阅读理解

About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated, intelligence testing became unpopular.

 Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out of fashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.

However, paradoxically, just recently a group of black parents filed a lawsuit in California claiming that the state’s ban on IQ testing discriminates their children by denying them the opportunity to take the test. (They believed, correctly that IQ test are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore, reversed, at least partially, his original decision.

And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting, even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other factor is the cause.

What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child’s physical condition or his intellectual level.

Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago, for instance, white families were encouraged to adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.

And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.

As to intelligence, in our opinion, the more we know about any child’s intellectual level, the better for the child in question.

单选题 Why did the intelligence test become unpopular in the past few decades?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】根据第二段可知智力测试被认为是对少数族裔儿童的歧视， 因此在过去一段时间中都被禁止。
单选题 The recent legal action taken by some black parents in California aimed to _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据第三段第一句中“a group of black parents filed a lawsuit in California claiming that the state’s ban on IQ testing discriminates their children by denying them the opportunity to take the test.”可得知这些黑人家长的目的是恢复智力测试， 给孩子提供接受教育创造平等的机会。
单选题 The author believes that intelligence testing ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】根据第四段最后一句“If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other factor is the cause.”可以得知作者认为智力测试可以帮助所有家长加深对他们孩子的了解， 并促进问题的解决。
单选题 The author’s opinion of child adoption seems to be that _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】根据第七段第二、 三句“It is hard to say what are the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.”可以得知作者并不认为应当出台法律去管束这种行为。 ”
单选题 Child adoption is mentioned in the passage to show that _____.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】从第六段前两句“Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence.”可以看出作者认为美国人对于敏感话题的观点是经常改变的。