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  3. Much attention is presently being given to what is termed "functional illiteracy". This should not be confused with the problem

Much attention is presently being given to what is termed "functional illiteracy". This should not be confused with the problem

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问题     Much attention is presently being given to what is termed "functional illiteracy". This should not be confused with the problem of illiteracy, that is, the inability to read and write. Current United Nations (UNESCO) figures indicate that 99 percent of all Americans are literate, the same figure assigned to nations such as Britain, Germany. Functional illiteracy, by contrast, is concerned with how much difficulty people have in actually using and writing skills in everyday situations. This might be interpreted, for example, as the relative ability to understand federal income tax forms, or printed instructions, or how well someone can write a letter of complaint, or apply in writing for a job.
    There are no agreed-upon definitions of what functional illiteracy is and, in practice, definitions vary. widely. For many years, reading tests have been used throughout the country which define reading ability by grade level. "Tenth-grade reading level" for instance, would be the average reading score of all pupils who have completed ten years of school. There are, of course, many different reading tests and types of tests. One definition of functional illiteracy holds that anyone is "illiterate" who reads at less than an eighth-grade level. Another common definition uses a twelfth-grade level ( the last year of high school in the U.S.).
    There seems to be general agreement that at least one-tenth of all Americans are functionally illiterate in English to some degree. It is also hardly surprising that those nations which (like the U. S. ) have paid most attention to this concept, and which have nation-wide testing, have found the greatest problems. As one educator humourously put it, "Reading tests cause illiteracy". Canada, for example, which also has a large non-English-speaking immigrant population, has recently found that many of her citizens, too, are functionally illiterate. The attention given to this problem, therefore, reflects the fact that in North America schools as well as pupils are continually tested.
It can be learned from the passage that ______.
选项 A、Canada and the U.S. have functionally illiterate population because they hardly paid any attention to the problem
B、functional illiteracy may have been caused at least in part by unsuccessful design of reading tests
C、non-English-speaking immigrant population constitute the majority o’ all the fimctionally illiterate
D、it is impractical to determine what functional illiteracy really is as different situations set different requirements
答案B
解析 选项A与文中最后一小段的第二句矛盾。第二句意为：那些最注意这一概念(functional illiteracy)并进行全国性测试的国家发现了最大的问题，这几乎也不奇怪。此句指出了美国等国家中的矛盾的现实。选项B符合文中最后三句的内容。倒数第三句意为：正如一位教育家以幽默的语气所说，“阅读测试导致了文盲现象”。紧接的一句以加拿大作例证明。最后一句也指出：对此问题的关注也反映了一个事实：在北美学校与学生不断接受测试。综合起来，可推断：至少在functional illiteracy与tests之间有着一定联系，虽然作者并未断然的肯定。选项C是没有根据的臆测，选项D也是如此，因为文中并未涉及majority of the functionally illiterate或different situation和different requirements。
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