Passage 7
Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of parental involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting (养育子女) where schools expect them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready on them. Keith Robinson, the author of the study, said, “I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework.” Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the tasks. “They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they are still offering advice.”
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.
Common sense suggest it was a good thing for parents to get involved because “children with good academic success do have involved parents”, admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success. “A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives.”
The underlined expression “parental involvement” in Paragraph 1 probably means（ ）.
词意猜测。有语境可知，那些帮助孩子做家庭作业的家长实际上可能会降 低孩子在学校的成绩。其他形式的参与，包括在学校的志愿活动以及观摩孩子的课堂等，都 未能帮助孩子。由此可知“parental involvement”应该指的家长对孩子教育的参与。因此 B 项正确。A 项侧重父母对孩子身体的表达。C 项侧重父母对孩子生活的把控。D 项侧重父母 对孩子未来的安排。因此答案选 B 项。
What is the major finding of Robinson's study?（ ）
细节题。根据第四段第二句“In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.”可知，20%的家长参与有积 极作用，45%有消极作用，剩下的不具有统计学意义，而人们一般认为家长参与对孩子来说 是好的。由此可推知，家长的参与并未达到预期的效果，这样 C 项符合。A 项指的是现代 的家长用较为科学的方式抚养孩子。B 项指的是用不恰当的方式惩罚孩子是对造成精神伤害 的。D 项指的是父母不能帮助孩子做功课。因此答案选 C 项。
The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should （ ）.
判断推理根据最后一段最后一句“…conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives.”可知，那些亚裔的美国家长几乎不参与孩子的学校教育， 而他们的孩子在学校表现却很好，这是因为他们更注重帮助孩子了解学校教育的重要性，A 项符合。因此答案选 A 项。B 项指的是给孩子设定一个具体的目标。C 项指的是花很多的 时间提升他们的生活。D 项指的是在学校管理中扮演更加积极的角色。因此答案选 A 选项。