【正文】 work. If the district finds homework to be unimportant to its students’ academic achievement, it should move to reduce or eliminate the assignments, not make them count for almost nothing. Conversely,if homework matters,it should account for asignificant portion of the ,this policy does nothing to ensure that the homework students receive is meaningful oraooropriate to theirage and the that teachers are not assigning more than they are willing to review and correct.The homework rules should be put on hold while the school board, which is responsible for setting educational policy, looks into the matter and conducts public hearings. It is not too late for . Unified to do homework right. is implied in paragraph 1 that nowadays homework_____. [A] is receiving more criticism [B]is no longer an educational ritual [C]is not required for advanced courses [D]is gaining more preferences22. has made the rule about homework mainly because poor students_____. [A]tend to have moderate expectations for their education [B]have asked for a different educational standard [C]may have problems finishing their homework [D]have voiced their plaints about homework23. According to Paragraph 3,one problem with the policy is that it may____. [A]discourage students from doing homework [B]result in students39。 indifference to their report cards [C]undermine the authority of state tests [D]restrict teachers39。 power in education24. As mentioned in Paragraph 4, a key question unanswered about homework is whether______. [A] it should be eliminated [B]it counts much in schooling [C]it places extra burdens on teachers [D]it is important for grades suitable title for this text could be______. [A]Wrong Interpretation of an Educational Policy [B]A Weled Policy for Poor Students [C]Thorny Questions about Homework [D]A Faulty Approach to Homework參考答案21~25 ACABDText 2 Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls’ lives. It is not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls’ identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among twoyearolds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, I despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls’ lives and interests. Girls’ attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American Studies, it is not. Children were not colourcoded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What’s more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as genderneutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolised femininity. It was not until the mid1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children’s marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem inherently attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years. I had not realised how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children’s behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularised as a marketing trick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s. Trade publications counselled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a “third stepping, stone” between infant wear and older kids’ clothes. It was only after “toddler” became a mon shoppers’ term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into evertinier categories has proved a surefire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences or invent them where they did not previously exist. saying it is...the rainbow(Line 3, ),the author means pink______.[A]should not be the sole representation of girlhood[B]should not be associated with girls39。 innocence[C]cannot explain girls39。 lack of imagination[D]cannot influence girls39。 lives and interests to Paragraph 2, which of the following is true of colours？[A]Colours are encoded in girls39。 DNA.[B]Blue used to be regarded as the colour for girls.[C]Pink used to be a neutral colour in symbolising genders.[D]White is prefered by babies. author suggests that our perception of children39。s psychological development was much influenced by_____.[A]the marketing of products for children[B]the observation of children39。s nature[C]researches into children39。s behavior[D]studies of childhood consumption may learn from Paragraph 4 that department stores were advised to_____.[A]focus on infant wear and older kids39。 clothes[B]