(1)Tens of thousands of 18-year-olds will graduate this year and be handed meaningless diplomas. These diplomas won't look any different from those awarded their luckier classmates. Their validity will be questioned only when their employers discover that these graduates are semiliterate(半文盲). (2)Eventually a fortunate few will find their way into educational-repair shops—adult-literacy programs, such as the one where I teach basic grammar and writing. There, high-school graduates and high-school dropouts pursuing graduate-equivalency certificates will learn the skills they should have learned in school. They will also discover they have been cheated by our educational system. (3)I will never forget a teacher who got the attention of one of my children by revealing the trump card of failure. Our youngest, a world-class charmer, did Utile to develop his intellectual talents but always got by. Until Mrs. Stifter. (4)Our son was a high-school senior when he had her for English. "He sits in the back of the room talking to his friends," she told me. "Why don't you move him to the front row?" I urged, believing the embarrassment would get him to settle down. Mrs. Stifter said, "I don't move seniors. I flunk(使......不及格)them." Our son's academic life flashed before my eyes. No teacher had ever threatened him. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty good about this. It was a radical approach for these times, but, well, why not? "She's going to flunk you," I told my son. I did not discuss it any further. Suddenly English became a priority(头等重要)in his life. He finished out the semester with an A. (5)I know one example doesn't make a case, but at night I see a parade of students who are angry for having been passed along until they could no longer even pretend to keep up. Of average intelligence or better, they eventually quit school, concluding they were too dumb to finish. "I should have been held back," is a comment I hear frequently. Even sadder are those students who are high-school graduates who say to me after a few weeks of class, "I don't know how I ever got a high-school diploma." (6)Passing students who have not mastered the work cheats them and the employers who expect graduates to have basic skills. We excuse this dishonest behavior by saying kids can't learn if they come from terrible environments. No one seems to stop to think that most kids don't put school first on their list unless they perceive something is at risk. They'd rather be sailing. (7)Many students I see at night have decided to make education a priority. They are motivated by the desire for a better job or the need to hang on to the one they've got. They have a healthy fear of failure. (8)People of all ages can rise above their problems, but they need to have a reason to do so. Young people generally don't have the maturity to value education in the same way my adult students value it. But fear of failure can motivate both.
单选题
The author believes that the most effective way for a teacher is to _____.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】解析：本题需综合理解第6至第8段内容。第6段批评了学校passing students(让学生轻易及格和毕业)的政策，并指出孩子把学业放在首位的前提条件是认为某科处于危险境地(perceive something is at risk)；第7段则提到成年学生能把学习放在首位是受到fear of failure的激励(motivated)；第8段首句则表明任何年龄段的学生都有克服问题的能力，但关键是需要一个诱因(have a reason)，即需要“激发他们”。综合以上三点可得出D为本题答案。
单选题
Judging from the content, this passage is probably written for_____.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：本文以作者自己儿子及夜校学生对待学业的不同表现，反映了教师在教学法上的差异可导致学生在学业上的差异，并专门就如何让学生将学习放在首位(put school first on their list；make education a pri-ority)展开论述，这是教师该关注的事情，据上述两点确定本题选C。A属于无中生有，文中无论是在事例或论述中都没提到“行政人员”，故排除。本文虽然以“学生”的角度和事例为切人点，但强调的是教师在激励学生时的责任和方法，故写作对象应是教师，B排除。在第4段的例子中，作者虽然以家长的身份出现，但只属于文章细节，D以偏概全。