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  3. The 35 percent of African-American youth living in poverty are the most visible victims of what is often called the achievement

The 35 percent of African-American youth living in poverty are the most visible victims of what is often called the achievement

admin2012-02-02  58
问题     The 35 percent of African-American youth living in poverty are the most visible victims of what is often called the achievement gap. But black children of all socioeconomic levels perform worse on national tests and graduate in fewer numbers than their white middle-class peers. A 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics found that African-American students scored, on average, 26 points lower than white students on their reading and math tests.
    Some say, as Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and American Enterprise Institute political scientist Charles Murray did in their 1994 book, The Bell Curve, that the cause is genetic. And though The Bell Curve has been discredited in scientific circles, the idea that IQ is somehow linked to race has been slow to retreat.
    Others, like Cornell University researchers Gary Evans and Michelle Schamberg, believe that "physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement," as they wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Our best efforts at narrowing the gap nationally — think No Child Left Behind — haven’t worked.
But locally, there are now signs of hope. At the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Promise Academy charter schools, at least 97 percent of third graders scored at or above grade level on a statewide math test in 2008, outperforming the average scores of both black and white children in New York City and New York State.
    What the HCZ does is first recognize that the amelioration (改善) of poverty does not begin and end with an excellent education, but also requires a full belly, parental education, safety, advocacy, and the expectation that every student will succeed. "We help parents and kids through the system," HCZ founder Geoffrey Canada says. "We get them past every hindrance put in their way, whether it be at home or with social services. We can advocate on a child’s behalf, whether it be at home or in the classroom or with the juvenile justice system."
    Indeed, the HCZ starts early: it provides new parents with a Baby College to teach parenting skills during the crucial first three years of a child’s life and a preschool Gems program, where kids learn not only French and Spanish but healthy eating habits to combat childhood obesity.
    The Zone also offers the HCZ Asthma Initiative to provide medical care and education to families, thus drastically cutting down on the number of school days missed by students suffering from asthma (哮喘). And it has a network of afterschool programs that teach media literacy, karate (空手道), and computer skills. It’s called the pipeline — once families enter, it’s hoped that they’ll stay until their child graduates from college. The idea is to create a safety net woven so tightly that kids can’t slip through.  
What does the author say about African-American youth as a whole?
选项 A、They have more graduates from community colleges.
B、They score far below the average education level.
C、They obviously are victims of the American education system.
D、Their academic performances are worse than their white peers.
答案D
解析 根据题干中的African-American youth as a whole将本题出处定位到首段第二句。[D]项中的Their academic performances are worse是对该句提到的black children…perform worse on national tests(黑人孩子在全国性考试中成绩比较糟糕)的同义转述，故答案为[D]。[A]与该句提到的graduate in fewer numbers than…white…peers矛盾，故排除。[B]在文中未提及，故排除。该段首句提到35％的African-American youth是the achievement gap最显而易见的牺牲品，由此可排除[C]。
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