(二)教育類

　　PLIGHT OF THE PRESCHOOLERS

　　How do they beat the odds?

　　Competition for admission to the country's top private schools has always been tough, but this year Elisabeth Krents realized it had reached a new level.

　　Her wake-up call came when a man called the Dalton School in Manhattan, where Krents is admissions director, and inquired about the age cutoff for their kindergarten program. After providing the information (they don't use an age cutoff), she asked about the age of his child. The man paused for an uncomfortably long time before answering. "Well, we don't have a child yet," he told Krents. "We're trying to figure out when to conceive a child so the birthday is not a problem."

　　School obsession is spreading from Manhattan to the rest of the country. Precise current data on private schools are unavailable, but interviews with representatives of independent and religious schools all told the same story: a glut of applicants, higher rejection rates. "We have people calling us for spots two years down the road," said Marilyn Collins of the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. "We have grandparents calling for pregnant daughters."

　　Public-opinion poll after poll indicates that Americans' No. 1 concern is education. Now that the long economic boom has given parents more disposable income, many are turning to private schools, even at price tags of well over $10,000 a year. "We're getting applicants from a broader area, geographically, than we ever have in the past," said Betsy Haugh of the Latin School of Chicago, which experienced a 20 percent increase in applications this year.

　　The problem for the applicants is that while demand has increased, supply has not. "Every year, there are a few children who do not find places, but this year, for the first time that I know of, there are a significant number of children who don't have places," said Krents, who also heads a private-school admissions group in New York.

　　So what can parents do to give their 4-year-old an edge? Schools know there is no foolproof way to pick a class when children are so young. Many schools give preference to siblings or alumni children.

　　Some use lotteries. But most rely on a mix of subjective and objective measures: tests that at best identify developmental maturity and cognitive potential, interviews with parents and observation of applicants in classroom settings. They also want a diverse mix. Children may end up on a waiting list simply because their birthdays fall at the wrong time of year, or because too many applicants were boys.

　　The worst thing a parent can do is to pressure preschoolers to perform--for example, by pushing them to read or do math exercises before they're ready. Instead, the experts say, parents should take a breath and look for alternatives. Another year in preschool may be all that's needed. Parents, meanwhile, may need a more open mind about relatively unknown private schools--or about magnet schools in the public system. There's no sign of the private-school boom letting up. Dalton's spring tours, for early birds interested in the 2001-2002 school year, are filled. The wait list? Forget it. That's closed, too.

　　By Pat Wingert Newsweek; 05/15/2000, Vol. 135 Issue 20, p76, 2/3p, 1c

　　注(1)：本文選自Newsweek，05/15/2000, p76

　　1.The author uses the examples to show __________.

　　[A]the concern of Americans

　　[B]the charm of the private schools

　　[C]the fierce situation for preschoolers

　　[D]the economic situation of American families

　　2.What is implied in Paragraph 4?

　　[A]The harsh way of forming a class.

　　[B]The high expectation of the parents.

　　[C]The wise selection of the school.

　　[D]The difficulty of getting enrolled.

　　3.The author’s attitude toward this event is __________.

　　[A]indifferent

　　[B]apprehensive

　　[C]supportive

　　[D]indignant

　　4.Instead of giving their children great pressure to outperform, the parents should ______.

　　[A]avoid the competition and wait for another year

　　[B]give up their first choice and go to the unknown school

　　[C]let their children be and do what they want to do

　　[D]deal with the matter more casually and rethink the situation

　　5.The text intends to express _________.

　　[A]the popularity of the private schools

　　[B]parents’ worry about their children’s schooling

　　[C]the plight of the preschoolers

　　[D]the severe competition in going to school

　　篇章剖析

　　本文采用提出問題---分析問題的模式。文章以實例作為切入點，著重闡述了學齡前兒童所面臨的困境。第一段和第二段指出家長對子女教育問題的關注；第三段指出兒童入學難這一現象及其原因；第四段指出一些學校的招生辦法以及有些學生無法入學的原因；第五段指出父母應該怎么做。

　　詞匯注釋

　　wake-up call (賓館提供的)喚醒服務，叫早服務

　　kindergarten [kIndE5^B:t(E)n] n.幼兒園 adj.幼兒園的, 初級的, 啟蒙階段的

　　figure out v.合計為, 計算出, 解決, 斷定, 領會到

　　conceive [kEn5si:v] v. 懷孕, 考慮, 設想

　　obsession [Eb5seF(E)n] n. 迷住, 困擾

　　glut [^lQt] n. 供應過剩；充斥

　　edge n.刀口, 利刃, 鋒, 優勢, 邊緣, 優勢, 尖銳 give an edge to 加劇,使尖銳化；鼓舞, 使興奮；給(刀等)開刃, 使鋒利

　　foolproof [5fu:lpru:f] adj.十分簡單的, 十分安全的, 極堅固的

　　sibling[5sIblIN] n.兄弟, 姐妹, 同胞, 同屬

　　alumni [E`lQmnaI ] n. pl.男畢業生, 男校友

　　lottery [5lRtErI] n. 抽彩給獎法

　　cognitive [ `kC^nItIv ] adj.認知的, 認識的, 有感知的

　　diverse [daI5v\:s] adj.不同的, 變化多的

　　alternative [C:l5t\:nEtIv] n. 二中擇一, 可供選擇的辦法, 事物adj.選擇性的

　　boom [bu:m] n. 繁榮, 隆隆聲

　　let up v. 停止, 中止, 放松

　　難句突破

　　1.But most rely on a mix of subjective and objective measures: tests that at best identify developmental maturity and cognitive potential, interviews with parents and observation of applicants in classroom settings.

　　主體句式：most rely on a mix of subjective and objective measures…

　　結構分析：本句是一個簡單句。冒號之后的成分做measures的同位語；tests，interviews和observation屬于并列結構。

　　句子譯文：但大多數學校還是用主觀和客觀結合的方法：進行考試，確定孩子的發育成熟程度和認知潛能；同學生家長面談，或在教室觀察孩子的反應能力。

　　題目分析

　　1.答案為C，屬事實細節題。文中頭兩段舉例說明子女教育問題成了美國家庭的頭等大事，由此引發學齡前兒童入學難這一社會問題。

　　2.答案為A，屬推理判斷題。第四段闡述了學校選學生的一些傾向和做法。對于一個幾歲的孩子及其家長又是主觀考察，又是客觀考察，又是抽簽，還要考慮班里學生的多樣性，等等。對于孩子來講，真是有些勉為其難。

　　3.答案為B，屬情感態度題。全文表達了對學齡前兒童的關注，以及對他們所處環境的憂慮和擔心。

　　4.答案為D，屬事實細節題。原文對應信息“Instead, the experts say, parents should take a breath and look for alternatives.”

　　5.答案為C，屬中心思想題。全文的中心都圍繞著學齡前兒童所處的困境這一點。