单选题 Education Secretary Arne Duncan is joining forces with two unlikely allies, the Rev. A1 Sharpton and Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to push cities to fix failing schools. The trio will visit Philadelphia, New Orleans and Baltimore later this year. They plan to add more stops as their tour progresses. "These are cities that have real challenges but also tremendous hope and opportunity," Duncan told reporters on a conference call Thursday. The idea came from a meeting they had with President Barack Obama in May at the White House.
Education is high on Obama"s priority list. He is seeking to boost achievement, keep kids from dropping out of high school and push every student to pursue some form of higher education. The president has vowed to make the United States the world leader in the number of people who graduate from college. He argues that students who do better in school will help themselves in a work force that increasingly depends on high-skilled jobs, and that the country will benefit as well.
Obama discussed education issues in an interview with Damon Weaver, an 11-year-old Florida student. "On Sept. 8, when young people across the country will have just started or are about to go back to school, I"m going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country about the importance of education, the importance of staying in school, how we want to improve our education system and why it"s so important for the country," Obama said.
Sharpton, the liberal Democrat and community activist, said teachers and administrators aren"t the only ones responsible for improving schools. "The parents need to be challenged with the message of "no excuses"," Sharpton said.
Interviewed on NBC"s Today show Friday, Gingrich and Sharpton were asked how they had agreed to work together on education in view of the many differences they"ve had on other issues. "I think that he has it exactly right, that education has to be the No. 1 civil right of the 21st century and I"ve been passionate about reforming education," Gingrich said. "And we can"t get it done as a partisan issue." Sharpton said the time has come to "change the conversation...to say we need to put everybody"s hands on the table".
Gingrich also said he believes that "if there"s anything Americans should be mature enough about to have a decent conversation, it"s the education of their children". He applauded Obama for showing "real courage on the issue of charter schools". Obama wants to increase the number of charter schools, which have a controversial history and are a divisive issue for his party"s base.

单选题 Which of the following is true according to the first two paragraphs?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 事实细节题。要求选出符合前两段内容的选项，这需要对各选项进行逐一甄别。A“Duncan，Sharpton and Gingrich三方是不可能进行合作的”，这与首段首句相矛盾；B这是Duncan，Sharpton and Gingrich三方的首次合作”，这正是对原文首段首句的同义互换，与原文内容吻合，所以B是答案；C“Duncan，sharpton and Gingrich已经与奥巴马谈论了他们的日程”，文章首段的最后一句话只是提到他们与奥巴马会谈时有了想法，所以C不正确；D“美国大学毕业生的人数居世界首位”，根据原文第二段的第三句，这是奥巴马作出的承诺，还没有成为事实，所以D与原文内容不吻合，不能入选。

单选题 What Obama said to Damon Weaver in Para. 3 is to show us

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。从第三段的内容来看，它只包括了奥巴马和Damon Weaver谈话的内容，即：教育是非常重要的问题，因此无法单独根据本段的内容来判断他说这些话的目的是什么；但是，根据该段在文中的结构可知，它是补充说明第二段内容的，即：奥巴马认为教育很重要，并承诺要致力于发展教育，由此可知D“奥巴马决心解决美国的教育问题”正是他说这段话的目的，所以D是答案。A“他关于美国教育所作演讲的内容”，这是奥巴马与Damon Weaver谈话的部分内容，不是他谈话的目的，所以不符合题意；B“他与Damon Weaver就教育问题的谈话”，也只是该段的内容，不符合题意；C“他对年轻人的看法”，文中没有提及，也不是他谈话的目的，所以A、B、C均不正确。

单选题 What Sharpton directly said in Para. 4 suggests that

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。该段共有两句话，根据首句“教师和行政人员也不是唯一的、对改善学校教学负有责任的人”可知，还应该有其他的人对此负责；接着第二句中谈到了家长也应该无任何借口地接受挑战，那么很显然，该句话含有“父母亲也应该为学校的教育负责”的意思，这与选项B“父母也应该为提高学校教学而作出贡献”相吻合，所以答案是B。A“父母总是寻找一些借口来挑战美国的教育”，这明显是对原句中challenge与excuses的误解，因此A不正确；C“父母应该在学校问题上寻找任何借口”，是反向干扰，所以C错误；D“父母应该因寻找接受挑战的借口而受到责备”，这也与原句内容不吻合，所以D也不正确。

单选题 The sentence "we need to put everybody"s hands on the table" (Line 5, Para. 5) shows that

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 语义理解题。该句话位于文章倒数第二段的最后一句，所以从结构上来看，它应该是对前面内容的总结或者补充说明。该段说明的是Sharpton和Gingrich认为他们能够进行合作的原因，该句话与其前面Gingrich所说的话之间是一种递进关系，即补充说明“不应该把教育看成是一个党派问题”。另外，再根据本句的字面意思，即：每个人都应该把手放在桌子上，可以推断出这句话的真正含义是：各方要坐下来，公开地谈论在教育上进行合作的事情，这与选项C吻合，所以C是答案。A“我们应该把手放在桌子上”与B“我们不应该把手放在桌子下”，这都是对该句话的字面解释，不是它的真正含义，所以不正确；D“我们应该排除在其他问题上的所有分歧”，与该句内容不吻合，所以D也不正确。

单选题 What can we infer from the text about American educational conditions?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 推理判断题。本题涉及全文最后两段的内容，所以需要对选项进行一一甄别。A“Gingrich鼓励奥巴马对特许学校进行改革”，全文只在最后一段提到特许学校，是作为Gingrich对奥巴马解决教育问题表示赞许的例子出现的，A曲解了原文的意思，所以不正确；B“美国人太成熟了，以至于不能在教育问题上举行会谈”，这与最后一段第一句话意思正好相反，所以B不正确；C“一些党内人士与奥巴马在特许学校问题上仍然存在分歧”，这与全文最后一句话的意思吻合，所以C是答案；D“Gingrich认为，应该把教育作为一个党派问题来对待”，这与倒数第二段中的倒数第二句话内容相矛盾，所以D也不正确。