单选题 About one in twenty adults in the United States cannot read English. A new federal study shows that adults made little progress in their reading skills between 1992 and 2003.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is the most important test of how well adult Americans can read. Researchers tested nineteen thousand people over the age of sixteen. The study represents an adult population of two hundred twenty-two million. Those who took part were tested on how well they could read and understand information used in everyday life, The study found that eleven million adults, or five percent, cannot read English. They could not answer even the easiest written questions. Four million of them most likely cannot speak English either. The study shows that more than forty percent of adults can perform only simple reading activities. For many, even that can be difficult. Fifty-six percent of adults can perform moderate or complex activities. Moderate can mean finding information in a book. Of that number, thirteen percent can perform complex tasks like comparing two different newspaper commentaries (评论).
Researchers say part of the problem is that many young Americans do not read as much for pleasure anymore. Also, there are greater numbers of non-English speaking immigrants.
Reading skills can directly affect the ability to earn a living. The best readers were found to earn up to twenty-eight thousand dollars a year more than those who lacked simple reading skills.
Yet, compared to the last study in 1992, adults" reading skills were about the same or lower across every level of education. This was true even among people who have completed college. By race and ethnic group, blacks and Asians had the biggest increases in English reading skills. But levels decreased among Hispanics. Experts, say, however, that while many Hispanics are unable to read in English, they may read well in Spanish.
Overall, American adults improved the most in answering questions that involved numbers. Even so, the test found that the average adult cannot do much more than perform simple, everyday math.

单选题 When was the article probably written?

单选题 Who was tested by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查阅读细节。根据题干，答案应在第二段中寻找。本题不选A是因为文中“Researchers tested nineteen thousand people over the age of sixteen．The study represents an adult population of two hundred twenty-two million．”大意为“研究者对19，000个16岁以上的人士进行了测试。此项研究代表了国内 222，000，000的成年人口。”

单选题 According to the text, how many percent of adults can perform complex English reading tasks?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题考查阅读细节。在文章第三段中有“Fifty-six percent of adults can perform．．．Of that number，thirteen percent．．．commentaries”此处要注意，文中并没有直接告诉读者能完成复杂阅读活动的人数百分比，而是给出“在这56%的人数中占13%的人能完成复杂阅读活动”这样的表述，因此解题时应将两个百分数相乘，选项A与得数最接近，因此为正确答案。