2014年对外经济贸易大学翻译硕士英语真题试卷(题后含答案及解析)

2014年对外经济贸易大学翻译硕士英语真题试卷(题后含答案及解
析)
题型有：1. V ocabulary 2. Structure and Rhetorie 3. Reading Comprehension 4. Writing
V ocabulary
1．The packing of goods offered does not meet our standards. Could you use packing which is ______ breakage?
A．secure from
B．secure about
C．secure for
D．secure under
正确答案：A
解析：句意：贵公司提供货物包装不符标准，能否用防止破损的包装。

secure from保护……使免于。

(be)secure about为……担忧。

secure for无此用法。

secure under无此用法。

2．All employees will be______to learn and use the new computer system if we want to increase our productivity.
A．objected
B．obstructed
C．obliged
D．obtained
正确答案：C
解析：句意：如果要提高产量的话，每个员工都有义务学习和使用新的计算机系统。

oblige有义务；强制。

object反对，不赞成。

obstruct阻塞；阻碍。

obtain 获得，得到。

3．Non-Americans have a long way to go before they reach that level—720 L of soft drinks a year—and that would______booming business for the two giants.
A．operate
B．update
C．recruit
D．translate into
正确答案：A
解析：句意：要达到每年720升软饮料的水平，非美人民还有很长的路要走，这也将成为两大巨头的朝阳产业。

operate操作；经营。

update更新，使现代化。

recruit招聘，吸收(某人作为新成员)。

translate into翻译成。

4．They have mutually agreed that Party A______Party B with the manufacturing of television sets in Shenzhen with all necessary parts and components supplied by Party A.
A．authorizes
B．entrusts
C．offers
D．appoints
正确答案：B
解析：句意：双方同意，甲方将深圳电视机的制造权及由甲方提供的全部所需部件和零件委托于乙方。

entrust委托，托付。

authorize授权，批准。

offer提供；给予。

appoint任命，委派。

5．Please make sure that your L/C will reach us well before the shipment month so that we can ______shipping space for the goods with ABC Line.
A．book
B．preserve
C．conserve
D．retain
正确答案：D
解析：句意：请确保你方信用证在装船月之前交给我方，以便我们能够在班轮上留下装货空间。

retain付订金预留；保持。

book登记；预约。

preserve为防止损害或变质的保存。

conserve保存自然资源，保存人的精神和精力。

6．The wide variation______prices for some brands cannot be explained by these factors.
A．in
B．to
C．on
D．for
正确答案：A
解析：句意：一些品牌价格大幅波动与这些因素无关。

variation变化，变动，后可接介词on或in，价格变动应搭配in。

7．Although international logistics is discussed as a movement or flow of goods, a stationary period is involved when merchandise becomes______stored in warehouses.
A．inventory
B．goods
C．cargo
D．packages
正确答案：A
解析：句意：虽然国际物流指的是货物的移动或流动，但也包含一段静止的时间，此时货物成为库存放在仓库中。

inventory库存，财产目录。

goods商品，货物，指销售或购人的商品。

cargo(船或飞机装载的)货物；负荷。

package包裹。

8．The seller shall, at his own______, carry out at the place of manufacture all such inspections of the equipment as are specified in the contract.
A．cost
B．expense
C．expenditure
D．spending
正确答案：B
解析：句意：卖方应按合同规定在制造地进行设备检测，费用由卖方承担。

expense费用；消耗。

cost费用；成本。

expenditure花费，支出。

spending开销，花费。

这四个词意思相近，expense指实际支付的费用总数额；cost指生产某东西的成本，也泛指商品的价格；expenditure泛指各种开支；spending多指日常花费。

