复合题

Directions: Read the following passages and then answer the questions which follow each passage. Use only information from the passage you have just read and write your answer in the corresponding space on your answer sheet.

Take the case of public education alone. The principal difficulty faced by the schools has been the tremendous increase in the number of pupils. This has been caused by the advance of the legal age for going into industry and the impossibility of finding a job even when the legal age has been reached. In view of the technological improvements in the last few years, business will require in the future proportionately fewer workers than ever before. The result will be still further raising of he legal age for going into employment, and still further difficulty in finding employment when hat age has been attained. If we cannot put our children to work, we must put them in school.

We may also be quite confident that the present trend toward a shorter day and a shorter week will be maintained. We have developed and shall continue to have a new leisure class. Already the public agencies for adult education are swamped by the tide that has swept over them since depression began. They will be little better off when it is over. Their support must come from the taxpayer.

It is surely too much to hope that these increases in the cost of public education can be borne by the local communities. They cannot care for the present restricted and inadequate system. The local communities have failed in their efforts to cope with unemployment. They cannot expect to cope with public education on the scale on which we must attempt it. The answer to the problem of unemployment has been Federal relief. The answer to the problem of public education may have to be much the same, and properly so. If there is one thing in which the citizens of all parts of the country have an interest, it is in the decent education of the citizens of all parts of the country. Our income tax now goes in part to keep our neighbors alive. It may have to go in part as well to make our neighbors intelligent. We are now attempting to preserve the present generation through Federal relief of the destitute. Only a people determined to ruin the next generation will refuse such Federal funds as public education may require. 

问答题 What is the passage mainly about?
【正确答案】How to cope with the shortage of funds for public education.
【答案解析】原文的核心短语public education在第一句就出现了。 文章第一段阐述了越来越多的人入学的原因, 第二段讲成人教育机构的(经济) 压力, 第三段讲公共教育成本提高无法由地方社区解决, 并提议由联邦政府出面。 综合每段的内容可知, 全文的主旨 是探讨如何解决公共教育的资金短缺问题。
问答题 What are the reasons for the increase in the number of students?
【正确答案】Raising of the legal age for going to work.
【答案解析】原文第一段第三句“This has been caused by the advance of the legal age for going into industry and the impossibility of finding a job even when the legal age has been reached” 说明学生人数升高是由法定工作年龄提高所造成的, 法定年龄即使到了也可能找不到工作。
问答题 According to the author, what is the answer to the problem of public education?
【正确答案】The Federal Government should allocate Federal funds for public education.
【答案解析】从第三段第五、 六句“The answer to the problem of unemployment has been Federal relief. The answer to the problem of public education may have to be much the same, and properly so. ” 可以看出, 作者认为失业问题的解决靠政府救济, 公共教育困难的解决也需靠政府投入, 所以问题的解决办法是由联邦政府分配资金给公共教育。