Question

    A scientific approach to reducing poverty’s many harmful effects via field experiments in schools and other real-world settings has won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of MIT, and Michael Kremer of Harvard University will receive equal shares of the prize of 9 million Swedish kronor. Duflo is only the second woman ever to be awarded the economics Nobel. “Poverty has deep roots, and we use an experimental approach to examine particular aspects of this problem and determine what interventions (干预) work.” Duflo said.

More than 700 million people globally live in extreme poverty. Half of the world’s children leave school without basic language or math skills. Roughly 5 million children under age 5 annually die from diseases that could have been prevented with inexpensive treatments.

The three winners design and test interventions aimed at specific ways to alleviate poverty’s effects on education, health care and other areas. Such studies are especially important because policies intended to fight poverty can often cause opposite results.

In the mid-1990s, Kremer led a team that tested a range of interventions aimed at improving learning among students attending schools in western Kenya. Banerjee and Duflo, often with Kremer, then performed similar studies in other countries. One important line of research developed “Teaching at the Right Level” programs, which enable teachers in low-income, developing nations to target instruction to students’ learning levels. Teachers in these programs learn ways to keep students from falling behind rather than forcing them through a one-size-fits-all curriculum for each grade.

A 2011 study led by Duflo, for instance, found that grade 1 test scores in a Kenyan school increased when teachers divided students into smaller classes based on their initial learning levels.

A string of studies in the. same vein led by the 2019 winners took randomized controlled trials and field experiments from ignored status to standard practice in developing nations.

These studies showed that the virtually unanswerable question “How can we fight global poverty?” could be broken into smaller, testable questions such as “Why do children not attend school?” and “Why do small-scale farmers not use technologies such as modern seeds and fertilizer (肥料) that are known to be profitable?”

1.What does the underlined word “alleviate” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?

A.relieve

B.remove

C.control

D.transform

2.It can be inferred that the method the 2019 winners applied to education     .

A.is more suitable for high-level students

B.is an intervention initially created by Duflo

C.will surely get rid of the deep roots of poverty

D.takes into consideration students learning levels

3.What can we learn from the experimenting approach the three economists adopt?

A.The authorities concerned should make policies based on scientific findings.

B.Field experimenting is the most scientific way to find whether interventions work.

C.Education should be paid more attention to due to its important part in fighting poverty.

D.It may be helpful to narrow down the scale of a problem by focusing on specific aspects.

Answer

1.A

2.D

3.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章讲述了，3位获奖者通过具体方法干预减轻贫困对教育、医疗等方面的影响，最后得出结论：无法回答的大问题可以分成更小的、可测试的问题来进行解答。

1.词义猜测题。由第四段中的“The three winners design and test interventions aimed at specific ways to alleviate poverty’s effects on education, health care and other areas. Such studies are especially important because policies intended to fight poverty can often cause opposite results.”（三位获奖者设计并测试了旨在用具体方法减轻贫困对教育、医疗和其他领域影响的干预措施。这类研究尤其重要，因为旨在抗击贫穷的政策往往会导致相反的结果。），可知旨在消除贫困的政策往往会导致相反的结果，那么这三位获奖者应该是通过具体方法干预减轻贫困对教育、医疗等方面的影响，所以alleviate在此处意为“减轻”。故选A项。

2.推理判断题。由第五段中的“One important line of research developed “Teaching at the Right Level” programs, which enable teachers in low-income, developing nations to target instruction to students’ learning levels.”（一项重要的研究开发了“适当水平的教学”项目，使发展中国家的低收入教师能够针对学生的学习水平进行教学。），第六段中的“A 2011 study led by Duflo, for instance, found that grade 1 test scores in a Kenyan school increased when teachers divided students into smaller classes based on their initial learning levels.”（例如，2011年Duflo领导的一项研究发现，当老师根据学生的初始学习水平将他们分成更小的班级时，肯尼亚一所学校的一年级考试分数会增加。）和第七段也表明了 2019 年的获奖者也采用了同样的思路，也就是考虑学生的实际学习水平，进行随机对照实验。由此判断出2019年的获奖者考虑了学生的学习水平。故选D项。

3.推理判断题。由最后一段中的“These studies showed that the virtually unanswerable question “How can we fight global poverty?” could be broken into smaller, testable questions”（这些研究表明，事实上无法回答的问题“我们如何才能战胜全球贫困？”可以分成更小的、可测试的问题），可知知这些研究都展示了可以将一个大问题分成小的、可以测试的问题。由此判断出，通过关注特定的方面来缩小问题的范围可能是有帮助的。故选D项。