It wasn’t long before I knew Penn was not right for me and I looked into transferring. For me, it was about more than just changing schools. I wanted to have the traditional application experience I’d missed out on during my first go-round. The only school on my list that allowed transfers during the second semester of freshman year was Wesleyan, so I waited out the whole year, then applied to Yale, Brown and Wesleyan. I got into Wesleyan. The irony that I could have gotten in sooner, without getting rejected by the other schools, was not lost on me. But I know I made the right decision.

To high-school seniors who want to avoid making the same mistake I did, my advice is simple: don’t apply under Early Decision unless you are absolutely sure that the school is your first choice. And, just as important, don’t let your parents or college-guidance counselor persuade you to apply under Early Decision. They may have their own agenda, or at least their own perception of who you are and what you want. As I discovered, no one can really know what you want better than yourself, and even you may need time to figure out what that is.

注（1）：本文选自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2002年真题Text 3。



1. The main reasons for the author to apply under Early Decision are ______.

A) pride and ambition

B) dream and fear

C) easiness and effort-saving

D) trouble-saving and release

2. It can be inferred from the text that the main advantage of Early Decision is that ______.

A) you can graduate from the high school earlier

B) you don’t need to worry about the results

C) you needn’t take the entrance examination

D) you’re more likely to be accepted

3. The description of the author’s feelings in Paragraph 2 shows that ______.

A) he is satisfied with his choice

B) there are many advantages of being accepted earlier

C) less effort is needed under Early Decision

D) he is happy with but doubts about his decision

4. We can draw a conclusion from the text that ______.

A) a full consideration is needed before applying

B) students should avoid the shortcut

C) a quick decision will do you no good

D) the author shouldn’t apply under Early Decision

5. From the text we can see that the writer seems ______.

A) regretful

B) optimistic

C) gloomy

D) sensitive





篇章剖析


本文是一篇记叙文，以作者的亲身经历讲述了“优先申请”政策带给自己的苦与乐。第一段讲述了我为什么要考虑使用“优先申请”政策；第二段指出这一政策在开始时带给我的甜头；第三段指出自己进大学后的烦恼；第四段指出我的补救措施；第五段提出自己对其他人的忠告和建议。





词汇注释


confer /kənˈfɜː(r)/ vt. 赐给（称号、学位等）；带来

agonizing /ˈægənaɪzɪŋ/ adj. 苦恼的，痛苦难忍的

discombobulate /ˌdɪskəmˈbɒbjʊleɪt/ vt. 使混乱，使泄气，使困惑

array /əˈreɪ/ n. 排列，编队；军队；衣服；大批

mount /maʊnt/ vi. 增长

arcane /ɑːˈkeɪn/ adj. 神秘的，不可思议的

fraternity /frəˈtɜːnɪti/ n. 兄弟关系，友爱，互助会，兄弟会

sorority /səˈrɒrɪti/ n. 妇女联谊会，女学生联谊会

obnoxious /əbˈnɒkʃəs/ adj. 不愉快的，讨厌的

lost /lɒst/ adj. 不产生效果的

agenda /əˈdʒendə/ n. （pl.）议程





难句突破


And when I got to the campus, I found that fraternities and sororities were a more noticeable and obnoxious presence than the 30 percent student membership had suggested to me.

主体句式：I found that...

结构分析：本句句型结构并不复杂，重点在于对that引导的宾语从句中more...than的理解。

句子译文：进校后，我发现大学生联谊会比比皆是，其讨嫌程度远胜过吸引我入会的所谓30%的各类学生会员。





题目分析


1. B 细节题。原文对应信息是“I was motivated by two powerful emotions: ambition and fear. ”

2. D 推理题。原文对应信息是“The implication was clear: applying under Early Decision dramatically improves your chances of acceptance. ”作者希望提高录取的几率，所以才放弃了申请自己的第一选择——布朗大学，而选择了宾夕法尼亚州大学。

3. D 推理题。第二段前半部分描述了作者释然、悠闲的状态，这和他的同学形成了鲜明的对比。而最后一句“When a lot of people from my class got into Brown, I wondered if I, too, could have. ”却又道出了他的不甘和遗憾。

