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（剽竊）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 cliche 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 Ph.D.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'll 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（留校查看）, 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.
1.According to the author, students commit plagiarism mainly for_______.
A.money B.degree C.higher GPA D.reputation
2.The sentence "Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises" implies that_______.
A.students usually keep their promises
B.some students tend to break their promises.
C.the promises are always behind the situation
D.we cannot judge the situation in advance, as we do to the promises
3.The words "borderline passing" (Line 3, Para. 3) probably means_______.
A.fairly good B.extremely poor
C.above average D.below average
4.The boy's parents thought their son should be excused mainly because_______.
A.teachers should be compassionate B.he was only a child
C.instructors were wiser D.he was threatened
5.Which of the following might serve as the title for this passage?
A.Human Nurture B.Conditional Promises
C.How to Detect Cheating D.The Sadness of Plagiarism
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1.【答案】C。
【解析】題目中的關鍵詞plagiarism在文章第一段，但是第一段并沒有找到解釋孩子們剽竊的主要原因，緊接第二段的第一句“Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average (GPA)”這是一個承上啟下的句子?？梢姡⒆觽儗嵤┴飧`的主要原因是獲得更高的GPA，所以應該選C。
2.【答案】B。
【解析】題目的問題在文章第二段，“When we're threatened or sick, we make conditional promises.'if you let me pass math I will 1' Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises.” 當我們受到威脅或生病的時候，我們就會作出有條件的承諾，如果你讓我通過數學考試我將……一旦有這樣的情況，我們就作出如此的承諾。也就暗示了人們總是在出現情況之后才作出承諾，沒有問題時，誓言也就不復存在了?？梢娙藗兛偸鞘逞浴項的答案最為符合，所以應該選B。
3.【答案】D。
【解析】文章第四段“He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of Ph.D. thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.” 直到那個時間以前，他上交了一篇具有博士學位詞匯和句子的散文，由時間前后的對比，可以推斷以前他的功課可能不好，即borderline passing是貶義的。排除A、C，但又因為passing是“通過，及格”的意思，所以這里應該表示剛好通過分數，B項語氣太強烈，所以應該選D。
4.【答案】B。
【解析】本題在文章的最后一段，“His parents protested, 'He's only a child' and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate.”由于A和C項在文中是并列的，不能同時成為題目的答案，所以排除它們，D項文章中沒有提到，所以男孩的父母認為他們的孩子應該被原諒的主要原因是：他還僅僅是個孩子，應該選B。
5.【答案】D。
【解析】主旨題，看幾個選項知A、C、D項都只是文章中的細節(jié)不能表達文章的中心思想，并且文章中plagiarism貫穿全文。所以文章的題目是剽竊的悲哀，應該選D。
