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  3. In a few weeks, nigh school students face the prospect of taking the much-publicized new SAT Reasoning Test, which for the first

In a few weeks, nigh school students face the prospect of taking the much-publicized new SAT Reasoning Test, which for the first

admin2010-07-06  36
问题      In a few weeks, nigh school students face the prospect of taking the much-publicized new SAT Reasoning Test, which for the first time will require them to write a timed essay. Yet colleges continue to send confusing signals about whether students applying in the fall to attend college must take the new exam.
     Some schools, including Harvard, say they will accept scores from either the new test or the old SAT, which was administered for the last time in January and did not contain a writing section. The University of Central Florida, for example, will require the new test, which will be given for the first time on March 12. Still others, such as the University of Virginia, strongly recommend that prospective applicants take the new test but under some circumstances also will accept the old SAT. A number of colleges are delaying a decision. The College Board, which administers the SAT, surveyed more than 1,900 four-year schools and has heard back from slightly more than 500. Of those, 81% say they will require the new test, including schools such as Harvard that are giving students a choice in what will be a year of transition.
     "Anything new goes through a special lens of evaluation," says Lee Stetson, admissions dean at the University of Pennsylvania, which judiciously will use results from the new writing section until officials have a chance to study the revised SAT’s predictive validity.
     A number of admissions deans are skeptical that the new exam will be an improvement. Charles Deacon, dean of undergraduate admissions at Georgetown University, says adding the essay "will create more barriers to poor kids who are less well-prepared". The test was rushed to market because the University of California system, a major College Board customer, threatened to stop requiting the SAT, he says. The test "was developed and marketed for all the wrong reasons". Deacon, who says he has been "badgered" by the College Board to endorse the new exam, has refused to do so.
     Some schools, including Georgetown, Iowa’s Grinnell College and Pennsylvania’s Franklin and Marshall College, say that at least for now, they will not even look at scores from the writing section when making admission decisions. "We have adopted a wait-and-see attitude," says Dennis Trotter of Franklin and Marshall.
     College Board officials counter that based on extensive field tests, they are confident the test is as reliable a predictor of freshman-year performance as the old SAT. Moreover, they say, well-trained scorers, many of them, high school English teachers, will grade the essays, which students have 25 minutes to write.
     Amidst all the confusion, what should students do? Admissions deans and school counselors say to be sure to check with each college for requirements.
An important reason for negative attitudes towards the new writing examination is that
选项 A、the examination will add to the difficulty for those students from financially underprivileged families.
B、the examination was marketed much too quickly without careful consideration.
C、the examination will cause short-term confusion and lead to no long-term benefits.
D、the examination was a product of the College Board and various universities.
答案B
解析 本题考查细节理解。从原文中看出，只有第四段说的是反对写作测试的原因。文章提到两个关键的因素，一方面，将会给准备不够充分的差生带来更多障碍，另一方面，大学委员会为迎合重要客户的需求，将此项考试匆忙推向市场。我们来看选项，如果将poor理解错，很可能错选A ；C 项的后半部分不可能是正确的，因为该项测试的预测效度还未出来，虽然不能说一定是好的结果，但像该选项这样说太过武断。D 项说该测试是大学委员会与几种大学共同的产品，这是不对的。大学委员会是测试的研发和推广者，各所大学都是潜在的用户。该题的正确答案是B ，文中的关键词是“rash”，意思正好是“do something in a hurry，often too quickly and without much care”。
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