41. D。　 细节理解题。根据第二段的“America’s schools are failing us. They’re not preparing enough young people to succeed in the 21st century.”可知美国的教育并没有发挥很好的作用，因此选D。

45. What is the passage mainly about?

　 　　 A. Emerging crisis in America’s schools.

　 　　 B. Solving American education problems.

　 　 C. Educational foundation of American society.

　 　　 D. The importance of adopting national educational standards.

答案：

　　 美国社会的教育基础可能会对国家的未来构成威胁，这是1983年得出的结论，然而它仍然适用于二十多年后的现在的美国。本文介绍了美国教育令人担忧的现状，还提出了一些解决方法。

44. National education standards emphasize the importance of _____________.

　　 A. main basic subjects in schools

　　 B. learning a technique

　　 C. the ability to understand

　　 D. the same base of knowledge

43. Through the passage, the author wants to tell us that________.

　　 A. the problems of the present America's schools are very different from those of two decades ago

　　 B. if the financial problems are solved, the problems of America’s schools will disappear

　　 C. varieties of schools should be built to solve the problems of America’s schools

　　 D. proper strategies and reforms are needed in the course of solving the problems

42. The author's attitude toward America's schools is that of ____________.

　　 A. unconcern　 　　 B. dissatisfaction　　 　　 C. tolerance　　　 D. sympathy

41. According to the author's opinion, we can conclude that ___________.

　 　 A. the report, A Nation at Risk, only reflected the previous educational situation in America

　　 B. the American educational system was considered to secure the nation's future during the past twenty years

　　 C. the 1983 report is, to some degree, too old to describe the present educational situation well

　　 D. in view of the present educational situation, American basic education doesn't function well

39．had told，考查动词的过去完成时态。

38．what，what was the matter with him是固定搭配。

37．and，表并列关系。