其中，at one’s expense是固定短语，由……承担费用。

9．Marks and Spencer admits that trading in recent weeks has shown______improvement.
A．no signs of
B．no tracks of
C．no marks of
D．no evidences of
正确答案：A
解析：句意：马克斯和斯宾塞承认最近几周的贸易情况没有好转的迹象。

sign 迹象；符号。

track痕迹，小路。

mark标记；成绩。

evidence证据。

no sign of／that，没有……的迹象。

10．Most people have a bank account which allows them to______checks.
A．open
B．take
C．write
D．charge
正确答案：C
解析：句意：大部分人都有银行账户，这使得他们可以开支票。

write a check，固定搭配，表示开支票。

11．After merger, the two companies are going to collaborate______car
manufacture.
A．with
B．from
C．in
D．of
正确答案：C
解析：句意：合并之后，两个公司将在汽车制造行业进行合作。

collaborate 合作，协作。

collaborate with sb．与某人合作；collaborate in sth．在某行业、领域进行合作。

12．All quotations are subject to our final______. Unless otherwise noted or agreed upon, all prices are commission inclusive.
A．order
B．confirmation
C．terms
D．decision
正确答案：B
解析：句意：所有报价以我方最后确认为准。

除非另有说明或约定，所有价格都已包含佣金。

to be subject to one’s final confirmation以……最后确定为准，外贸信函中的固定用法。

13．Due to her excellent performance in this project, Miss Lin was______to the Sales Director.
A．chosen
B．raised
C．promoted
D．forwarded
正确答案：C
解析：句意：鉴于她在这个项目中的优异表现，林小姐被提升为销售经理。

promote提升(升职或学生升级)；促进。

choose选择。

raise提升；养育。

forward 促进；助长。

14．Female customers are the______buyer of Ford’s new model.
A．progressive
B．prospective
C．proper
D．perspective
正确答案：B
解析：句意：女顾客是福特公司推出的新车型的潜在买主。

prospective预期的；有希望的。

progressive进步的。

proper恰当的，合适的。

15．Every one-year plan must be______in relation to longer-term plans, and it should contain the stages that are necessary to achieve the final goals,
A．handed over
B．drawn up
C．made up
D．written off
正确答案：B
解析：句意：拟定每个一年规划都要将期规划考虑在内，并且包含实现最终目标所必须的各个阶段。

draw up拟定，起草。

hand over移交；递给。

make up 编造；化妆。

writeoff核销；销账。

16．Since the price you quoted would leave us no margin of______, we must do business with other suppliers who are offering lower prices for Dinner Sets of the same quality.
A．sales
B．choice
C．benefit
D．profit
正确答案：D
解析：句意：因为你们的报价让我们无利可图，所以我们必须与提供质等价优的餐具供应商合作。

margin of profit指“利润空间”；margin profit利润率。

17．Coca-cola has overcome Pepsi’s______edge in Eastern Europe.
A．absolute
B．comparative
C．definite
D．competitive
正确答案：D
解析：句意：可口可乐已经克服百事在东欧的核心竞争力。

competitive竞争的，有竞争力的。

competitive edge杀手锏，核心竞争力。

absolute绝对的，完全的。

comparative比较的；相当的。

definite明确的；一定的。

18．We shall be pleased to offer you other items which might be of interest to you upon______ of your specific inquiries.
A．notice
B．receiver
C．arrival
D．receipt
正确答案：D
解析：句意：收到您的具体要求后，我们乐意向您提供其它您可能感兴趣的商品。

receipt收到；收据。

notice注意；警告。

receiver接受者；收银员。

arrival 到达；出现。

19． A business owned and operated by one person is called a______proprietorship.
A．one
B．sole
C．only
D．unique
正确答案：B
解析：句意：独资企业指个人所有并经营的企业。

sole proprietorship独资企业，私营企业。

20．Urban wage earners use credit to help them purchase the vast array of______goods, such as automobiles, washing machines, and refrigerators.
A．durable
B．endurable
C．bearable
D．tolerable
正确答案：A
解析：句意：城市工薪阶层贷款买许多耐用品，如汽车、洗衣机、冰箱等。

durable耐朋的；持久的。

endurable能持久的；可忍受的。

bearable可忍受的，可容忍的。

tolerable可忍受的，可宽恕的。

durable goods耐用品，固定搭配。

21．The candidate enjoys wide support from the voters because of his record he will probably be elected.
A．fragment
B．run on
C．choppy
D．correct
正确答案：B
解析：这里because of his record…是一个独立完整的句子，与上句应该断开，这种语病属于run on。

