单选题   Children for whom school has no point
    Many children do not go to school either because their parents want them at home as carers for siblings, or simply because their parents cannot be bothered to send them. Thousands more are not registered at any school at all, because of their families' unstable lives.
    Underlying this dreadful situation there are two central truths. First of all, the problem of children not going to school often has more to do with their parents than with the children themselves. Secondly, once children go to school, we need to make sure that the experience is a positive one so that they want to keep on going.
    In Britain, the Ministry of Education has introduced a complex package of sticks and carrots to persuade schools to bring truants' and excluded children back into the classroom. It is paying grants so that a thousand schools can set up special units to help these children. Schools receive the grant if they bring a target number of children back to school; if they do not meet the target, the grant is withdrawn.
    Parents are the subject of this campaign, too: the Home Office has introduced fines for parents who fail to send their children to school, and has given the police power to pick up truants on the streets.
    truant = a child who does not go to school when he or she should.
单选题     According to the text, there are thousands of children who ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第一段。由于家庭生活的不稳定,超过数干的孩子甚至没有在学校注册。
单选题     Part of the problem is ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】第二段。最后一句中的positive experience意为“有用的知识”。全句大意是“对孩子来说,如果在学校学到的知识对他们有用,他们将愿意在学校学下去”,而不是去浪费时间。
单选题     The Ministry of Education will take away a school's grant if ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】第三段。英国教育部设置了一种奖励制度,如果学校能将一定数目的应该念书的孩子劝回学校,该校就可获得一定的奖励。
单选题     The Home Office ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】最后一段。家庭办公室也实施一种政策,即不送孩子进校念书的家长要被罚款,并赋予警察权力。警察可以抓游荡在街上的学龄儿童。