Passage 12

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 us 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 Haugh 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. Dalton's spring tours, for early birds interested in the 2001-2002 school year, are filled. The wait list? Forget it. That's closed, too.

注(1)：本文选自Newsweek，05/15/2000, p76

注(2)：本文习题命题模仿对象2003年Text 4.

1. The 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

2. What 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.

3. The author’s attitude toward this event is __________.

[A]indifferent

[B]apprehensive

[C]supportive

[D]indignant

4. Instead of giving their children great pressure to outperform, the parents should ______.

[A]avoid the competition and wait for another year

[B]give up their first choice and go to the unknown school

[C]let their children be and do what they want to do

[D]deal with the matter more casually and rethink the situation

5. The text intends to express _________.

[A]the popularity of the private schools

[B]parents’ worry about their children’s schooling

[C]the plight of the preschoolers

[D]the severe competition in going to school

答案：CABDC

篇章剖析

本文采用提出问题---分析问题的模式。文章以实例作为切入点，着重阐述了学龄前儿童所面临的困境。第一段和第二段指出家长对子女教育问题的关注;第三段指出儿童入学难这一现象及其原因;第四段指出一些学校的招生办法以及有些学生无法入学的原因;第五段指出父母应该怎么做。