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  3. Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal has been that Americans aren’t too slick with money. We tak

Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal has been that Americans aren’t too slick with money. We tak

admin2013-07-02  54
问题     Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal has been that Americans aren’t too slick with money. We take out home loans we can’t afford. We run up sky-high credit-card debt. We don’t save nearly enough for retirement.

    In response, proponents(支持者)of financial-literacy education are stumping with renewed zeal. School districts in states such as New Jersey and Illinois are adding money-management courses to their curriculums. The Treasury and Education departments are sending lesson plans to high schools and encouraging students to compete in the National Financial Capability Challenge that begins in March.
    Students with top scores on that exam will receive certificates — but chances for long-term benefits are slim. As it turns out, there is little evidence that traditional efforts to boost financial know-how help students make better decisions outside the classroom. Even as the financial-literacy movement has gained steam over the past decade, scores have been falling on tests that measure how savvy(有常识的)students are about things such as budgeting, credit cards, insurance and investments.
    "We need to figure out how to do this the right way, " says Lewis Mandell, a professor at the University of Washington who after 15 years of studying financial-literacy programs has come to the conclusion that current methods don’t work. A growing number of researchers and educators agree that a more radical approach is needed. They advocate starting financial education a lot earlier than high school, putting real money and spending decisions into kids’ hands and talking openly about the emotions and social influences tied to how we spend.
    Other initiatives are tackling such real-world issues as the commercial and social pressures that affect purchasing decisions. Why exactly do you want those expensive name-brand sneakers so badly? "It takes confidence to take a stand and to think differently, " says Jeroo Billimoria, founder of Aflatoun, a nonprofit whose curriculum, used in more than 30 countries, aims to help kids get a leg up in their financial lives. "This goes beyond money and savings. "
    Amid such a complicated landscape, some experts question whether there could ever be enough education to adequately prepare Americans for financial life. A better solution, these critics contend, is to reform the system. "What works is creating institutions that make it easy to do the right thing, " says David Laibson, a Harvard economics professor who, like Mandell, has decided after years of research that education isn’t a silver bullet. One idea being discussed in Washington is the automatic IRA. Employers would have to enroll each worker in a personal retirement-savings account unless that worker decided to opt out.
    Yet even the skeptics are slow to write off financial education completely. More than anything, they say, we need to rigorously study the financial decisions of alumni of programs like Ariel and Aflatoun and compare them with those of peers who didn’t get the same sort of education. "Until you have experimental evidence, it’s all a little speculative," says Michael Sherraden, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who is conducting a seven-year, randomized, controlled study on whether giving children bank accounts inculcates the habit of saving. Yes, good, solid research like this takes a lot of time and resources. But if what we’re doing right now isn’t working, it’s in our own best interest to figure out what does.
What is the passage mainly about?
选项 A、Ways to teach kids about money.
B、Americans’ way of dealing with money.
C、Reform on financial education.
D、New approaches of financial education.
答案A
解析 主旨大意题。第一段讲美国人在金钱方面不太精明，引出下文对理财教育的讨论。第二至第三段介绍了传统的教育孩子的金融知识教育方法及其效果。第四至第五段介绍了一些新型的不同的金融知识教育方法。第六段讲了部分人改革金融系统的主张。第七段说明金融教育是否有效需要实践证明。总结可知全文都在围绕应该如何教育孩子理财对各种观点进行了介绍，故[A]项正确。原文只在第一段简单介绍了美国花钱的方式，[B]项片面，故排除。原文没有说要改革金融教育，只是对各种观点进行了说明，故[C]项错误。原文不只介绍了人们的新观点，也详细阐述了传统的金融教育，故[D]项片面。
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