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More than a decade ago, cognitive scientists John Bransford and Daniel Schwartz, both then at Vanderbilt University, found that what distinguished young adults from children was not the ability to retain facts or apply prior knowledge to a new situation but a quality they called "preparation for future learning." The researchers asked fifth graders and college students to create a recovery plan to protect bald eagles from extinction. Shockingly, the two groups came up with plans of similar quality (although the college students had better spelling skills).From the standpoint of a traditional educator, this outcome indicated that schooling had failed to help students think about ecosystems and extinction, major scientific ideas.
The researchers decided to go deeper, however. They asked both groups to generate questions about important issues needed to create recovery plans. On this task, they found large differences. College students focused on critical issues of interdependence between eagles and their habitats(栖息地).Fifth graders tended to focus on features of individual eagles ("How big are they?" and "What do they eat?").The college students had cultivated the ability to ask questions, the cornerstone of critical thinking. They had learned how to learn.
Museums and other institutions of informal learning may be better suited to teach this skill than elementary and secondary schools. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, we recently studied how learning to ask good questions can affect the quality of people's scientific inquiry. We found that when we taught participants to ask "What if?" and "How can?" questions that nobody present would know the answer to and that would spark exploration, they engaged in better inquiry at the next exhibit— asking more questions, performing more experiments and making better interpretations of their results. Specifically, their questions became more comprehensive at the new exhibit. Rather than merely asking about something they wanted to try, they tended to include both cause and effect in their question. Asking juicy questions appears to be a transferable skill for deepening collaborative inquiry into the science content found in exhibits.
This type of learning is not confined to museums or institutional settings. Informal learning environments tolerate failure better than schools. Perhaps many teachers have too. little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions and too much ground to cover in the curriculum. But people must acquire this skill somewhere. Our society depends on them being able to make critical decisions about their own medical treatment, say, or what we must do about global energy needs and demands. For that, we have a robust informal learning system that gives no grades, takes all comers, and is available even on holidays and weekends.
1
What is traditional educators' interpretation of the research outcome mentioned in the first paragraph?
A.
Students are not able to apply prior knowledge to new problems.
B.
College students are no better than fifth graders in memorizing facts.
C.
Education has not paid enough attention to major environmental issues.
D.
Education has failed to lead students to think about major scientific ideas.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
D
系统解析：
推理判断题。定位句指出“从传统教育工作者的角度来看，这一结果表明，学校教育未能帮助学生思考生态系统和物种灭绝这两个重要的科学理念”，由此可见，传统教育工作者认为教育没有引导学生思考重要的科学理念，故答案为 D。
2
In what way are college students different from children?
A.
They have learned to think critically.
B.
They are concerned about social issues.
C.
They are curious about specific features.
D.
They have learned to work independently.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
A
系统解析：
推理判断题。定位句指出，研究发现大学生和儿童之间存在着巨大差异，“大学生已培养出了提问的能力，这是批判性思维的基石”，由此可见，大学生与儿童的区别在于大学生已学会了批判性地思考，故答案为 A。
3
What is the benefit of asking questions with no ready answers?
A.
It arouses students' interest in things around them.
B.
It cultivates students' ability to make scientific inquiries.
C.
It trains students' ability to design scientific experiments.
D.
It helps students realize not every question has an answer.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
B
系统解析：
推理判断题。定位句指出，当教学员提出“如果?”和“如何?”这些现场没有人知道答案但又会激发探索欲的问题时，学员们在下次展览时会进行更好的探究——提出更多的问题，进行更多的实验并对其研究结果做出更好的解释，由此可知，提出没有现成答案的问题，其好处是培养了学生们进行科学探究的能力，故答案为 B。
4
What is said to be the advantage of informal learning?
A.
It allows for failures.
B.
It is entertaining.
C.
It charges no tuition.
D.
It meets practical needs.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
A
系统解析：
事实细节题。定位句指出，与学校相比，非正式的学习环境对待失败更加宽容，也就是说非正式的学习允许失败，故答案为 A。
5
What does the author seem to encourage educators to do at the end of the passage?
A.
Train students to think about global issues.
B.
Design more interactive classroom activities.
C.
Make full use of informal learning resources.
D.
Include collaborative inquiry in the curriculum.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
C
系统解析：
推理判断题。定位句指出，“人们必须从某个地方获得这个技能。我们的社会依赖于能对自己的医疗方案做出关键决定，或者说对关于全球能源需求必须做出重大决定的人。为此，我们需要一个健全的非正式学习系统，不打分、来者皆收、甚至在节假日和周末都能使用”，由此可知，为了传授人们技能，为了培养社会所依赖的人，我们应该使用非正式的学习系统，也就是说教育者应该充分利用非正式学习的资源，故答案为 C。
''There's an old saying in the space world: amateurs talk about technology, professionals talk about insurance. In an interview last year with The Economist, George Whitesides, chief executive of space-tourism firm Virgin Galactic, was placing his company in the latter category. But insurance will be cold comfort following the failure on October 31st of VSS Enterprise, resulting in the death of one pilot and the severe injury to another.
