Question

Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, which is a nonprofit organization that conducts research on many public issues. He says that a long summer vacation doesn’t make sense in today’s world.

Can American students afford to take a summer vacation? In a summer vacation, millions of kids spend valuable time sending messages, watching TV, playing video games and doing shopping in the mall. They will also be putting their academic futures at risk.

Summer vacation once made sense in the past when you didn’t need an education to get a good job. But now things have changed. For today’s students, academic skills are important to students’ future success, but such skills are affected in the summertime. Many nations don’t give kids an American-style summer vacation. They offer no more than seven consecutive(連續(xù)的) weeks of vacation. Most American school districts offer up to thirteen weeks. To compete in the global marketplace, Americans must be prepared to go up against international competitors.

Summer vacation also causes challenges for today’s families. In the 1960s, more than 60% of families had a stay-at-home Mom. Now two-thirds of American children live in households where every adult works. For these families, summer vacation can be more burden than break. Someone must watch the kids.

But the biggest problem may be how summer vacation hurts academic achievement. Researchers have found that disadvantaged students lose significant ground in the summertime.

A longer school year does not have to be an invitation to hard boring work. Rather, it should allow time-pressed teachers to conduct richer and more imaginative lessons. Schools would have more time to devote to athletics, languages, music and the arts. Summer vacation can be a grand thing. But in the 21st century, it may also be outdated.

Title: Summer Vacation

Theme	A long summer vacation isn’t 1. in today’s world.
Basic Information	2. length	13 weeks in most American schools
Students’ 3.	·Sending messages and watching TV ·Playing video games ·Doing shopping
Disadvantages	·4. student’s academic skills and putting academic futures at risk. ·Being a 5. to families for they have to watch kids. ·Hurting students’ academic achievement and resulting in 6. significant ground.
Suggestion	A longer school year does not have to 7. to hard boring work. Richer and more imaginative lessons should be 8. , such as athletics, languages, music and the arts.
9.	Though being a ground thing, summer vacation might be out of 10. in the 21st century.

Answer 1

1.meaningful

2.vacation

3.activities

4.Affecting

5.burden

6.losing

7.lead/attribute

8.conducted

9.Conclusion

10.date

【解析】

1. sense ，那句話的意思是說，現(xiàn)今就算有一個很長的假期，好像對于學(xué)生而言意義不大。而方框中填空只能填一個詞，所以填meaningful。

2.前文提到了They offer no more than seven consecutive weeks of vacation意思是說他們有超過七個星期的連續(xù)的假期，方框中是提到的是13周的長度，根據(jù)上下文判斷，本空應(yīng)該填vacation。

3. of kids spend valuable time sending messages and watching TV，Playing video games，Doing shopping 意思是說學(xué)生們在暑假都會花掉自己寶貴的時間去做這些事情，根據(jù)方框內(nèi)的信息判斷，這些都是學(xué)生們會做的活動。所以本空填activities

4. such skills are affected in the summertime對暑假暑期有影響。但是此處做主語，所以用Affecting。

5. vacation can be more burden than break說明了暑假可能是一個負(fù)擔(dān)而不是用來休息的，所以填寫burden。

6.Researchers have found that disadvantaged students lose significant ground in the summertime研究表明家境不好的學(xué)生的暑假失去了意義。所以本空填losing。

7.文章倒數(shù)最后一段第一句提到A longer school year does not have to be an invitation to hard boring work意思是說一個長的學(xué)年并不一定會導(dǎo)致學(xué)業(yè)的無聊。所以此空填lead/attribute。

8. should allow time-pressed teachers to conduct richer and more imaginative lessons.是說那些老師會在有限的時間內(nèi)組織更豐富更具有想象力的課程。所以填conducted。

9.

10. of date對應(yīng)，意思是過時的。根據(jù)上下文意思判斷，本空填date。

考點：考查說明性短文填空。