“I promise.” “ I swear to you it’ll never happen again.” “I give you my word.” “Honestly. Believe me.” Sure, I trust. Why not? I teach English composition at a private college. With a certain excitement and intensity, I read my students’ essays, hoping to find the person behind the pen. As each semester progresses, plagiarism（剽窃）appears. Not only is my intelligence insulted as one assumes I won’t detect a polished piece of prose from an otherwise-average writer, but I feel a sadness that a student has resorted to buying a paper from a peer. Writers have styles like fingerprints and after several assignments, I can match a student’s work with his or her name.
Why is learning less important than a higher grade-point average（GPA）? When we’re threatened or sick, we make conditional promises. “If you let me pass math I will …” “Lord, if you get me over this before the big homecoming game I’ll…” Once the situation is behind us, so are the promises. Human nature? Perhaps, but we do use that cliché（陈词滥调）to get us out of uncomfortable bargains.
Six years ago, I took a student before the dean. He had turned in an essay with the vocabulary and sentence structure of PhD thesis. Up until that time, both his out-of-class and in-class work were borderline passing.
I questioned the person regarding his essay and he swore it that it was the consequence of his hardwork, but he had already had a given sheet of paper so he understood what was asked. He sat one hour, then turned in part of a page of unskilled writing and faulty logic. I confronted him with both the essays. “I promise…, I’m not lying. I swear to you that I wrote the essay. I’m just nervous today.”
The head of the English department agreed with my finding, and the meeting with the dean had the boy’s parents present. After an hour of discussion, touching on eight of the boy’s previous essays and his grade-point average, which indicated he was already on academic probation（留校察看）, the dean agreed that the student had plagiarized. His parents protested, “He’s only a child” and we instructors are wiser and should be compassionate. College people are not really children and most times would resent being labeled as such… except in this uncomfortable circumstance.
61.According to the author, students commit plagiarism mainly for_____.
A. money B. degree C. higher GPA D. reputation
62.The sentence “ Once the situation is behind us , so are the promises” implies
that_________.
A. students usually keep their promises
B. some students tend to break their promises
C. the promises are always behind the situation
D. we cannot judge the situation in advance, as we do to the promises
63.The “borderline passing”（Line 3,Para.3）probably means____________.
A. fairly good B. extremely poor C. above average D. below average
64.The boy’s parents thought their son should be excused mainly
because_______________.
A. teachers should be compassionate B. instructors were wiser
C. he was only a child D. he was threatened
65.Which of the following might serve as the title of this passage?
A. Human Nature B. Conditional Promises
C. How to Detect Cheating D. The Sadness of Plagiarism