For decades, Americans have taken for granted the United States’ leadership position in the development of new technologies. The innovations (创新) that resulted from research and development during World War II and afterwards were 36 to the prosperity of the nation in the second half of the 20th century. Those innovations, upon which virtually all aspects of 37 society now depend, were possible because the United States then 38 the world in mathematics and science education. Today, however, despite increasing demand for workers with strong skills in mathematics and science, the 39 of degrees awarded in science, math, and engineering are decreasing.
The decline in degree production in what are called the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and math) seems to be 40 related to the comparatively weak performance by U.S. schoolchildren on international assessments of math and science. Many students entering college have weak skills in mathematics. According to the 2005 report of the Business-Higher Education Forum, 22 percent of college freshmen must take remedial (补习的) math 41 , and less than half of the students who plan to major in science or engineering 42 complete a major in those fields.
The result has been a decrease in the number of American college graduates who have the skills, 43 in mathematics, to power a workforce that can keep the country at the forefront (前沿) of innovation and maintain its standard of living. With the 44 performance of American students in math and science has come increased competition from students from other countries that have strongly supported education in these areas. Many more students earn 45 in the STEM disciplines in developing countries than in the United States.
A) accelerating
B) actually
C) closely
D) contemporary
E) courses
F) critical
G) declining
H) degrees
I) especially
J) future
K) led
L) met
M) procedures
N) proportions
O) spheres
The American victory in the Revolutionary War unit...
The American victory in the Revolutionary War united 13 of the English-speaking settlements into the largest and most powerful political unit in the territory , even though those first 13 states hugging the eastern coast seem small compared with the country' s eventual size. As a result of the Revolution ,approximately 71 , 500 people out of a population of some 2. 5 million fled the new United States. Some were Loyalists - political or economic refugees whose loyalties to Great Britain remained strong; others were blacks seeking refuge from slavery. Immigration and the commercial slave trade after the war quickly restored the population to its former level. The Revolution also opened up the area west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlement , as fur traders and farmers were no longer confined by British settlement restrictions. Pioneering citizens , immigrants , and slaves moved west , displacing Native Americans who had hoped to preserve their cultures undisturbed by the expanding United States.
The 17th and 18th centuries saw a growing importation of Africans into North America. After 1808 U. S. law forbade the importation of slaves from abroad , although some smuggling of slaves continued. Few people from Africa chose to come to the United States voluntarily (the free African population was small) because they were considered second-class citizens , and confined largely to the northern states. Large numbers of Europeans migrated to the United States in the early national period , drawn by the promise of freedom , cheap land in the West , and jobs in the first factories of the emerging industrial age. The influx of Europeans , the end of the slave trade , and the ongoing wars removing Native Americans meant that some of the racial diversity of the population was diminishing. By the early decades of the 19th century , a greater proportion of Americans were of western European and Protestant heritage than at the time of the Revolution.
Over the course of the 19th century , the United States gradually absorbed the French colonists in the upper Midwest and in New Orleans , Louisiana; the Spanish and Russian colonists in the South , West ,and Northwest; and the territories of the Hawaiian people and other indigenous groups. Sometimes these territories were added by diplomacy , sometimes by brute force. European visitors were surprised at the diversity in nationalities and in religious and secular beliefs in early America , as well as the number of intermarriages between people of differing European heritages. There were also cross-racial births , sometimes voluntary and sometimes by force , but rarely within legal marriages. The population continued to grow through migration as well , driven in part by English , Irish , and German settlers who came in large numbers around 1848 to escape political repression and food shortages in Europe.
31. The American independence made all of the following leave the new country EXCEPT ()
A. those who were hostile to the old colonialists
B. pro-British colonialists loyal to the old political system
C. those attempting to free themselves from slavery
D. those who fled on account of economic problems caused by birth of the new nation
32. It can be inferred from the passage that ()
A. slavery was soon abolished after the victory of the American Revolution
B. people didn't enjoy freedom of settlement in the West before the Revolutionary War
C. native Americans moved abroad in large numbers during the War
D. the western expansion destroyed the environmental conditions in those areas
33. Which of the following stopped the influx of Africans into the United States in the first decade of the 19th century？ ()
A. Large numbers of European immigrants.
B. Some smuggling slaves.
C. Legislation by the government.
D. Second-class citizens.
34. By (), the United States succeeded in obtaining vast land from other colonies during the 19th century.
A. military action and re-settlement
B. negotiations and re-settlement
C. military action and negotiations
D. negotiations and industrialization
35. Implied , but not directly stated , is the fact that () in early America.
A. there appeared to be many diverse nationalities
B. numerous different religions existed
c. marriages between European descendants were commonplace
D. marriages between different races were not encouraged or accepted