4. A 推理题。文章前几段描述了作者依据“提前决定”政策选择宾夕法尼亚州大学的前因后果，最后一段总结了他的经验教训。并不是他的做法不对，而是有些欠考虑。

5. A 情感态度题。通读全文，作者表现更多的情感是后悔。





参考译文


四年前，当我根据“提前决定”的原则申请宾夕法尼亚州立大学的时候，有两种强烈的情感促使我这么做：雄心和恐惧。我的雄心是我要实现上名牌大学的夙愿，恐惧的是如果没有“提前决定”政策带来的有利条件，我就无法走此捷径。宾夕法尼亚州立大学负责招生工作的人告诉我，去年他们录取了45%的“提前决定”的考生，而从其他申请者中只录取了总数的29%。这就清楚地表明：“提前决定”政策能大大提高被录取的几率。布朗大学是我青睐的另一所学校，但提前申请没有任何好处。布朗大学是我的第一个选择，而宾夕法尼亚州立大学是我的第二选择，我非常希望我能保证进入其中的一所。

在11月1日这个最后期限之前，我提交了申请。六周之后，我收到了录取书。我激动万分，如释重负。当我的朋友们在寒假期间忙着提交多达18份申请书的时候，我悠然自得。在学校组织的春假法国之旅中，当我悠然喝酒的时候，其他同学却忧心忡忡，用国际电话卡打电话回家看自己是否被录取。有人因为没被录取而伤心落泪，有人开始艰难而又痛苦地从两所或更多的学校中进行选择。奇怪的是，我没有因为已经提前申请好了而感到高兴，相反，我感觉很糟糕。当我班有很多同学考上了布朗大学时，我特别想知道如果我也报考的话，是否也能考上。

宾夕法尼亚州立大学给暑期过后即将入学的新生寄来了一大堆令人困惑的材料。随着邮件的增多，我的担心也随着增长。我担心我做出了错误的选择。我只在宾夕法尼亚州立大学待过一天，那是在我毕业那年的十月份。我现在意识到我不仅对自己也对这所学校缺乏足够的了解。选课让我着实摸不着头脑，这远远超过了我预想的情况（或起码比稍小点的学校情况复杂）。进校后，我发现，大学生联谊会比比皆是，其讨嫌程度远胜过吸引我入会的所谓30%的各类学生会员。

没过多久我就发现宾夕法尼亚州立大学不适合我，于是我就着手转学。对我来说，这不仅仅是换学校的问题。我想弥补我在第一轮申请中错过的传统申请经历。允许我选择在第一年第二学期转学的唯一一所学校是卫斯理教派大学。我等了整整一年，接着又申请了耶鲁大学、布朗大学和卫斯理教派大学。我能很快被卫斯理教派大学录取。我本来可以在未遭到其他学校拒绝的情况下被该校录取，但这种极具讽刺意味的事这回又在我身上应验了。不过，我知道这次的决定是正确的。

对于那些想避免犯跟我一样错误的高中毕业班的学生来说，我的建议很简单：除非你百分之百确定那所学校就是你的第一选择，否则不要按“提前决定”的政策进行申请。还有一点也很重要，不要让你的父母或者大学指导顾问说服你去按“提前决定”的政策进行申请。他们可能有他们自己的计划，或者他们至少对你的为人和你的期望有自己的看法。我认为，没人能比你自己更能真正了解你想要什么，甚至有时我们也需要时间来思考一下自己想要什么。





Unit 82


When it comes to schooling, the Herrera boys are no match for the Herrera girls. Last week, four years after she arrived from Honduras, Martha, 20, graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. She managed decent grades while working 36 hours a week at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Her sister, Marlin, 22, attends a local community college and will soon be a certified nurse assistant. The brothers are a different story. Oscar, 17, was expelled two years ago from Fairfax for carrying a knife and later dropped out of a different school. The youngest, Jonathan, 15, is now in a juvenile boot camp after running into trouble with the law. “The boys get sidetracked more,” says the kids’ mother, Suyapa Landaverde. “The girls are more confident.”

This is no aberration. Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys, according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed, five-year study of immigrant children—the largest of its kind, including Latino, Chinese and Haitian kids—by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Though that trend holds for U. S. -born kids as well, the reasons for the discrepancy among immigrants are different. The study found that immigrant girls are more adept at straddling cultures than boys. “The girls are able to retain some of the protective features of （their native） culture” because they’re kept closer to the hearth, says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, “while they maximize their acquisition of skills in the new culture” by helping their parents navigate it.