22．Covent Garden is London’s big wholesale market where you can buy many things. For example, fruit, vegetables and flowers.
A．fragment
B．comma splice
C．choppy
D．correct
正确答案：A
解析：第一个句子结构完整，但第二句for example接名词不可独立成句，因此属于fragment。

Structure and Rhetorie
23．The hospital decides when patients sleep. It dictates when they eat. It tells them when they may be with family.
A．correct
B．run on
C．comma splice
D．choppy
正确答案：D
解析：每个分句虽然结构完整，但是断断续续，采用连续简单句型，属于choppy sentence。

24．My company is House Furnishing Corporation, there is a ready market for kitchenware in our area.
A．choppy
B．fragment
C．correct
D．comma splice
正确答案：D
解析：两个独立的分句My company is…和there is a…之间只用逗号连接，缺少连词，该语病属于comma splice。

25．Ever since the 19th century cartoonist Thomas Nast to pin a donkey on the Democrats and the elephant on the Republican, cartoonists have been mapping the iconography of American politics.
A．fragment
B．correct
C．comma splice
D．run on
正确答案：A
解析：前半句分词短语中the 19th century后应为时间状语从句，从句成分残缺，因此属于fragment。

26．The report, which was completed by the April 15 deadline only through the hard work and long hours of the entire staff.
A．correct
C．run on
D．comma splice
正确答案：B
解析：整个句子缺少谓语，结构不完整，因此属于fragment。

27．Different purposes for which money is borrowed result in the creation of different kinds of financial assets, having different maturities, risks, and other features, thus different financial markets.
A．comma splice
B．correct
C．fragment
D．run on
正确答案：C
解析：句子后半部分的伴随状语应用with连接，且thus的先行词指代不明，因此属于fragment。

28．Our results were inconsistent. The program obviously contains an error. A revision of the program is required.
A．choppy
B．run on
C．fragment
D．correct
正确答案：A
解析：使用三个断断续续的短句，使得语意不流畅。

该语病属于choppy sentence。

29．It will further help the church in Asia, Africa and Latin America a new pope emerges from those areas.
A．fragment
B．correct
C．comma splice
D．run on
正确答案：A
解析：句子中有两个谓语，a new pope…应为原因状语从句，句中缺少连接词，因此属于fragment。

30．After we studied the technical aspects of the proposal and our contracts office reviewed its financial aspects. The proposal, although innovative, does not meet our immediate needs.
B．run on
C．fragment
D．choppy
正确答案：C
解析：句子结构不完整，after后的宾语从句只是一个伴随状语，不能独立成句，因此属于fragment。

