9 THE ECONOMICS OF KARATE¹

　　As the number of home-schooled kids soars, districts are trying novel ways to lure² them back to the fold

　　Largely for "spiritual reasons," Nancy Manos started home-schooling³ her children five years ago and has studiously avoided public schools ever since. Yet last week, she was enthusiastically enrolling⁴ her 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, in sign language and modern dance classes at Eagleridge Enrichment--a program run by the Mesa, Ariz., public schools and taught by district teachers. Manos still wants to handle the basics, but likes that Eagleridge offers the extras, "things I couldn't teach." One doubt, though, lingers in her mind: why would the public school system want to offer home-school families anything?

　　A big part of the answer is economics. The number of home-schooled kids nationwide has risen to as many as 1.9 million from an estimated 345,000 in 1994, and school districts that get state and local dollars per child are beginning to suffer. In Maricopa County, which includes Mesa, the number of home-schooled kids has more than doubled during that period to 7,526; at about $4,500 a child, that's nearly $34 million a year in lost revenue.

　　Not everyone's happy with these innovations. Some states have taken the opposite tack⁵. Like about half the states, West Virginia refuses to allow home-schooled kids to play public-school sports. And in Arizona, some complain that their tax dollars are being used to create programs for families who, essentially⁶, eschew⁷ participation⁸ in public life. "That makes my teeth grit⁹,'' says Daphne Atkeson, whose 10-year-old son attends public school in Paradise Valley. Even some committed home-schoolers question the new programs, given their central irony¹⁰: they turn home-schoolers into public-school students, says Bob Parsons, president of the Alaska Private and Home Educators Association. "We've lost about one third of our members to those programs. They're so enticing¹¹.''

　　Mesa started Eagleridge four years ago, when it saw how much money it was losing from home-schoolers--and how unprepared some students were when they re-entered the schools. Since it began, the program's enrollment¹² has nearly doubled to 397, and last year the district moved Eagleridge to a strip mall (between a pizza joint¹³ and a laser-tag arcade). Parents typically drop off their kids once a week; because most of the children qualify as quarter-time students, the district collects $911 per child. "It's like getting a taste of what real school is like,'' says 10-year-old Chad Lucas, who's learning computer animation¹⁴ and creative writing.

　　Other school districts are also experimenting with novel ways to court home schoolers. The town of Galena, Alaska, (pop. 600) has just 178 students. But in 1997, its school administrators¹⁵ figured they could reach beyond their borders. Under the program, the district gives home-schooling families free computers and Internet service for correspondence classes. In return, the district gets $3,100 per student enrolled¹⁶ in the program--$9.6 million a year, which it has used partly for a new vocational school. Such alternatives just might appeal to other districts. Ernest Felty¹⁷, head of Hardin County schools in southern Illinois, has 10 home-schooled pupils. That may not sound like much--except that he has a staff of 68, and at $4,500 a child, "that's probably a teacher's salary,'' Felty says. With the right robotics or art class, though, he could take the home out of home schooling.

　　By Flynn McRoberts Newsweek; 11/06/2000, Vol. 136 Issue 19, p62, 1p, 2c

　　注(1)：本文选自Newsweek，11/06/2000，p62

　　注(2)：本文习题命题模仿对象2005年Text 1。

　　1.In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by

　　[A]posing a contrast

　　[B]justifying an assumption

　　[C]explaining a phenomenon

　　[D]making a comparison

　　2.The statement "That makes my teeth grit,''(Line 4, Paragraph 3) implies that

　　[A]I wanted to eat something.

　　[B]I was angry and dissatisfied.

　　[C]I was in favor of what the public school had done.

　　[D]I wanted not to bring my children to that school.

　　3.The public school system wants to offer home-school families something, because

　　[A]it does not want to lose much money from the increasing home-schoolers.

　　[B]home-schoolers have some difficulty in getting some particular knowledge.

　　[C]home-schoolers are eager to have a taste of what a real school is like.

　　[D]it has the responsibility to help the home-schoolers.

　　4.The statistics in Paragraph two helps us draw a conclusion that

　　[A]economics is greatly influenced by so many home-schoolers.

　　[B]the number of the home-schoolers is steadily¹⁸ increasing.

　　[C]it is a great loss for the public school system to have so many home-schoolers.

　　[D]home-schooling has an incomparable advantage over the public school system.

　　5.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

　　[A]The tuition the home schoolers have to pay for the public school is very high.

　　[B]Public school system gains much profit from the home schoolers.

　　[C]Home schoolers do not want to receive education at home any more.

　　[D]Public school system tries to attract the home schoolers back to school.

　　答案：CBACB

　　篇章剖析

　　本文采用提出问题——分析问题的模式，指出在家受教育的人对公立学校造成的经济威胁，以及公立学校对这一现象的不同反应和做法。文中第一段以在家受教育的人为例，来说明教育中存在的在家受教育这一现象；第二段分析公立学校不愿意放弃这些人的主要原因；第三段指出有些州不同的做法；第四段具体指出Eagleridge这一做法的目的以及给在家受教育的人带来的好处；第五段指出一些公立学校的成功做法。

　　词汇注释

　　studiously [5stju:dIEslI ; (?@) 5stu:-]adv.有意地, 故意地

　　tack[tAk]行动方针；策略

　　eschew [Is5tFu:]vt.避开, 远避

　　grit [^rIt]v.咬(牙)把(牙齿)紧咬在一起

　　enticing [In`taIsIN]adj.引诱的, 迷人的

　　难句突破

　　1.Yet last week, she was enthusiastically enrolling her 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, in sign language and modern dance classes at Eagleridge Enrichment--a program run by the Mesa, Ariz., public schools and taught by district teachers.

