山西省2012高考英语二轮复习专题训练：阅读理解（46）
阅读下面短文，从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
A
Children always appreciate small gifts of money. Father, of course, provides a regular supply of pocket-money, but uncles and aunts are always a source of extra income. With some children, small sums go a long way. If sixpences are not exchanged for sweets, they rattle for months inside money-boxes. Only very thrifty (节俭的) children manage to fill up a money-box. For most of them, sixpence is a small price to pay for a satisfying bar of chocolate.
My nephew, George, has a money-box but it is always empty. Very few of the sixpences I had given him found their way there. I gave him sixpence yesterday and advised him to save it. Instead, he bought himself sixpence worth of trouble. On his way to the sweet shop, he dropped his sixpence and it rolled along the pavement and then disappeared down a drain (
下水道). George took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and pushed his right arm through the drain cover. However, he could not find his sixpence anywhere, and what was more, he could not get his arm out. A crowd of people gathered round him and a lady rubbed his arm with soap and butter, but George was firmly stuck. The fire-brigade was called and two firemen freed George using a special type of grease. George was not too upset by his sixpence because the lady who owns the sweet shop heard about his trouble and rewarded him with a large box of chocolate.
1. According to the passage, children often get pocket-money from their ______.
A. fathers        B. mothers            C. uncles        D. aunts
2. The underlined word “go” in the first paragraph probably means ______.
A. move          B. last                C. use            D. work
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Fathers seldom give pocket-money to their children.
B. Most children are able to fill up their money-boxes.
C. George bought a large box of chocolate using the money given by the writer.
D. George didn’t feel sorry for his bad experience.
4. The best title of this passage should be _____.
A. Save your money                    B. George’s bad experience
C. Sixpence worth of trouble                D. Pocket-money
B
High school dropouts earn an average of $ 9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study denies a common belief why they quit. It’s much more basic than failing in exams.
Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t make it. They are lazy, and perhaps not too bright. So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.
    “The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school.” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About 1 million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic（美籍西班牙的）students will receive a diploma, and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So, if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does? Again, John Bridgeland: “The most dependable finding was that they were bored.” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated. They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations.”
    The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the US, only one state, New Mexico, has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions. Another researcher says raising the compulsory attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school.
    “As these dropouts look back, they realize they’ve made a mistake. And anything of that sort gives these people an extra push to stick it out and it through to the end, which is probably helpful.”
    New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point — the need for reform. It’s been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something.
5. Most high school students drop out of school because ______.
  A. they have failing grades                  B. they take no interest in classes
  C. they are not allowed to attend school      D. they are lazy and not intelligent
chocolate怎么读
6. According to the passage, which state has a law requiring school attendance until they graduate?
  A. New Hampshire                        B. Utah           
C. New Mexico                        D. The District of Columbia
7. In the last paragraph, the writer is trying to _____.
  A. analyze the reason why students quit school
  B. suggest raising the compulsory attendance age
  C. raise awareness of reforming high school education
  D. wish to make laws to guarantee no education
8. From the passage, we can infer the following EXCEPT that ______.
  A. the grades of most dropouts at school were acceptable
  B. about 500, 000 high school dropouts are blacks and Spanish

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