Reading Comprehension
It might be easier to do something about North Korea’s nuclear truculence if we could make head or tail of the cryptic videos it has been posting on the web. The latest shows a dreaming man, some Korean script and a video of rockets flying through space while fires burn in skyscrapers and a pianist plays “We Are the World”at dirge tempo. Is this a harmless fantasy? A thrown-down gauntlet? Should the west respond with a statement? Should it post a video of its own? It is hard to know. Our traditional media are being “replaced” by the internet. But the “information” coming out of the information economy is often hard to decipher, and composed for purposes that are hard to discern. The film academic Stephen Apkon argues in The Age of the Image, published this week, that it is possible to speak of a new kind of literacy, one built on figuring out such non-verbal messages. At its humblest level, his book is about the “language” of film, but Mr Apkon has a larger philosophical point, too. Our culture is growing more global. While it still relies on words, they are increasingly wrapped up with images, and it is the images people remember. Elizabeth Daley, dean of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, believes writing today is like Latin on the eve of the Renaissance-the language of a scholarly establishment. YouTube clips and other visuals are the equivalent of vernacular Italian. They are the street language, and the medium for much new and creative thinking. Images have always mattered in public arguments more than we admit. Few people cared that Richard Nixon won the 1960 presidential debates against John Kennedy, so unkempt did the Republican look. Mr Apkon quotes a neuroscientist who says people are so attuned to picking up subtle signals that they make decisions about whether they like or dislike politicians “immediately”. And unsubtle, non-verbal messages with a great emotional wallop can now be broadcast more widely. Video of the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, captured during June 2009 protests against irregular Iranian elections, spread round the world. In the gut-wrenching Kony 2012 video(100m views in six days), American activists sought to enlist the US military in a manhunt for a Ugandan warlord. Eyesight is the most trusted sense, Mr. Apkon notes, and that means we need to be careful with it. There is a standing danger that the public will grow so upset by images of mistreatment that it will demand the government send the army off to war. This is arguably what happened Somalia in 1992, with America’s poorly planned military response to the African country’s famine. In future, Mr. Apkon says, we are likely to need “ a combination of scepticism
and incisiveness”, enabling citizens to “[critique]what is put in front of them with some level of sophistication”. That is unlikely. When the passions provoked by visual imagery lead to the same conclusion as the logic of a verbal argument, people are generally comfortable coming to a decision. But when passion and logic are at odds, one of them must be favoured. Until recently, it was the essence of statesmanship, scholarship and justice to purge strong emotion from our deliberations. Images today, though, are so plentiful and sharp that they dominate our thought processes. Although Mr. Apkon relishes the immediacy of YouTube, he fears that political advertisers will soon be able to craft stories around “hidden mental hungers” , easily manipulating voters. Citizens tend to think about voting in one of two ways. First, you base your vote on your identity. You are a farmer, so you choose the candidate best disposed towards farmers. The second theory is that you vote on arguments, independent of identity. You believe a sales tax should replace income tax, so you vote for the candidate who shares that opinion. But today’s image-based communication has litde to do with identity or arguments. It has to do with the lowest-common-denominator traits that mark you as a human animal. There is no obvious solution. Even if we acquire the scepticism Mr. Apkon speaks of, certain institutions “go with”certain styles of perceiving, absorbing and interpreting information. You would not think that there was anything “Protestant”about the printing press. And yet the press seems to have been a prerequisite for Protestantism’s rise. Likewise, our own democracies, imperfect though they may be, are the culmination of the culture of the written word. Mr. Apkon notes how Kennedy, in those 1960 debates, “tapped into a lever in the psyche more primal than mere facts”. In retrospect, that was an ominous moment. Once you find that lever, isn’t democracy bound to lose a bit of its appeal, rather like a detective story in which you have been told the ending?
31．Which of the following is INCORRECT according to the author?
A．Images do not always matter in public arguments more than we admit.
B．Videos on political issues are the most popular among all.
C．Videos carrying messages with a great emotional wallop can attract attention.
D．Activists must use street language to appeal to the audience.
正确答案：A
解析：文章第三段第一句提到A选项，“images have always mattered in public arguments morethan we admit”，可判断A项表述错误。

B，C，D三项表述均正确，因此，正确答案为A。

32．What does the author mean by saying “writing today is like Latin on the eve of the Renaissance—the language of a scholarly establishment?”
A．Videos are like Italian that served as the street language.
B．A video is worth more than a thousand words”.
C．Writing would face extinction, just as Latin.
D．Writing would be less popular among common people.
正确答案：D
解析：文章第二段倒数第三句提到本题题干内容，将writing比作Latin，是用于学术成就的语言，阅读其后几句话，将视频比作意大利语，是人们日常使用的语言，因此writing相应的就是普通人不常用的语言，正确答案为D。

33．What is the author’s attitude towards “seeing is believing?”
A．Positive.
B．Dangerous.
C．Negative.
D．Useful.
正确答案：C
解析：文章作者力图阐述影像的巨大作用，它可以在公众辩论、社会事件中等操控人们的思维。

第四段首句“Eyesight is the most trusted sense，Mr．Apkon notes，and that means weneed to be careful with it．“指出视觉的不可信任性，下文中作者的阐述表明他赞同这一观点，因此，正确答案为C。

34．According to the author, what may “image-based communication” influence voter’s behavior?
A．People might vote on their identities.
B．People might vote on their “hidden mental hungers”.
C．People might vote on arguments, independent of identity.
D．People might vote on political advertisers who have better stories.
正确答案：B
解析：文章第六段提及“he fears that political advertisers will soon be able to craft stories around”hidden mental hungers”，“easily manipularing voters”，意为政治宣传人员为赢得选票而根据选民“隐藏的心理需求”来编造故事，所以人们投票是为追求自身需求，而不是表面的看哪方的宣传人员编的故事好，因此，正确答案为B。