　　主体句式：she was… enrolling her 8-year-old daughter… in sign language and modern dance classes

　　结构分析：这句话是个简单句。其中“enroll in”意为“在…方面注册,报名参加”;Olivia是daughter的同位语；a program是Eagleridge Enrichment的同位语，过去分词run和taught做定语来修饰program。

　　句子译文：然而上周，她却急切地给她八岁的女儿奥利维亚报名参加在Eagleridge Enrichment举办的手语课和现代舞蹈课的学习。

　　题目分析

　　1.答案为C，属事实细节题。文中第一段以Nancy Manos为例，来说明现在越来越多的人

　　倾向于在家受教育这一现象。

　　2.答案为B，属推理判断题。第三段第一句话“Not everyone's happy with these innovations.”

　　是本段的主题句，意为“并不是所有人都认同这些举措。”后面举出的例子用以说明这一论点。其中“refuse”和“complain”都用来表示这些人的态度和反应。又给出的这个例子也是这一用意，故猜出此意。

　　3.答案为A,属事实细节题。第一段最后一句提出问题“why would the public school system want to offer home-school families anything?”在第二段第一句作者做出了回答：“A big part of the answer is economics.”

　　4.答案为C，属推理判断题。第二段的主题句是“A big part of the answer is economics.”然

　　后作者给出了一系列的数据来使这一论点更有可信性。

　　5.答案为B，属推理判断题。第五段第一句话“Other school districts are also experimenting

　　with novel ways to court home schoolers.”是本段的主题句。后面举出的例子是为了更好的说明这一点，同时也说明了这一做法给它们带来的好处。

　　参考译文

　　空手道经济学

　　随着在家里受教育孩子的人数的迅猛上升，各学区都在尝试新办法，试图吸引他们重返学校

　　主要是由于“精神方面的原因”，南希•马诺斯五年前开始自己在家里教育孩子，并从此以后有意避开公立学校。然而上周，她却急切地给她八岁的女儿奥利维亚报名参加在Eagleridge Enrichment举办的手语课和现代舞蹈课的学习。Eagleridge Enrichment项目是由亚利桑那州的梅萨公立学校举办的，并由学区的老师授课。马诺斯还想继续教基础课，但她希望Eagleridge教授其余的“我教不了的东西”。但是她的脑海里一直有一个疑问：为什么公立学校愿意为进行家教的家庭提供他们所需要的一切呢？

　　答案的主要部分是经济方面的原因。全国在家受教育的孩子的数量已经从1994年估计的34.5千人上升到了190万人。那些靠按孩子人数从州政府和当地政府获得财政支持的学区开始受到损害。在梅萨所在的马利柯帕县，在家受教育孩子的数量在这期间增长了两倍，达到了7,526人。按一个孩子4,500美元计算，这意味着一年所损失的收入将达到近3.4亿美元。

　　并不是每个人都对这些举措感到高兴。有些州采取了与之相反的策略。同占半数的其它州的做法一样，西弗吉尼亚拒绝让在家受教育的孩子参加公立学校的运动比赛。在亚利桑那州，有人抱怨他们缴纳的税金被用来设立一些专门为那些实际上逃避社会生活的家庭参加的项目。“这真使我恨得咬牙切齿。”达夫妮•阿特基森这样说。他十岁的儿子在帕拉代斯瓦利公立学校上学。甚至那些坚持在家接受教育的人也对此新计划嗤之以鼻，表示疑问：这些项目旨在把受家庭教育的人变成公立学校的学生，阿拉斯加个人和家庭教育者协会会长鲍勃•帕森斯说，“这些计划已挖走了我们三分之一的会员。这些计划实在是太诱人了。”

　　四年前，当意识到从那些在家接受教育的人身上损失了那么多的钱，并且当这些人重新入学时他们又是那么的毫无准备，梅萨便率先发起了Eagleridge项目。从它成立之日起，前来注册的人数几乎翻了一番，达到397人。去年，学区将Eagleridge项目迁移到一家商铺密集的商业广场(在一家比萨饼店与一个带巨大标记的拱廊之间)。孩子的父母一般每周只需送一次。由于大多数孩子只取得四分之一学生的资格，所以学区对每个孩子只收911美元的学费。“这只是让你体会一下去真正的学校上学是什么滋味。”十岁的查德•卢卡斯这样说道。他正在学习电脑动画制作和写作。

　　其它学区也在尝试新办法来获取这些在家接受教育人的支持。阿拉斯加州的加利纳镇(人口600)只有178名学生。但是在1997年，学校负责人认为他们可以(使学生人数)超过这个数。按照学校计划，学区为在家从事家庭教育的家庭免费提供函授课程所用的电脑和互连网业务。作为回报，学区在这个项目中对每个注册的学生收费3,100美元——一年合计960万。学区把其中的一部分资金用来再建一所新的职业学校。这样的方案对其他学区还是很有吸引力的。欧内斯特•费尔提是伊利诺斯州南部哈丁县县属学校的负责人。他负责10个在家接受教育的小学生。这听起来没什么大不了的——除了他有68位员工和每个学生收取4,500美元的学费以外。费尔提说：“那差不多相当于一个老师的工资”。凭借合适的机器人技术或美术课，他能够让那些在家接受教育的人不在家上课了。

 

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