2. 外语
  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.
This passage was written mainly to ______.
选项 A、analyse different definitions of functional illiteracy
B、discuss the reasons for functional illiteracy
C、compare ways to get rid of illiteracy
D、introduce the problem of functional illiteracy
答案D
解析 要判断作者写作某篇文章的日的，应将其各部分综合全面考虑。可参照其中心思想，也可将各段的topic sentence放在一起考虑。这篇选义第一小段主要提出和解释functional illiteracy，第二小段的topic sentence是其第一句，最后一小段指出美国等国家中一方面阅读考试众多，另一方面却存在着functional illiteracy这一矛盾现实。显然，作者只是对这functional illiteracy这一问题作了大致介绍。
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