2019大学英语四级考试阅读专项练习(15)
Passage 1
The School Years
Soon after the United States was founded, Thomas Jefferson, who was President from 1801 to 1809 wrote, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. " Jefferson believed that the new republic would be rved best by literate, well-informed citizens and that everyone should have a guarantee of some education with further education for tho who wanted it and were qualified. The American system of public education has been built on this philosophy. Public education in this country is expected to offer equal educational opportunities to everyone enrolled in cular schools, which are publicly controlled and publicly financed, with free tuition, free books, and compulsory attendance.
There is no mention of education in the Constitution, and each state is responsible for its own educational system. Public schools are financed primarily by local and state taxes, and the amount of money spent on public school students varies from state to state. Alabama, for example, spent an average of $716 for each pupil in 1974, the lowest rate of any state. New York, by contrast, had the hig
hest rate, $ 1809 per pupil. The majority of states spent more than $ 800 per pupil.耻骨图片
There are great differences in expenditures (花费 ) by communities within each state, depending on the amount of local funds available for public education. Often, well-to-do电脑ppt
communities spend veral hundred dollars more for each child than poorer towns nearby do. The figures reflect
起湿疹的原因
differences in expenditures . for such items as teachers' salaries, the purcha of books, and school construction and maintenance.
Despite the differences, there is general uniformity
in the organization and curricula of public schools
throughout the country. Each state is divided into local
school districts. Usually a state department of education
ts the general requirements that local communities or
那万里school districts must meet. Local school boards, usually elected by members of their communities, are responsible for the detailed organization and operation of their schools.变色眼镜片
This-responsibility includes hiring teachers and
administration and tting their salaries.
The twelve years of public school education usually
begin when a child is six years old. Some school systems are divided into eight years of primary school and four years of condary school. Primary schools are often called elementary schools, and condary schools are called high schools. Many systems combine the last two years of elementary school and
the first year of high school in what is known as junior high school. This is followed by three years of nior high school.
A large number of school systems also have a kindergarten program that provides one year of preschool training for留队申请书
five-year-old children before they begin the formal school years. The academic year lasts nine months, from September to June, with winter and spring vacations. Class are held five days a week, from Monday through Friday.
Elementary schools are usually organized on a neighbourhood basis. Children living in the same area attend a school that is clo to their homes. High schools, on the other hand, rve children from many different elementary schools, and a single high school often has veral thousand students from various parts of the community. Many towns have just one high school. In rural areas one elementary school frequently rves the children from veral communities. When schools are located beyond convenient walking distance, children are transported free of charge in bright yellow school bus. Today more than 40 percent of all American school children are bud to and from school daily.
亡羊补牢造句It took many years for Jefferson's dream of education
for everyone to approach reality. In 1870 only slightly more than half of all children of school age attended school. It was not until 1918 that every state had a compulsory school-attendance law. Today most states require the attendance of all children between the ages of six and sixteen. Approx艾敬为什么被禁
imately 99 percent of all American children of elementary school age (six through thirteen) and 94 percent of high school age (fourteen through venteen) go to school.
The quality of education has changed as the record of school attendance. For example, in a typical mid-nineteenth century elementary school class children sat in one place in one position for hours on end, with periodic arm swinging for exerci and perhaps occasional permission to go to the bathroom. The method of instruction was catechism (questions by the teacher with memorized respons by the students).. . The teacher fed the stuff out one day, and wanted it back the next, in her own words.