Consider the kids’ experiences in school. The study found that boys face more peer pressure to adopt American youth culture—the dress, the slang, the disdain for education. They’re disciplined more often and, as a result, develop more adversarial relationships with teachers—and the wider society. They may also face more debilitating prejudices. One teacher interviewed for the study said that the “cultural awareness training” she received as part of her continuing education included depictions of Latino boys as “aggressive” and “really macho” and of the girls as “pure sweetness.”

Gender shapes immigrant kids’ experiences outside school as well. Often hailing from traditional cultures, the girls face greater domestic obligations. They also frequently act as “cultural ambassadors,” translating for parents and mediating between them and the outside world, says Carola Suarez-Orozco. An unintended consequence: “The girls get foisted into a responsible role more than the boys do.” Take Christina Im, 18, a junior at Fairfax who arrived from South Korea four years ago. She ranks ninth in a class of 400 students and still finds time to fix dinner for the family and work on Saturdays at her mother’s clothing shop. Her brother? “He plays computer games,” says Im.

The Harvard study bears a cautionary note: If large numbers of immigrant boys continue to be alienated academically—and to be clear, plenty perform phenomenally—they risk sinking irretrievably into an economic underclass. Oscar Herrera, Martha’s dropout brother, may be realizing that. “I’m thinking of returning to school,” he recently told his mother. He ought to look to his sisters for guidance.

注（1）：本文选自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2005年真题Text 1。



1. In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ______.

A) posing a contrast

B) justifying an assumption

C) making a comparison

D) explaining a phenomenon

2. The statement “they also frequently act as ‘cultural ambassadors’”（Line 2, Paragraph 4） implies that ______.

A) they work as a translator for their parents

B) they help their parents have a better understanding of the foreign culture

C) they encourage their parents to go into the outside world

D) their parents help them realize their dream of becoming an ambassador

3. Immigrant boys do not fare well in the outside world because of the following reasons, EXCEPT that ______.

A) American youth culture has a bad influence on the boys

B) people have prejudice against them

C) their sense of responsibility is not as strong as that of the girls

D) they do not get well along with the teachers and the outside world

4. Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco have eventually found in their study that ______.

A) the immigrant boys should not be allowed to go into the outside world

B) the immigrant boys have no judgment about the youth culture

C) the immigrant girls do a better job than the immigrant boys

D) the immigrant boys should be severely disciplined

5. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A) All the dropouts should receive good education.

B) Many immigrant boys are likely to fall into trouble in the future.

C) Schooling education has been neglected.

D) More attention should be paid to the immigrant children.





篇章剖析


本文采用提出问题—分析问题的模式，指出移民中男孩子和女孩子在学业方面的表现差别很大，并进一步分析其原因，指出其可能造成的后果。文章第一段以马撒的兄弟姐妹为例，指出家中男孩和女孩在学业上的差别；第二段至第四段都是用来分析造成这一现象的原因；第五段指出可能会造成的后果。





词汇注释


sidetrack /ˈsaɪdtræk/ vt. 导入侧线，转移目标，使受牵制

aberration /æbəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/ n. 失常；偏差

outperform /ˌaʊtpəˈfɔːm/ vt. 做得比…好，胜过

preliminary /prɪˈlɪmɪnəri/ adj. 预备的，初步的

discrepancy /dɪˈskrepənsi/ n. 相差，差异，矛盾

adept at 熟练于…

straddle /ˈstræd(ə)l/ v. 跨坐

navigate /ˈnævɪgeɪt/ vt. 航行于，驾驶，操纵

peer /pɪə(r)/ n. 同龄人；同事

discipline /ˈdɪsɪplɪn/ v. 惩戒，惩罚

adversarial /ˌædvəˈseərɪəl/ adj. 敌手的，对手的，对抗（性）的

debilitate /dɪˈbɪlɪteɪt/ vt. 使衰弱，使虚弱

macho /ˈmɑːtʃəʊ/ adj. 男子的，男子气的

gender /ˈdʒendə(r)/ n. 【语】性，〈口〉性别，性，性交

hail from 来自，在某地生长

mediate /ˈmiːdɪeɪt/ v. 仲裁，调停

foist /fɔɪst/ vt. 偷偷插入，使混入，硬卖给，私自添加，把…强加（于），把…塞（给）

alienate /ˈeɪlɪəneɪt/ v. 疏远

phenomenally /fɪˈnɒmɪnəli/ adv. 现象上地，明白地；惊人地

irretrievably /ɪrɪˈtriːvəb(ə)li/ adv. 不能挽回地，不能补救地

look to sb. for sth. 依赖或指望某人提供或做某事物





难句突破


Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys, according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed, five-year study of immigrant children—the largest of its kind, including Latino, Chinese and Haitian kids—by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

主体句式：Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys...