35．Which of the following constitutes the best title for this passage?
A．In the unthinking age, seeing is believing.
B．Images matter less today than in the past.
C．Democracy has lost its appeal nowadays.
D．Images in the Information Age.
正确答案：A
解析：题干下列哪项是这篇文章最好的标题，意思就是哪项是本文最有利的论据。

文章阐述的观点意在显示出信息时代图像的影响力，说明人们总是容易相信眼睛看到的，B，C，D三项均不正确，因此，正确答案为A。

One November evening in 1989 I was loafing in my room at university when a friend began thumping on the door. “What is it?”I shouted irritably. “The Berlin Wall just fell,” he shouted back For months afterwards I walked around in a daze of wonder, as crowds ransacked secret-police headquarters and Nelson Mandela walked out of jail. Two lines from Wordsworth about the French Revolution, which I’d read in some article about thel989 revolutions, kept going through my mind: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven! It was the most optimistic political moment I’ve lived through, my generation’s version of 1945 or 1968.【R1】______. Now we’re at the peak of political pessimism. The political year is opening with almost nobody on either right or left expecting anything good. The great questions seem to be: how will an intervention in Syria go wrong? And will the US House of Representatives vote to repeal “Obamacare” for the 41st time?【R2】______The Utopian urge persists; it has just migrated from politics to technology. Instead of developing a political policy to solve a problem, people now develop an app. In politics, you can hardly count all the lights that have failed since the invasion of Iraq a decade ago. Faith in unregulated capitalism died with Lehman Brothers. Then Barack Obama, the Occupy movements and the Tea Party all rapidly disappointed their followers. In 2009 in Copenhagen, it became clear the world wouldn’t agree to combat climate change. Now the Arab spring is eating its own children, the Russian demonstrators have gone home, and hardly anyone believes in the European project any more.【R3】______, even before its intellectual underpinning was revealed as an academic paper whose authors had accidentally left important bits of data off their spreadsheet. The western liberating impulse-previously directed at Iraq, Iran and Cuba-has died too. Myan-mar finally opened up, and ethnic conflict promptly began. Even people who believed in al-Qaeda are now presumably disillusioned. It’s hard to find a self-proclaimed political messiah anywhere: Hugo Chavez is dead, and Fidel Castro himself says Cuba’s revolution has failed. Politicians have been reduced to celebrities who can gain our attention only with Anthony Weineresque private antics.【R4】______Meanwhile a rash of TV series like House of Cards, Veep and The Thick of It portray politics as a greedy, narcissistic pursuit. No wonder political parties are shedding members at record speed. The last emotion that still animates lots of western voters is rage at immigrants-an archetypal expression of pessimism. Andrew Adonis, leading thinker of the UK’s Labour party, says: “ We’re in one of those periods like the 1970s where politicians manifestly don’t have the answers. “But meanwhile a group of people has stood up who do claim to have answers: technologists. In 2007, just as western economies began to crumble, Apple launched the iPhone.【R5】______The latter took time to decide how to use their new might. Nicole Boyer, director of the Adaptive Edge consultancy in San Francisco, explains; “Tech was late to the game for social problems. It took a generation of tech entrepreneurs to make money and then say, ‘ OK, what are we going to do?’“ Now they are busy remaking the world: Google’s Erie Schmidt negotiates with North Korea, Jeff Bezos tries to save newspapers, Mark Zuckerberg plots to get the world’s poor online and Bill Gates fights infectious disease. “They have something of the white knight about them,”muses Adonis.
“There is a profound tech-optimism. “In this budding tech-utopia, government scarcely features. Great technological achievements of the past—the atomic bomb, the moon landing and even the internet—began within the US government. Today, whether people like government or loathe it, they mostly ignore it. Choose the following sentences marked A to E to complete the above article. A. Austerity became the latest light to failB. Since then, credibility has kept leaching from politicians to techiesC. Strangely, it actually turned out pretty wellD. But hope springs eternalE. Mandela on his deathbed still towers over today’s lot
36．【R1】
A．
B．
C．
D．
E．
正确答案：C
解析：句意：那时，我们的政治表现出奇地好。

