考研英语阅读理解考试题和答案解析二

考研英语阅读理解考试题和答案解析二

PLIGHT OF THE PRESCHOOLERS

How do they beat the odds?

Competition for admission to the country’s top

private schools has always been tough, but this year

Elisabeth Krents realized it had reached a new level.

Her wake-up call came when a man called the Dalton

School in Manhattan, where Krents is admissions

director, and inquired about the age cutoff for their

kindergarten program. After providing the information

(they don’t use an age cutoff), she asked about the

age of his child. The man paused for an uncomfortably

long time before answering. “Well, we don’t have a

child

yet,”

he

told

Krents.

“We’re

trying

to

figure

out when to conceive a child so the birthday is not a

problem.”

School

obsession

is

spreading

from

Manhattan

to

the

rest of the country. Precise current data on private

schools are unavailable, but interviews with

representatives of independent and religious schools

all told the same story: a glut of applicants, higher

rejection

rates.

“We

have

people

calling

u

s

for

spots

two years down the road,” said Marilyn Collins of the

Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. “We have

grandparents calling for pregnant daughters.”

Public-opinion poll after poll indicates that

Americans’ No. 1 concern is education. Now that the

long economic boom has given parents more disposable

income, many are turning to private schools, even at

price

tags

of

well

over

$$10,000

a

year.

“We’re

getting

applicants from a broader area, geographically, than

we

ever

have

in

the

past,”

said

Betsy

Haug

h

of

the

Latin

School of Chicago, which experienced a 20 percent

increase in applications this year.

The

problem

for

the

applicants

is

that

while

demand

has

increased,

supply

has

not.

“Every

year,

there

are

a few children who do not find places, but this year,

for the first time that I know of, there are a

significant number of children who don’t have

places,”

said

Krents,

who

also

heads

a

private

-school

admissions group in New York.

So what can parents do to give their 4-year-old an

edge? Schools know there is no foolproof way to pick

a class when children are so young. Many schools give

preference to siblings or alumni children.

Some use lotteries. But most rely on a mix of

subjective and objective measures: tests that at best

identify developmental maturity and cognitive

potential, interviews with parents and observation of

applicants in classroom settings. They also want a

diverse mix. Children may end up on a waiting list

simply because their birthdays fall at the wrong time

of year, or because too many applicants were boys.

The worst thing a parent can do is to pressure

preschoolers to perform--for example, by pushing them

to read or do math exercises before they’re ready.

Instead,

the

experts

say,

parents

should

take

a

breath

and look for alternatives. Another year in preschool

may

be

all

that’s

needed.

Parents,

meanwhile,

may

need

a more open mind about relatively unknown private

schools--or

about

magnet

schools

in

the

public

system.

There’s

no

sign

of

the

private

-school

boom

letting

up.

Dal

ton’s spring tours, for early birds interested in

the 2001-2002 school year, are filled. The wait list?

Forget it. That’s closed, too.

By

Pat

Wingert

Newsweek;

05/15/2000,

Vol.

135

Issue

20, p76, 2/3p, 1c

注

(1)

：本文选自

Newsweek

，

05/15/2000, p76

author

uses

the

examples

to

show

__________.

[A]the concern of Americans

[B]the charm of the private schools

[C]the fierce situation for preschoolers

[D]the economic situation of American families

is implied in Paragraph 4?

[A]The harsh way of forming a class.

[B]The high expectation of the parents.

[C]The wise selection of the school.

[D]The difficulty of getting enrolled.

author

’

s attitude toward this event is

__________.

[A]indifferent

[B]apprehensive

[C]supportive

[D]indignant

d of giving their children great pressure