结构分析：本句是一个简单句。according to意为“依据，按照”，来补充说明“Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys”这一结论源自何处；the largest of its kind是study的同位语；including现在分词进一步修饰study；by表示这项研究是由谁来做的。

句子译文：根据哈佛大学教育学研究生院的马赛罗和卡罗拉·苏瑞兹·欧罗科刚刚完成的一项历时五年的初步研究的结果——这项研究是同类研究中规模最大的，研究对象为移民子女，其中包括拉丁美洲人、中国人和海地人——移民女孩子的表现一贯比男孩子出色。





题目分析


1. C 论证方式题。作者以马撒的兄弟姐妹为例，意在指出男孩和女孩在学业方面的不同表现，从而引出论题。

2. B 语义题。从第二段“while they maximize their acquisition of skills in the new culture” by helping their parents navigate it. 我们知道这些移民孩子的父母对新文化的理解、把握和适应还得益于孩子的帮助。原文对应信息是They also frequently act as “cultural ambassadors,” translating for parents and mediating between them and the outside world，从这句话我们可以看出cultural ambassadors的含义。

3. A 细节题。选项B在文中的对应信息是第三段的They may also face more debilitating prejudices；选项C在文中的对应信息是第四段的the girls face greater domestic obligations；选项D在文中对应的信息是第三段的They’re disciplined more often and, as a result, develop more adversarial relationships with teachers—and the wider society.只有选项A不正确，它的意思与文中对应的信息有出入，原文对应信息是第三段的The study found that boys face more peer pressure to adopt American youth culture—the dress, the slang, the disdain for education.

4. C 细节题。文中第一段以对比手法入手，在第二段开头就引出了文章的论题。原文对应信息是Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys, according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed, five-year study... by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

5. B 推理题。原文对应信息是If large numbers of immigrant boys continue to be alienated academically —and to be clear, plenty perform phenomenally—they risk sinking irretrievably into an economic underclass.





参考译文


谈到学业问题，赫蕾拉家的男孩根本无法与女孩比。上周，20岁的马撒从洛杉矶的费尔法克斯高中毕业，她从洪都拉斯来到美国至此已经有4年了。尽管她每周都要在肯德基快餐店工作36个小时，还是取得了相当好的成绩。她的姐姐马林今年22岁，在当地的一所社区大学读书，不久就将成为一名有资格证书的助理护士。她兄弟们的情况就完全不一样了。17岁的奥斯卡两年前因为携带小刀被费尔法克斯学校开除，后又从另一所学校辍学。最小的乔纳森今年15岁，惹上官司后现在在青少年新兵训练营。“这些男孩子多不走正道，”孩子们的母亲苏雅帕·兰达沃尔德说，“而女孩子却越发自信了。”

这不足为奇。根据哈佛大学教育学研究生院的马赛罗和卡罗拉·苏瑞兹·欧罗科刚刚完成的一项历时五年的初步研究的结果——这项研究是同类研究中规模最大的，研究对象为移民子女，其中包括拉丁美洲人、中国人和海地人——移民女孩子的表现一贯比男孩子出色。虽然这种趋势在美国出生的孩子中也存在，但是在移民中产生这种差异的原因却是不相同的。研究发现，移民女孩子比男孩子更善于包容不同的文化。马赛罗·苏瑞兹·欧罗科说，“女孩子能保留本民族文化里的一些保护性特点”，因为女孩子跟家庭的关系更加紧密，所以在帮助父母跨越这一新文化的过程中，“她们最大限度地获取了新文化带来的技能”。

关于孩子们在校的表现的研究发现，与女孩子相比，男孩子在接受美国年轻人文化——衣着、俚语以及对教育的蔑视等方面——面临更多的同龄人的压力。他们会受到更多的惩戒，因此，他们跟老师以及外界社会更容易发展成一种敌对关系。他们还可能会面对更多偏见，削弱他们的意志。研究小组采访的一位老师说，她在继续教育中的“文化意识培训”课程把拉丁美洲男孩描述成“好斗的”、“真正大男子主义的”的人，而对女孩子的描述是“清纯可人”。