Question

In her new book, “The Smartest Kidsin the World”, Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Wroclaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students’ test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Wroclaw is that the latter has no football team or teams of any kind.

That American high schools spend more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. In December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results are announced, it’s safe to predict that American high-school students will once again show their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like China, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.

Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader — a mother with three children in the school — was asked about the school’s flaws (瑕疵). When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, theu mean?”

One of the ironies of the situation is that sports show what is possible. American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high. It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing.

1.Tom decides to spend his senior year in Poland because _________.

A. he intends to improve his scores

B. Polish kids are better at learning

C. sports are not supported at schools in Gettysburg

D. he wants to be the smartest kid in the world

2.According to Paragraph 2, we know that _________.

A. PISA plays a very important role in America

B. little time is spent on sports in Japanese schools

C. American students do better in both math and sports

D. too much importance is placed on sports in America

3.The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means _________.

A. low expectations result in American students’ poor PISA performance

B. high expectations push up American students’ academic performance

C. American students’ academic performance worries their parents a lot

D. lacking practice contributes to American students’ average performance

4.The purpose of this article is to _________.

A. compare Polish schools with those in America

B. call on American schools to learn from the Polish model

C. draw public attention to a weakness in American school tradition

D. explain what is wrong with American schools and provide solutions

Answer

1.A

2.D

3.A

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：文章介绍了美国学生在学业上比其他国家的学生平均要低，这是因为美国人传统上就重视运动，学生包括家长都把注意力更多的放在体育上，作者是想引起人们对美国传统的弱点的关注。

1.

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3.

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考点：考查教育类短文阅读。

【名师点睛】

高考文教教育类解题技巧：

1. 采用先题后文：先读题目，带着问题读文章，这类阅读理解文章相对事实理解题稍微多一些，如果带着问题读文章有利于我们抓细节。

2. 先做细节题。因为昨晚局部性的细节题后，自然会加深我们对文章主旨大意的了解，更有利于做主旨大意题。（如：先做小题2通过分析可知美国的学校更加重视运动，然后根据上下文的分析可知，本文大意于这个有相关联的地方，有利于理解文章大意，利于做题。）

3. 重点敲定主旨题。一般分为以下几类：1、读首句抓大意。2、读句尾抓大意。3、读首段抓大意。4、从段落中抓大意。5、归纳要点抓大意。每一篇文章都有不同的归纳主旨大意的方法，只要辨别出，并且恰当运用方法，就能准确掌握文章大意，有利于大题解答。（如：本文属于读首段抓住大意的类型。文章首段通过美国孩子和波兰孩子的对比，来突出美国孩子在学业上比其他国家的孩子平均要低，这是因为美国人传统上重视运动，希望对此弱点进行关注的大意，来展开接下来的分析。）