Question

In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in 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 Warsaw, 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(超过……分数) 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 Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.

That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This 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 display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, 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(暇疵). 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, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”One of the ironies(讽刺) of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expection 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. there are striking differences between the 2 countries

B. Polish kids are better at learning

C. he intends to improve his scores

D. sports are not supported at schools in Gettysburg

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

A. little time is spent on sports in Japanese schools

B. too much importance is placed on sports in America

C. American high schools complain about sports time

D. PISA plays a very important role in America

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

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

B. high expectations push up American students’ academic performance

C. lacking practice contributes to American students’ average performance

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

4.The purpose of this article is to _______.

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

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

C. compare Polish schools with those in America

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

Answer 1

1.C

2.B

3.D

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：本文讲了美国高中教育重视体育而忽视书本学习的弊端。

1. 根据第一段第二句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.

波兰教育做得很成功，国家提高了学生的成绩，推断他想要提高分数，故选B

2. 根据第二段第一句That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint 美国高校花费更多的钱和时间在运动上，故选B

3. 推理分析题分析题最后一句 American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expection are high. It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing.是说美国在运动上对学生期望高，所以孩子在运动上的表现就好；可惜，同样的在测试分数上期望较低，导致学生的表现就不好。故选D

4. 本文通篇都在讲美国高中教育重视体能运动而忽视学术教育，来提高大家认识教育存在的弊端，故选A。