联系上文可知答案为C。

37．【R2】
A．
B．
C．
D．
E．
正确答案：D
解析：句意：不过，人类的希望永无止境。

该段前半部分写pessimism，后半部分写前进的动力，可知本题选D。

38．【R3】
A．
B．
C．
D．
E．
正确答案：A
解析：句意：最新灭掉的一盏，名叫“财政紧缩”。

根据“light”一词即可判断此题选A。

39．【R4】
A．
B．
C．
D．
E．
正确答案：E
解析：句意：曼德拉都在病床上奄奄一息了对时局的影响还不减当年。

本段以举例为主，阐述政治走下坡路的事实，曼德拉也是例证之一，因此，正确答案为E。

40．【R5】
A．
B．
C．
D．
E．
正确答案：B
解析：句意：从此，政治家的公信力不断下降。

本段阐述政治专家的没落和技术专家的兴起，关键词“technologist”，可知答案为B。

Where do pesticides fit into the picture of environmental disease? We have seen that they now pollute soil, water, and food, that they have the power to make our streams Ashless and our gardens and woodlands silent and birdless. Man, however much he may contrary, is part of nature. Can he escape a pollution that is now so thoroughly distributed throughout our world? We know that even single exposures to these chemicals, if the amount is large enough, can cause extremely severe poisoning. But this is not the major problem. The sudden illness or death of farmers, farm workers, and others exposed to sufficient quantities of pesticides are
very sad and should not occur. For the population as a whole, we must be more concerned with the delayed effects of absorbing small amounts of the pesticides that invisibly pollute our world. Responsible public health officials have pointed out that the biological effects of chemicals are cumulative over long periods of time, and that the danger to the individual may depend on the sum of the exposures received throughout his lifetime. For these very reasons the danger is easily ignored. It is human nature to shake off what may seem to us a threat of future disaster. “Men are naturally most impressed by diseases which have obvious signs,”says a wise physician, Dr. Rene Dubos, “yet some of their worst enemies slowly approach them unnoticed. “
41．Which of the following is closest in meaning to the sentence “Man is part of nature. “(Para. 1)?
A．Man appears indifferent to what happens in nature.
B．Man acts as if he does not belong to nature.
C．Man can avoid the effects of environmental pollution.
D．Man can escape his responsibilities for environmental protection.
正确答案：B
解析：题干“Man is part of nature”即人是自然界的一部分。

B项，人的行为好像他不是自然界的一部似的，即人是自然界的一部分。

A项，人对自然界中发生的事情漠不关心，不合题意。

C项，人可以避免环境污染的后果，不合题意。

D项，人可以推卸保护环境的责任，不合题意。

因此，正确答案为B。

42．What is the author’s attitude towards the environmental effects of pesticides?
A．Pessimistic.
B．Indifferent.
C．Defensive.
D．Concerned.
正确答案：D
解析：文章第二段第二句“others exposed to sufficient quantities of pesticides are very sad andshould not occur”，说明作者对杀虫剂造成的惨剧表示难过，认为这种事不该发生，因此，正确答案为D项。

43．In the author’s view, the sudden death caused by exposure to large amounts of pesticides______.
A．is not the worst of the negative consequences resulting from the use of pesticides
B．now occurs most frequently among all accidental deaths
C．has sharply increased so as to become the center of public attention
D．is unavoidable because people can’t do without pesticides in farming
正确答案：D
解析：文章第二段，作者提到“this is not the major problem”即暴露在大量杀虫剂中而中毒并不是主要问题，这是不可避免的。

