阅读理解。
Tell the truth or just lie?
You're busy filling out the application form for a position you really need; let's assume you once actually
completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn't it tempting to lie
just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra
couple of years back at State University?
More and more people are turning to final trick like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers,
for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a
good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a
well-known university. Registrars at most well known colleges say they deal with deceitful like these at the
rate of about one per week.
Personnel officers do check up degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is
lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them"impostors (骗子)"; Another refers to them as"special cases" one well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most
delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by"no such people."
To avoid total lies, some job-seekers claim that they "attended" or "were associated with" a college or
university. After carefully checking, a personal officer may discover that"attending" means being dismissed
after one semester. It may be that"being associated with" a college means that the job seeker visited his
younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claim says that the practice
dates back at least to the turn of the century-that's when they began keeping records, anyhow.
If you don't want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony (假的)
diploma. One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma
from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from
" Smoot State University." The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the"University of Purdue." As there
is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather
high for one sheet of paper.
1.The main idea of this passage is that______.
A. employers are checking more closely on applicants now
B. lying about college degrees has become a widespread problem
C. college degrees can now be purchased easily
D. employers are no longer interested in college degrees
2. According to the passage,"special cases" refers to cases where______.
A. students attend a school only part-time
B. students never attended a school they listed on their application
C. students buy false degrees from commercial firms
D. students attended a famous school
3. We can infer from the passage that______.
A. performance is a better judge of ability than a college degree
B. experience is the best teacher
C. past work histories influence personnel officers more than degrees do
D. a degree from a famous school enables an applicant to gain advantage over others in job competition
4. This passage implies that______.
A. buying a false degree is not normal
B. personnel officers only consider applicants from famous schools
C. most people lie on applications because they were dismissed from school
D. society should be greatly responsible for lying on applications
