阅读理解 Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents, but in recently years it has been particularly scorned. School districts across the country, most recently Los Angeles Unified, are revising their thinking on this educational ritual. Unfortunately, L.A. Unified has produced an inflexible policy which mandates that with the exception of some advanced courses, homework may no longer count for more than 10% of a student' s academic grade.
This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework. But the policy is unclear and contradictory. Certainly, no homework should be assigned that students cannot complete on their own or that they cannot do without expensive equipment. But if the district is essentially giving a pass to students who do not do their homework because of complicated family lives, it is going riskily close to the implication that standards need to be lowered for poor children.
District administrators say that homework will still be a part of schooling; teachers are allowed to assign as much of it as they want. But with homework counting for no more than 10% of their grades, students can easily skip half their homework and see very little difference on their report cards. Some students might do well on state tests without completing their homework, but what about the students who performed well on the tests and did their homework? It is quite possible that the homework helped. Yet rather than empowering teachers to find what works best for their students, the policy imposes a flat, across-the-board rule.
At the same time, the policy addresses none of the truly thorny questions about homework. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students' academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely, if homework matters, it should account for a significant portion of the grade. Meanwhile, this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful or appropriate to their age and the subject, or that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.
The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for L.A. Unified to do homework right.
单选题 It is implied in Paragraph 1 that nowadays homework______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推断题。根据第一段中的“Homework has never been terribly popular with students and even many parents，but in recently years it has been particularly scorned．”可知，近几年，家庭作业越发受到奚落。故选A。
单选题 L.A.Unified has made the rule about homework mainly because poor students______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。根据第二段中的“This rule is meant to address the difficulty that students from impoverished or chaotic homes might have in completing their homework”可知，C项正确。
单选题 According to Paragraph 3, one problem with the policy is that it may______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。根据第三段中的“with homework counting for no more than 10％ of their grades，students can easily skip half their homework and see very little difference on their report cards…”可知，因为对成绩的影响很小，很多学生可能不会积极完成作业。故选A。
单选题 As mentioned in Paragraph 4, a key question unanswered about homework is whether______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。根据第四段中的“If the district finds homework to be unimportant…it should account for a significant portion of the grade”可知，如果学区认为家庭作业不重要，那就该删减或取消家庭作业：如果认为重要，那么就应当让它在成绩中占较大比例。L．A．Unified所指定的这项政策到目前为止还未对家庭作业对于学生学业是否有重要作用给出明确的答案。故选B。
单选题 A suitable title for this text could be______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】主旨题。文章主要大意是对新家庭作业政策提出批评和质疑。A项“对一项教育政策的错误解读”，本文没有评判他人的意见，更谈不上“错误的解读”；B项“受到穷苦孩子欢迎的新政策”，以偏概全，这只是新政策的目的之一，并且是否真的受到欢迎还不能确定；C项“家庭作业的棘手问题”，本文主要讨论的是有关家庭作业的态度和政策；D项“家庭作业的一种错误解决办法”正是全文讨论的主题。故选D。