On top of the tragic loss of life, the accident in California will cast a long shadow over the future of space tourism, even before it has properly begun.
The notion of space tourism took hold in 2001 with a $20 million flight aboard a Russian spacecraft by Dennis Tito, a millionaire engineer with an adventurous streak. Just half a dozen holidaymakers have reached orbit since then, for similarly astronomical price tags. But more recently, companies have begun to plan more affordable "suborbital" flights—briefer ventures just to the edge of space's vast darkness. Virgin Galactic had, prior to this week's accident, seemed closest to starting regular flights. The company has already taken deposits from around 800 would-be space tourists, including Stephen Hawking.
After being dogged by technical delays for years, Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic's founder, had recently suggested that a craft would carry its first paying customers as soon as February 2015.That now seems an impossible timeline. In July, a sister craft of the crashed spaceplane was reported to be about half-finished. The other half will have to wait, as authorities of America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Transportation Safety Board work out what went wrong.
In the meantime, the entire space tourism industry will be on tenterhooks (坐立不安).The 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, intended to encourage private space vehicles and services, prohibits the transportation secretary (and thereby the FAA) from regulating the design or operation of private spacecraft, unless they have resulted in a serious or fatal injury to crew or passengers. That means that the FAA could suspend Virgin Galactic's licence to fly. It could also insist on checking private manned spacecraft as thoroughly as it does commercial aircraft. While that may make suborbital travel safer, it would add significant cost and complexity to an emerging industry that has until now operated largely as the playground of billionaires and dreamy engineers.
How Virgin Galactic, regulators arid the public respond to this most recent tragedy will determine whether and how soon private space travel can transcend that playground. There is no doubt that spaceflight entails risks, and to pioneer a new mode of travel is to face those risks, and to reduce them with the benefit of hard-won experience.
6
What is said about the failure of VSS Enterprise?
A.
It may lead to the bankruptcy of Virgin Galactic.
B.
It has a strong negative impact on space tourism.
C.
It may discourage rich people from space travel.
D.
It has aroused public attention to safety issues.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
B
系统解析：
推理判断题。文章首段最后一句指出，在 10 月 31 日，进取号维京太空船的坠毁导致了两名飞行员一死一重伤，然后第二段整段都在介绍此次坠毁事件所带来的影响，除了造成人员的惨痛伤亡，还令太空旅行的前景长期笼罩在阴影之下，由此可见，进取号维京太空船的坠毁对太空旅行造成了极大的负面影响，故答案为 B。
7
What do we learn about the space-tourism firm Virgin Galactic?
A.
It has just built a craft for commercial flights.
B.
It has sent half a dozen passengers into space.
C.
It was about ready to start regular business.
D.
It is the first to launch "suborbital" flights.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
C
系统解析：
事实细节题。定位句指出，“在本周事故之前，维珍银河公司似乎就要启动定期太空航班了”， 由此可见，维珍银河公司差不多准备好开展定期业务了，故答案为 C。
8
What is the purpose of the 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act?
A.
To ensure space travel safety.
B.
To limit the FAA's functions.
C.
To legalize private space explorations.
D.
To promote the space tourism industry.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
D
系统解析：
推理判断题。定位句指出，2004 版《商业太空发射修正案》旨在鼓励私人太空航天器和服务的发展，由此可知,2004 版《商业太空发射修正案》是为了推动太空旅游业的发展，故答案为 D。
9
What might the FAA do after the recent accident in California?
A.
Impose more rigid safety standards.
B.
Stop certifying new space-tourist agencies.
C.
Amend its 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act.
D.
Suspend Virgin Galactic's licence to take passengers into space.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
D
系统解析：
事实细节题。定位句指出，联邦航空局可能会暂停维珍银河公司的飞行执照，故答案为 D。
10
What does the author think of private space travel?
A.
It is worth promoting despite the risks involved.
B.
It should not be confined to the rich only.
C.
It should be strictly regulated.
D.
It is too risky to carry on.
本题答案：
A
B
C
D
参考答案：
A
系统解析：
观点态度题。原文最后一句指出，航天有风险，而且开拓一种新的旅行方式不仅要面对这些风险，还要通过来之不易的经验降低此类风险，这里新的旅行方式就是指私人太空旅行，也就是说太空旅行尽管存在风险，但仍值得推广，故答案为 A。
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