Question

Children who speak English as their first language are now a minority in inner-city London primary schools，official figures show.

Youngsters with foreign mother tongues form a majority at primary schools in 13 out of33 London cities. Across the country，English is a foreign language to more than one in seven primary school youngsters.

The figures from the Department for Children，Schools and Families (DCSF) point to major demographic (人口的) changes over the past few decades，with around a fifth of pupils now coming from ethnic minorities.

There are concerns that school finances are coming under stress from the growing numbers of youngsters requiring help with English. The government has been urged to provide more funding，and give fair treatment to schools with large concentrations of non-English speakers.

In Tower Hamlets almost four out of five youngsters do not have English as their mother tongue. In other areas，including Leicester，Luton and Bradford the proportion approaches 50 percent.

The figures indicate that many recent migrants have settled in London. Sir Andrew Green，F(xiàn)ounder and Chairman of Migration Watch UK，says，“These figures confirm the huge impact immigration is having on our society. When government funds are as tight as they are，this is bound to have a negative impact，since children for whom English is a second language need extra tuition (學(xué)費(fèi)).”He adds，“In inner London it's hard to know with whom immigrant chil­dren are supposed to practice English，since the number of immigrant children is much larger than that of local. ”

A spokesman for DCSF stresses that the figures “only indicate the language to which a child was initially exposed at home，regardless of whether he or she comes to speak English fluently later on. It is only a relatively few recent arrivals for whom communication problems are serious”.“We are increasing funding to the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (助學(xué)金)to £206 million by 2010，to help bring students weak in English up to speed. We’re also equipping schools to offer effective English as an Additional Language teaching to new arrivals，”he adds

1.A minority of London primary school students speak English as their first language because

       .

A. local children prefer to speak other languages

B. more and more immigrant children are attending school in London

C. children learning English as an additional language need extra tuition

D. English is too difficult a language for primary school children to learn

2.Some people worry about       .

A. the increasing number of adults needing help with English

B. the government taking no measures to help the schools

C. non-English speakers putting school finances under stress

D. London schools not providing adequate service for children in need

3.It can be inferred from the passage that         .

A. most immigrant children make a great effort to learn English

B. the government used to treat non-English speakers unfairly

C. it's not easy to find English speakers for immigrant children in some parts of London to communicate with

D. local children are influenced by immigrant children

4.According to the spokesman for DCSF，the figures indi­cate        .

A. that children will speak English fluently later on

B. that immigration is having a huge impact on English society

C. what the language the children were exposed to first was

D. that funding is increasing to help students weak in English

Answer 1

BCCC