Section B
Directions:In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Rich Children and Poor Ones Are Raised Very Differently
[A]The lives of children from rich and poor American families look more different than ever before. [B]Well-off families are ruled by calendars, with children enrolled in ballet, soccer and after-school programs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. There are usually two parents, who spend a lot of time reading to children and worrying about their anxiety levels and hectic schedules.
[C]In poor families, meanwhile, children tend to spend their time at home or with extended family. They are more likely to grow up in neighborhoods that their parents say aren’t great for raising children, and their parents worry about them getting shot, beaten up or in trouble with the law.
[D]The class differences in child rearing are growing — a symptom of widening inequality with far- reaching consequences. Different upbringings set children on different paths and can deepen socioeconomic divisions, especially because education is strongly linked to earnings. Children grow up learning the skills to succeed in their socioeconomic stratum (阶层)，but not necessarily others.
[E]“Early childhood experiences can be very consequential for children’s long-term social, emotional and cognitive development,??said Sean Reardon, professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford University. “And because those influence educational success and later earnings, early childhood experiences cast a lifelong shadow.” The cycle continues: Poor parents have less time and fewer resources to invest in their children, which can leave children less prepared for school and work, which leads to lower earnings.
[F]American parents want similar things for their children, the Pew report and past research have found: for them to be healthy and happy, honest and ethical, caring and compassionate. There is no best parenting style or philosophy, researchers say, and across income groups, 92% of parents say they are doing a good job at raising their children. Yet they are doing it quite differently. Middle-class and higher-income parents see their children as projects in need of careful cultivation, says Annette Lareau, whose groundbreaking research on the topic was published in her book Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race
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and Family Life. They try to develop their skills through close supervision and organized activities, and teach children to question authority figures and navigate elite institutions.
[G]Working-class parents, meanwhile, believe their children will naturally thrive, and give them far greater independence and time for free play. They are taught to be compliant and respectful to adults. There are benefits to both approaches. Working-class children are happier, more independent, complain less and are closer to family members, Ms. Lareau found. Higher-income children are more likely to declare boredom and expect their parents to solve their problems. Yet later on, the more affluent children end up in college and on the way to the middle class, while working-class children tend to struggle. Children from higher-income families are likely to have the skills to navigate bureaucracies and succeed in schools and workplaces, Ms. Lareau said.
[H]“Do all parents want the most success for their children? Absolutely,” she said. “Do some strategies give children more advantages than others in institutions? Probably they do. Will parents be damaging children if they have one fewer organized activity? No, I really doubt it.”
[I]Social scientists say the differences arise in part because low-income parents have less money to spend on music class or preschool, and less flexible schedules to take children to museums or attend school events. Extracurricular activities reflect the differences in child rearing in the Pew survey, which was of a nationally representative sample of 1,807 parents. Of families earning more that $75,000 a year, 84% say their children have participated in organized sports over the past year, 64% have done volunteer work and 62% have taken lessons in music, dance or art. Of families earning less than $30,000, 59% of children have done sports, 37% have volunteered and 41% have taken arts classes.
[J]Especially in affluent families, children start young. Nearly half of high-earning, college-graduate parents enrolled their children in arts classes before they were 5, compared with one.fifth of low- income, less-educated parents. Nonetheless, 20% of well-off parents say their children’s schedules are too hectic, compared with 8% of poorer parents.
[K]Another example is reading aloud, which studies have shown gives children bigger vocabularies and better reading comprehension in school. 71% of parents with a college degree say they do it every day, compared with 33% of those with a high school diploma or less. White parents are more likely than other to read to their children daily, as are married parents. Most affluent parents enroll their children in preschool or day care, while low-income parents are more likely to depend on family members. Discipline techniques vary by education level: 8% of those with a postgraduate degree say they often beat their children, compared with 22% of those with a high school degree or less.
[L]The survey also probed attitudes and anxieties. Interestingly, parents’ attitudes toward education
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do not seem to reflect their own educational background as much as a belief in the importance of education for upward mobility. Most American parents say they are not concerned about their children’s grades as long as they work hard. But 50% of poor parents say it is extremely important to them that their children earn a college degree, compared with 39% of wealthier parents. f
[M]Less-educated parents, and poorer and black and Latino parents are more likely to believe that there is no such thing as too much involvement in a child’s education. Parents who are white, wealthy or college-educated say too much involvement can be bad. Parental anxieties reflect their circumstances. High-earning parents are much more likely to say they live in a good neighborhood for raising children. While bullying is parents’ greatest concern over all, nearly half of low-income parents worry their child will get shot, compared with one-fifth of high-income parents. They are more worried about their children being depressed or anxious.
