"I promise." "I swear to you it’ll never happen again." "I give you my word." "Honestly. Believe me." Sure, I trust. Why not? I

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问题     "I promise." "I swear to you it’ll never happen again." "I give you my word." "Honestly. Believe me." Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college with a certain excitement and intensity. I read my students’ essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism(剽窃)appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won’t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments. I can match a student’s work with his or her name even if it’s missing from the upper left-hand corner.
    Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average(GPA)? When we’re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. "If you let me pass math I will..." "Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I’ll..." Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that click to get us out of uncomfortable bargains. Divine interference during distress is asked, gratitude is unpaid. After all, few fulfill the contract so why should anyone be the exception. Why not?
    Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.
    I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it I’d understand this copy would not have the time and attention an out-of-class paper is given. But he had already a finished piece so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both essays.
    "I promise.. .I’m not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I’m just nervous today."
    The head of the English department agreed with my finding, and the meeting with the dean had the boy’s parents present. After an hour of discussion touching on eight of the boy’s previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicted he was already on academic probation(留校察看), the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested. "He’s only a child" and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such.. .Except in this uncomfortable circumstance.
The "borderline passing"(Line 3, Para. 3)probably means______.

选项 A、fairly good
B、extremely poor
C、above average
D、below average

答案D

解析 该词语所在句子主语是both his out-of-class and in-class work“他的课内外作业”,上句话提到由于该生抄袭一篇博士论文被带到了系主任面前。由此可见borderline passing即表示处于及格线边缘,选项D“低于一般水平”符合上下文逻辑语意,为本题答案。
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