High school dropouts（輟學者）earn an average of $ 9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study dispels a common belief why they quit. It’s much more basic than flunking out（不及格）.
Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t cut it. They are lazy，and perhaps not too bright．So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.
“The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school.” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About 1 million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic（美籍西班牙的）student will receive a diploma（證書），and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So， if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does? Again，John Bridgeland："The most dependable finding was that they were bored.” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated. They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations.”
The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the US，only one state，New Mexico，has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions, another researcher，says raising the compulsory（義務的）attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school．
　“As these dropouts look back，they realize they’ve made a mistake. And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and it through to the end, is probably helpful measure.”
New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point－the need for reform. It's been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something. 　
小題1:Most high school students drop out of' school because＿＿．
A．they have failing gradesB．they take no interest in classes
C．they are discriminated againstD．they are lazy and not intelligent
小題2:Acceding to the passage，which state has a law requiring school attendance until they graduate?
A．New HampshireB．UtahC．New MexicoD．The District of Columbia
小題3:The underlined words “stick it out” probably means“＿＿”．
A．complete schoolingB．solve the problem
C．love having classesD．believe in themselves
小題4:From the passage，we can infer the following EXCEPT that＿．
A．the grades of most dropouts at school were acceptable
B．a(chǎn)bout 500, 000 high school dropouts are black and Spanish
C．classes don't appeal to dropouts
D．on average dropouts cannot get good jobs

小題1:B
小題2:C
小題3:A
小題4:B

小題1:第三段中“They found classes uninteresting;…”說明學生輟學的原因是“課堂沒有興趣，學生覺著乏味。
小題2:從倒數(shù)第三段第一句可知答案。
小題3:略
小題4:從全文得知大多數(shù)輟學者對課堂不感興趣、每個年級都有輟學者、輟學者就業(yè)難。所以不能做出B項的推測。
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