk and encouraged to play it safe. What mattered most was getting into a good elementary school, middle school and high school so that they would finally be admitted to a top college. Having succeeded beyond their parents' wildest expectations, they did not know why they were in college and had no idea what to do after graduation.
In today's market-driven economy we constantly hear that choice is the highest good and that competition fuels innovation. But this is not always true. Choice provokes anxiety and competition can quell (压制) the imagination and discourage the spirit of experimentation that is necessary for creativity. In a world obsessed with ratings, well-meaning parents all too often train their children to jump through the hoops they think will lead to success.
This was a bad bet—the course many young people were forced to take has not paid off. The lucrative jobs they expected as a reward for years of hard work have vanished and show little sign of returning in the near future. The difficult truth is that their education has not prepared them for the world they face.
Though many young people have become disillusioned with Wall Street and all it represents and would like to pursue alternative careers, they have neither the educational nor financial resources to do so. The situation is critical—colleges and universities must be reformed in ways that allow students to develop the knowledge and skills they need for creative and productive lives. And parents must give their children the freedom to explore possibilities they never could have imagined.

单选题 By saying that students 'seemed to be going through the motions', the author most probably means that the students were ______.

单选题 What was the students' problem at the university?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】该句表明大学生在考上大学、实现父母的期望后，却不知在大学里该为什么目标而奋斗，这意味着他们从小都由父母为自己下决定，到了大学要独立的时候，却无法为自己的前途下决定。由此可见，本题应选A。虽然B中的risk一词在第3段第5句有提及，但原文提到的是大学生从小就被灌输要把风险降到最低这一观念，B不正确；该段最后一句的分词结构Having...expectations提到这些学生已经“满足了父母最大的期望”，C的内容与原文相反；D中的had little faith in...没有原文依据。

单选题 In order to become innovative, one must ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】该句表明the spirit of experimentation是creativity的必要条件，题干中的innovative与creativity的形容词形式creative同义。由此可见，要想变得innovative，条件也是要有the spirit of experimentation。因此，本题应选B。本题最具干扰性的是D，该选项中的imaginative是原文中imagination的形容词形式，但分析该句可以知道句末定语从句的先行词(the spirit of experimentation)并不包括imagination，这表明D并不符合题意。

单选题 For many young people, the Wall Street used to represent ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】由专有名词Wall Street定位到最后一段第1句。该句表明许多年轻人放弃了对华尔街的幻想(have become disillusioned with Wall Street)，准备改换职业发展方向。这也表明在以前，对于年轻人来说，“华尔街”曾代表着一种理想的职业发展方向。结合上一段的内容可以知道，“华尔街”就代表上一段所指的“回报丰厚的工作”，本题应选A。 B是年轻人现在对“华尔街”的看法，题目问的是used to“过去”；C是年轻人对华尔街失望之后的打算，根本不是年轻人对“华尔街”的看法；从第5段可知年轻人需要的是成功，是丰厚的回报，没有提及年轻人接受长期的教育是为了获得adventures，因此D不正确。

单选题 As it is mentioned in the last paragraph, children should be allowed to explore possibilities that ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】该句末尾的they never could have imagined是修饰先行词possibilities的定语从句，定语从句使用的是虚拟语气，表示这些possibilities是父母们可能从没想到过的，也可以说，这些possibilities可能超乎父母的想象。另外，定语从句中的they应指parents，而不应指children，因为只有这样，possibilities和定语从句在内容上才能构成符合逻辑的关系，本题应选C。 A和B中的fulfill一词缺乏原文依据，原文并没有提及有关“实现”可能性的内容。