Passage four

Despite a cooling of the economy, high-technology companies are still crying out for skilled workers. The Information Technology Association of America projects that more than 800,000 technology jobs will go unfilled next year. The lack of qualified workers poses a huge threat to the U. S. economy.

The most commonly cited reason for this state of affairs is that the country’s agrarian-age (农村时代) education system fails to prepare students in the primary and secondary grades for the 21st century work. Yet an inadequate and outmoded education system is only part of the problem. A less tangible (明确的) but equally powerful cause is an antique (过时的) classification system that divides the workforce into two camps: white-collar knowledge workers and blue-collar manual laborers.

Blue-collar workers emerged in the United States during the Industrial Age as work moved from farms to factories. White-collar office workers became a significant class in the twentieth century, outnumbering (多于) the blue-collar workers by mid-century. Corporations increasingly require a new layer of knowledge worker: a highly skilled multi-disciplined talent , who combines the mind of the white-collar worker with a solid grounding in mathematics and science (physics, chemistry, and biology ) These “ gold-collar ” workers——so named for their contributions to their companies and to the economy as well as for their personal earning ability——apply their knowledge to technology.

The gold-collar worker already exists in a wide range of jobs. The maintenance technician who tests and repairs aircraft systems at American Airlines; the network administrator who manages systems and network operations at Procter & Gamble（宝洁公司）; the engineering technologist who assists scientists at Sandia National Laboratories;and the advanced-manufacturing technician at Intel can all be regarded as gold-collar workers.

51. What does the word “ projects ” in the first paragraph mean?

52. What is a gold-collar worker’s advantage over that of a blue-collar worker?

53. How can a person be qualified as a gold-collar worker?

54. It can be inferred from the passage that the first group of blue-collar workers were most likely to be________.

55. What has contributed much to America’s lack of qualified skilled workers?

Part III   Cloze (10%)

The person who can see a ship without some feeling of excitement must have very little imagination. Even the idea of leaving the solid land  56  most of us were born and brought  57  ,and going out on to the ever-moving waters must arouse  58  some feelings of strangeness. We may remember stories of terrible storms, with waves  59  mountains, and of people from ships which have sunk  60  weeks in small boats hundreds of miles from land. But we have also  61  joy of  traveling on calm seas under blue  62 , and of the  63  excitement of coming to a new beautiful land which we have seen only in pictures before.

 64  ships are not , of course, made chiefly for pleasure: their biggest use is in carrying goods from country to country.  65  , ships can carry more goods than  66  means of transport, and can  67  .so more cheaply. If ships  68  , the  British government would not be able to feed  69  people.

Ships also have made  70  to discover more and more distant parts of our world.  71  is known to all, Columbus used a ship to discover America about 500 years ago . And  72 , ships are used for exploring the Antarctic.  73  would, in fact, not be  74  to say that ships have for thousands of years  75  one of the most important parts in shaping society.

Part IV   Writing (15%)

Directions: This part is to test your ability in practical writing. Now you are required to write a letter according to the information given in Chinese. Your writing shoule contain over 100 words and you should write it on the Composition Sheet.

你在英国参加了一次夏令营(summer camp )，住在一位当地居民Professor Wilson 家里。他们一家人对你很好，Professor Wilson 还带你参观了许多英国著名的地方，使你对英国有了更多的了解。回国后请写一封信给Professor Wilson，感谢他对你的照顾，并邀请他有机会来中国玩。

写信人：张华

地址：广州市中山路102号

写信日期：2004年9月19日