SectionB
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 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 52 t0 56 are based-on the following passage.
Headlines have bannered the sad news about American education for years: "Johnny Can't Read"; "Johnny Can't Count"; "Johnny Can't Write"...Are youngsters in other industrialized countries doing any better? Yes, in many ways they are, and there's one big reason: they work hard.
The consequences are sobering. Students in the U.S. now enter the job market with inferior skills. Once the unquestioned champion in industrial research, America is watching its lead dwindle. Some experts go so far as to suggest that failings in education put the nation in er of becoming a second-class economic power. Whether or not that's the case is a key element in a bubbling debate over intemational competitiveness. Consider just these few examples of how American students are falling behind:
When Japanese agers finish the 12th grade, they have the equivalent of three to four more years of school than U.S. high school graduates do. Stanford's Thomas Rohlen, a leading expert on Japan, says half of them know as much as the average U.S. college graduates.
Nine of 10 Japanese get high school diplomas. But nearly a quarter of America's agers drop out sending one million untrained youngsters into the job market eveU year. The problem would be worse, some experts say with a straight face; if so many agers didn't stay in school they could take driver's education and get a driver’s license.
For years, foreigners have outclassed young Americans in academic knowledge, and this week sees still another indictment (谴责 ) of U.S. education: new details on how thousands of 12th graders in selected countries did on a 1982 algebra test given by the Intemational Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement. China's Hong Kong ranked first, barely ahead of Japan. The U.S. finished 14th among the 15 countries and areas, and ahead of Thailand. and behind Hungary. In a United Nations survey of what students in nine countries know about foreign cultures, the U.S. comes in next to last. One test of American 12-year-olds shows 20 percent unable to locate even their own nation on a world map. "Our students lag behind, and it doesn't bode (预示 ) well for our country," says Herbert Walberg, a comparative education expert for the University of Illinois in Chicago. "Fifty-five percent of America's jobs involve information processing. If we don't have good, solid skills in language, geography, math and science, we'II be at a severe disadvantage."
52.American newspapers have carried the sad news about American education that _ .