英语听力精选进阶版 6389（在线收听）

A BBC investigation has highlighted the growing problem of an industry where students can try to deceive teachers by paying to have their coursework written for them.

Tucked away in the windows of newsagents across London, in amongst the postcards advertising music lessons and childcare, there are some offering to write essays.

The essays are described as "model" assignments that students can use to guide them in their course of study. But according to the BBC's Reeta Chakrabarti, privately some of these firms are saying the work can be passed off by students as their own.

A reporter, posing as a student, spoke to six companies on the phone and when he asked if he could hand in the work provided to his tutor as if it was his own, all the firms clearly said that he could. Our undercover student also learned about smartly-dressed men standing outside campuses touting for business, especially towards the end of term, when the pressure on students is the greatest.

Universities are well set up to detect more traditional forms of plagiarism where extracts of someone else's work are used. But according to the Birmingham City University's professor Robert Clarke, this is much harder to identify in a bespoke essay, original but written by someone else. He thinks this should concern us all and asks: "Would you want to be treated by a nurse who's cheated on her assignment?"

There are serious implications for any student found to be buying an essay in this way. A student can be stripped of their degree or thrown out of university.

This form of cheating is not a crime, although there are some in academic circles who think it should be. And the offence is the student's.

The phenomenon affects universities in many parts of the world. Earlier this year, Harvard University officials said that dozens of its students were being investigated for allegedly helping each other cheat in an exam.

Up to 125 students in one undergraduate course are suspected of sharing answers or plagiarising.

Quiz 测验

1. Look at the article. What two places might students find offers of essay-writing on their behalf?

Newsagents and outside campuses, where some men tout for business.

2. Where is it most difficult to detect cheating?

In bespoke essays.

3. Is the following statement true, false or not given? Colleges always place the blame for cheating on the people who sold the essays.

False. The offender is the student who has bought the essay and presented it as his own.

4. Look at the article. What word means the practice of copying other people's work and pretending it to be your own?

Plagiarism.

5. What adverb in the text is used to refer to something that is heard around but hasn't been witnessed?

Allegedly.

Glossary 词汇表

to deceive 欺骗

the coursework 作业，功课

tucked away 隐秘的、藏在一边的

a newsagent 报亭

an essay 一篇作文

to pass off 当作

to pose as 冒充

undercover 便衣，卧底

smartly-dressed 衣着时尚得体的

to tout for business 招揽生意

the end of term 学期末

to detect 检测

plagiarism （名词）剽窃

bespoke 定制的

to cheat 欺骗

to be stripped of 被取消资格

to be thrown out 被开除了

academic circles 学术界

an offence 一项犯罪行为

allegedly 据称

to plagiarise （动词）剽窃