Last year, a report by a committee of education experts said that a lot of American students cannot write well. The report noted the concerns of business leaders and teachers. The experts said that more students should have to pass a writing test before they can finish high school. They pointed out that major college entrance tests are changing now to include a writing part.

Educators know that teaching students to write well is not easy. One problem is the amount of time needed to read through large amounts of work. So some companies have developed computer programs. These can grade student writing much more quickly than a person can. Writing tests can also cost less to carry out by computer than paper-and-pencil. These computer systems are known as e-readers. They use artificial (人工的) intelligence to think in a way like teachers. In the state of Indiana, computer grading of a statewide writing test began with a test of the system itself. For two years, both a computer and humans graded the student writing. Officials say there was almost no difference between the computer grades and those given by the human readers.

The entrance test commonly used by business schools, the GMAT, already uses e-readers. The GRE and TOEFL tests might start; officials are deciding. The GRE is the Graduate Record Examination. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

Systems are also being used to grade writing in college classes. The computers read a few hundred examples of student writing already graded by humans. Then the systems compare new writings against those already examined.

How do teachers feel all about this? Many say machines can never do the job as well as people can. A computer can find spelling and grammar mistakes. But these teachers say it can never really understand what a writer is trying to say. Critics say a program cannot follow a thought or judge humor or understand a beautifully expressed idea.

But inventors of the programs say computer grading guarantees that each piece of writing is graded in the same way. They also say the systems are meant to judge knowledge more than creativity.

1．What do the teachers think of the computer system?

A. They think highly of the computer systems.

B. They think that computers cannot grade writing as well as people.

C. They believe that computers can understand a writer’s idea well

D. They are glad computers will spare their effort to correct students’ school work.

2．From the first paragraph we can conclude that _________.

A. American students’ writing ability is being improved

B. American students’ writing ability is not satisfactory

C. business leaders and teachers are not worried about students’ writing

D. all college entrance tests will include a writing part

3．Which of the following is NOT the advantage of e-readers?

A. Saving much of teachers’ time.                     

B. Saving a lot of money.

C. Being fair and objective.                              

D. Appreciating humor and beauty

4．The best title of this passage might be _________.

A. Computer-graded Writing                            

B. Human-graded Writing

C. How to Improve Students’ Writing                

D. Advantages of E-readers

V. 单词拼写（10×1）
1. He is seen as a ________ (潜在的) leader of our party.
2. We will _____（任命） him as your secretary, for his carefulness.
3. Because of _______（采用） the new teaching methods, the students feel at easy to study.
4. They have made a _______（灵活的） holiday plan to satisfy everyone.
5. It is against my will if I _______（反对） you.
6.In summer, fruit _____ （易于）to decay, so you had better not to buy so much at one time.
7. People  don’t listen to him, for he is always ________（神经兮兮）.
8. You should make a _______（具体的） analysis on the problem.
9. Some officials should not ______ （滥用）their authority.
10. Under the _____（压力） of life, he had to go abroad.

Motherhood may make women smarter and may help prevent dementia （痴呆） in old age by bathing the brain in protective hormones （荷尔蒙） , U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
Tests on rats show that those who raise two or more litters of pups do considerably better in tests of memory and skills than rats who have no babies, and their brains show changes that suggest they may be protected against diseases such as Alzheimer’s （早老痴呆症）. University of Richmond psychology professor Craig Kinsley believes his findings will translate into humans.
“Our research shows that the hormones of pregnancy are protecting the brain, including estrogen （雌激素）, which we know has many neuroprotective （保护神经的） effects,” Kinsley said.
“It’s rat data but humans are mammals just like these animals are mammals,” he added in a telephone interview. “They go through pregnancy and hormonal changes.”
Kinsley said he hoped public health officials and researchers will look to see if having had children protects a woman from Alzheimer’s and other forms of age-related brain decline.
“When people think about pregnancy, they think about what happens to babies and the mother from the neck down,” said Kinsley, who presented his findings to the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience in Orlando, Florida.
“They do not realize that hormones are washing on the brain. If you look at female animals who have never gone through pregnancy, they act differently toward young. But if she goes through pregnancy, she will sacrifice her life for her infant—that is a great change in her behavior that showed in genetic alterations （改变） to the brain.”
【小题1】 How do scientists know “Motherhood may make women smarter”?