单选题 Latino youths need better education for Arizona to take full advantage of the possibilities their exploding population offers. Arizona"s fast-growing Latino population offers the state tremendous promise and a challenge. Even more than the aging of the baby boomers, the Latino boom is fundamentally reorienting the state"s economic and social structure.
Immigration and natural increase have added 600,000 young Latino residents to the state"s population in the past decade. Half of the population younger than 18 in both Phoenix and Tucson is now Latino. Within 20 years, Latinos will make up half of the homegrown entry-level labor pool in the state"s two largest labor markets.
What is more, Hispanics are becoming key economic players. Most people don"t notice it, but Latinos born in Arizona make up much of their immigrant parents" economic and educational, deficits. For example, second-generation Mexican-Americans secure an average of 12 grades of schooling where their parents obtained less than nine. That means they erase 70 percent of their parents" lag behind third-generation non-Hispanic Whites in a single generation.
All of this hands the state a golden opportunity. At a time when many states will struggle with labor shortages because of modest population growth, Arizona has a priceless chance to build a populous, hardworking and skilled workforce on which to base future prosperity. The problem is that Arizona and its Latino residents may not be able to seize this opportunity. Far too many of Arizona"s Latinos drop out of high school or fail to obtain the basic education needed for more advanced study. As a result, educational deficits are holding back many Latinos—and the state as well. To be sure, construction and low-end service jobs continue to absorb tens of thousands of Latino immigrants with little formal education. But over the long term, most of Arizona"s Latino citizens remain ill-prepared to prosper in an increasingly demanding knowledge economy.
For the reason, the educational uplift of Arizona"s huge Latino population must move to the center of the state"s agenda. After all, the education deficits of Arizona"s Latino population will severely cramp the fortunes of hardworking people if they go unaddressed and could well undercut the state"s ability to compete in the new economy. At the entry level, slower growth rates may create more competition for low-skill jobs, displacing Latinos from a significant means of support. At the higher end, shortages of Latinos educationally ready to move up will make it much harder for knowledge-based companies staff to get high-skill positions.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 细节推断题。采用排除法。A、C和D原文并没有提到。而第三段第三句“For example, second-generation Mexican-Americans secure an average of 12 grades of schooling where their parents obtained less than nine.”表明，第二代墨西哥裔美国人比他们的父母获得了更好的教育，而这一句是为了举例说明第二句提到的在亚利桑那州出生的拉丁裔美国人和他们的移民父母之间的区别，由此可见，第二句提到的immigrant parents就是第一代拉丁裔美国人，immigrant一词表明他们并非在美国出生，因此B为正确的推断。