单选题 Largely for "spiritual reasons", Nancy Manos started home-schooling her children five years ago and has studiously avoided public schools ever since. Yet last week, she was enthusiastically enrolling her 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, in sign language and modern dance classes at Eagleridge Enrichment—a program run by the Mesa, Ariz. , public schools and taught by district teachers. Manos still wants to handle the basics, but likes that Eagleridge offers the extras, "things I couldn't teach. " One doubt, though, lingers in her mind. why would the public school system want to offer home-school families anything?
A big part of the answer is economics. The number of home-schooled kids nationwide has risen to as many as 1.9 million from an estimated 345,000 in 1994, and school districts that get state and local dollars per child are beginning to suffer. In Maricopa County, which includes Mesa, the number of home-schooled kids has more than doubled during that period to 7,526, at about $ 4,500 a child, that's nearly $ 34 million a year in lost revenue.
Not everyone's happy with these innovations. Some states have taken the opposite tack. Like about half the states, West Virginia refuses to allow home-schooled kids to play public-school sports. And in Arizona, some complain that their tax dollars are being used to create programs for families who, essentially, eschew participation in public life. "That makes my teeth grit," says Daphne Atkeson, whose 10-year-old son attends public school in Paradise Valley. Even some committed home-schoolers question the new programs, given their central irony., they turn home-schoolers into public-school students, says Bob Parsons, president of the Alaska Private and Home Educators Association. "We've lost about one third of our members to those programs. They're so enticing. "
Mesa started Eagleridge four years ago, when it saw how much money it was losing from home schoolers—and how unprepared some students were when they re-entered the schools. Since it began, the program's enrollment has nearly doubled to 397, and last year the district moved Eagleridge to a strip mall (between a pizza joint and a laser-tag arcade). Parents typically drop off their kids once a week; because most of the children qualify as quarter-time students, the district collects $ 911 per child. "It's like getting a taste of what real school is like," says 10-year-old Chad Lucas, who's learning computer animation and creative writing.
Other school districts are also experimenting with novel ways to court home schoolers. The town of Galena, Alaska, (pop. 600) has just 178 students. But in 1997, its school administrators figured they could reach beyond their borders. Under the program, the district gives home-schooling families free computers and Internet service for correspondence classes. In return, the district gets $ 3,100 per student enrolled in the program—$ 9.6 million a year, which it has used partly for a new vocational school. Such alternatives just might appeal to other districts. Ernest Felty, head of Hardin County schools in southern Illinois, has 10 home-schooled pupils. That may not sound like much— except that he has a staff of 68, and at $ 4,500 a child, "that's probably a teacher's salary," Fehy says. With the right robotics or art class, though, he could take the home out of home schooling.

单选题 In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by______.
[A] posing a contrast
[B] justifying an assumption
[C] explaining a phenomenon
[D] making a comparison

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[考点] 事实细节
[解析] 此类题型于2005年首次出现，主要考查考生对于文章结构框架的了解。本题就引入主题的方式进行提问。考生应首先找到主题。第一段举了一个例子：Nancy让她的孩子在家接受教育，之后又接受部分公立学校课程，从而引出公立学校为什么愿意给他们提供课程这个文章中心，所以答案为C选项。
[干扰项分析] A选项，比较两个事物不同之处；D选项，是比较两个事物的相同之处，明显都不符合首段的特点。B选项，原文讲述的是一个现象，根本就没有提出什么假设。

单选题 The public school system wants to offer home-school families something, because______.
[A] it does not want to lose much money from the increasing home-schoolers
[B] home-schoolers have some difficulty in getting some particular knowledge
[C] home-schoolers are eager to have a taste of what a real school is like
[D] it has the responsibility to help the home-schoolers

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[考点] 事实细节
[解析] 第一段最后一句提出问题“why would the public school system Want to offer home school families anything?”第二段第一句作者做出了回答：“A big part of the answer is economics．”这种文章中心提出方式在历年真题阅读题目中屡有涉及。此类文章中，作者通过提出一个疑问句为自己设定文章写作的思路，即下文就是为回答这个问题而展开。本文也属于这种写作思路。A选项正是对这一文章思路的呼应，故选A。
[干扰项分析] B选项，文章并未涉及在家受教育者是否在学习某些知识方面有困难。C选项，在文章第四段末端作者确实引用了一个孩子的话，但是这并不是全文的写作主线；另外，本题定位在第二段，该选项的内容出了定位范围。D选项，文章并未涉及学校的责任问题。

单选题 The statement "That makes my teeth grit," (Line 4, Paragraph 3) implies that______.
[A] I wanted to eat something
[B] I was angry and dissatisfied
[C] I was in favor of what the public school had done
[D] I wanted not to bring my children to that school

单选题 The statistics in Paragraph two helps us draw a conclusion that______.
[A] economics is greatly influenced by so many home-schoolers
[B] the number of the home-schoolers is steadily increasing
[C] it is a great loss for the public school system to have so many home-schoolers
[D] home-schooling has an incomparable advantage over the public school system

单选题 What can we infer from the last paragraph?
[A] The tuition the home-schoolers have to pay for the public school is very high.
[B] Public school system gains much profit from the home-schoolers.
[C] Home-schoolers do not want to receive education at home any more.
[D] Public school system tries to attract the home-schoolers back to school.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[考点] 推理判断
[解析] 第五段第一句话“Other school districts are also experimenting with novel ways to court home choolers．”是本段的主题句。Other和also这两个词的使用，表明该段还是在承接上文后面思想——通过给在家接受教育者提供部分课程获取一些经济收益。同时第五段用具体的数字说明学校的获益情况。所以答案为B选项。
[干扰项分析] A选项，在家接受教育者交给学校的费用并不高，这一点可以通过第四段得知；C选项，无中生有，这些学生愿意参加公立学校的部分课程，并没有说结束在家接受教育；D选项，对第五段首句字面意思的理解。