对于人口整体来说，应更多地关注吸收少量杀虫剂的危害。

A、B、C项并未提及，因此，正确答案为D。

44．People tend to ignore the delayed effects of exposure to chemicals because______.
A．limited exposure to them does little harm to people’s health
B．the present is more important for them than the future
C．the danger does not become apparent immediately
D．humans are capable of withstanding small amounts of poisoning
正确答案：C
解析：文章第三段倒数第二句提到，“It is human nature to shake off what may seem to us athreat of future disaster．”，人类的本性就是不理会看似在将来会造成灾难的威胁，下句又说“Men are naturally most impressed by diseases which have obvious signs”，人们自然地对那些有明显症状的疾病印象最深，即对未显现的危险，人们不会在意，因此，正确答案为C。

45．It can be concluded from Dr. Dubos’ remarks that______.
A．people find invisible diseases difficult to deal with
B．attacks by hidden enemies tend to be fatal
C．diseases with obvious signs are easy to cure
D．people tend to overlook hidden dangers caused by pesticides
正确答案：B
解析：文章第三段Dubos博士说，“然而有些最可怕的敌人却在不知不觉中慢慢地来到了身边”，最可怕的即致命的，A、C、D不合题意，因此，正确答案为B。

Since 2011 , when Stanford University launched its first “massive open online courses”, these free, internet-enabled programmes have cropped up everywhere, engaging millions of users. The largest Mooc providers-Coursera, Udemy, Udacity, and EdX-offer free tuition, supplied by universities , often to hundreds of thousands of students at a time. But just a year after Mooes really started taking off, offering the promise of real disruption to the centuries-old higher-education business, user growth has started to slow. Until May this year, visitors to Mooes were increasing rapidly. But since then the picture has become markedly less rosy. Over the past quarter the major Mooc providers in the US have seen stagnation or slowing growth in visitor numbers. The “summer slump” across the education sector might normally explain this kind of drop. However, this comes even as the major platforms have supplemented their offerings with more new courses and high-profile partner universities. The decline, however, has not been universal,
and exceptions to the trend may offer hints about how the market for Mooes could develop. Available data on visits to the major Mooc sites between November 2012 and August 2013 indicate that visits from India have doubled over the past nine months. India still has only about a third the number of Mooc users as the US. But that still makes it the largest market for Mooes outside America, even though it has only a fraction of the broadband penetration. As a largely English-speaking country, India illustrates how Mooes might develop in emerging markets if more content was available in Vietnamese, Mandarin, Indonesian or Portuguese. Furthermore, Indian Mooc users include a higher proportion of younger people, even controlling for India’s large youth population; more than 80 percent of Indian visitors to Mooc sites are under 34, while US and European visitors are fairly evenly spread across age groups. Indians also spend roughly five times as long as average visitors on Mooc sites. Why India? It may be because India has the largest population of university-age students in the world(94m and growing), while higher education in India is inadequate in quantity and quality due to poor government regulation and corruption. With 17m students in higher education, India has one of the world’s lowest higher-education enrollment ratios, even among developing nations. Young Indians’enthusiasm for Mooes shows that there is an appetite for higher education, with or without sufficient supply of physical seats. But what is surprising is that Indians should be so motivated to visit Mooes when they are not yet accredited. You still cannot get a qualification from a Mooc. So are Mooes only aspirational for young Indians-the equivalent of flipping through a glossy university catalogue-or could they, in combination with targeted assessments, deliver tangible benefits to students and reap a return in exchange for outcomes delivered? Many Mooc providers are already bundling courses into “packages”that roughly correspond to short certificated programmes. Universities still fear offering Mooc degrees, which could cannibalise fee-paying courses. But that will not stop ambitious education providers in emerging markets such as India offering real-world qualifications. So Mooes could indeed be a disruptive development in emerging markets-where the majority of the world’s youth reside. India lacks higher-education places but foreign universities face barriers to entry. So why not tap the Indian market through Mooes in combination with targeted assessments? While it is unlikely that Mooes will dramatically change the economics of going to college for an American teenager, Mooes could be transformative in markets where there is not enough capacity to meet demand for university education. Just as some developing countries have bypassed fixed-line telephony for mobile solutions, Mooes could help developing countries to leapfrog the bricks-and-mortar model of higher education. And universities might be able to do well from them: for higher education, the fortune may indeed be at the bottom of the pyramid.
46．Which of the following is TRUE about MOOC?
A．Mooc was first launched by Havard University.
B．High-profile universities are not interested.。