[N]In the Pew survey, middle-class families earning between $30,000 and $75,000 a year fell right between working-class and high-earning parents on issues like the quality of their neighborhood for raising children, participation in extracurricular activities and involvement in their children’s education.
[O]Children were not always raised so differently. The achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is 30-40% larger among children born in 2001 than those born 25 years earlier, according to Mr. Reardon?s research. People used to live near people of different income levels; neighborhoods are now more segregated by income. More than a quarter of children live in singleparent households — a historic high, according to Pew — and these children are three times as likely to live in poverty as those who live with married parents. Meanwhile, growing income inequality has coincided with the increasing importance of a college degree for earning a middle-class wage.
[P]Yet there are recent signs that the gap could be starting to shrink. In the past decade, even as income inequality has grown, some of the socioeconomic differences in parenting, like reading to children and going to libraries, have narrowed.
[Q] Public policies aimed at young children have helped, including public preschool programs and reading initiatives. Addressing differences in the earliest years, it seems, could reduce inequality in the next, generation.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
36.Working-class parents teach their children to be obedient and show respect to adults.
37.American parents, whether rich or poor, have similar expectations of their children despite different
ways of parenting.
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38.While rich parents are more concerned with their children’s psychological well-being, poor parents
are more worried about their children’s safety.
39.The increasing differences in child rearing between rich and poor families reflect growing social
inequality.
40.Parenting approaches of working-class and affluent families both have advantages.
41.Higher-income families and working-class families now tend to live in different neighborhoods. 42.Physical punishment is used much less by well-educated parents.
43.Ms. Lareau doesn’t believe participating in fewer after-class activities will negatively affect children?s
development.
44.Wealthy parents are concerned about their children’s mental health and busy schedules. 45.Some socioeconomic differences in child rearing have shrunk in the past ten years.
Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2with a single line through the centre. Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
Tennessee?s technical and community colleges will not outsource (夕卜包）management of their facilities to a private company, a decision one leader said was bolstered by an analysis of spending at each campus.
In an email sent Monday to college presidents in the Tennessee Board of Regents system, outgoing Chancellor John Morgan said an internal analysis showed that each campus? spending on facilities management fell well below the industry standards identified by the state. Morgan said those findings — which included data from the system?s 13 community colleges, 27 technical colleges and six universities 一 were part of the decision not to move forward with Governor Bill Haslam?s proposal to privatize management of state buildings in an effort to save money.
“While these numbers are still being validated by the state, we feel any adjustments they might suggest will be immaterial,” Morgan wrote to the presidents. “System institutions are operating very efficiently based on this analysis, raising the question of the value of pursuing a broad scale outsourcing initiative.”
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Workers，advocates have criticized Haslam?s plan, saying it would mean some campus workers would lose their jobs or benefits. Haslam has said colleges would be free to opt in or out of the outsourcing plan, which has not been finalized.
Morgan notified the Haslam administration of his decision to opt out in a letter sent last week. That letter, which includes several concerns Morgan has with the plan, was originally obtained by The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
In an email statement from the state?s Office of Customer Focused Government, which is examining the possibility of outsourcing, spokeswoman Michelle R. Martin said officials were still working to analyze the data from the Board of Regents. Data on management expenses at the college system and in other state departments will be part of a “business justification” the state will use as officials deliberate the specifics of an outsourcing plan.
“The state?s facilities management project team is still in the process of developing its business justification and expects to have that completed and available to the public at the end of February,Martin said. “At this time there is nothing to take action on since the analysis has yet to be completed.”
Morgan?s comments on outsourcing mark the second time this month that he has come out against one of Haslam?s plans for higher education in Tennessee. Morgan said last week that he would retire at the end of January because of the governor?s proposal to split off six universities of the Board of Regents system and create separate governing boards for each of them. In his resignation letter, Morgan called the reorganization “unworkable.”
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46.What do we learn about the decision of technical and community colleges in Tennessee? A) It is backed by a campus spending analysis. B) It has been flatly rejected by the governor. C) It has neglected their faculty?s demands.
47.What does the campus spending analysis reveal? A) Private companies play a big role in campus management. B) Facilities management by colleges is more cost-effective. C) Facilities management has greatly improved in recent years. D) Colleges exercise full control over their own financial affairs.
48.Worker? supporters argue that Bill Haslam?s proposal would_______.
D) It will improve their financial situation.
A) deprive colleges of the right to manage their facilities
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