D. principals have explained the new art programs to parents

37. It can be reasonably inferred that the author            .

  A. is satisfied with present relationships between home and school

  B. feels that the traditional program in mathematics is slightly superior to the developmental program

  C.feels that parent-teacher interviews can be made much more constructive than they are at present

  D. is of the opinion that teachers of this generation are inferior to those of the last generation.

38. A method of communication not mentioned or intimated by the author is the         .

  A. classes for parents                   B. new type of report card

  C. parent-teacher interview              D. demonstration lesson

39. The author implies that           .

  A. participation in interesting activities relating to a subject improves one’s achievement in that area

  B. too many children are lazy and have poor work habits

  C. school principals do more than their share in interpreting the curriculum to the parents

  D. teachers should occasionally make home visits to parents

40.We may infer that the writer of the passage does not favor          .

  A. a father’s helping his son with the latter’s studies

  B. written communications to the parent from the teacher

  C. having the parent observe lessons which the children are being taught

  D. principal-parent conferences over teacher-parent conferences

Questions 41—45 are based on the following passage:

Passage 5

Let us ask what were the preparation and training Abraham Lincoln had for oratory, whether political or forensic(辩论的).

Born in rude and abject poverty(赤贫)，he never had any education, except what he gave himself, till he was approaching manhood. Not even books wherewith to inform and train his mind were within his reach. No school, no university, no legal faculty had any part in training his powers. When he became a lawyer and a politician, the years most favorable to continuous study had already passed, and the opportunities he found for reading were very scanty. He knew but few authors in general literature, though he knew those few thoroughly. He taught himself a little mathematic, but he could read no language save his own, and can have had only the faintest acquaintance with European history or with any branch of philosophy.

The want of regular education was not made up for by the persons among whom his lot was cast. Till he was a grown man, he never moved in any society from which he could learn those things with which the mind of an orator to be stored. Even after he had gained some legal practice, there was for many years no one for him to mix with except the petty practitioners of a petty town, men nearly all of whom knew little more than he did himself.

Schools gave him nothing, and society gave him nothing. But he had a powerful intellect and a resolute will. Isolation fostered not only self-reliance but the habit of reflection, and indeed, of prolonged and intense reflection. He made all that he knew a part of himself. His convictions were his own—clear and coherent. He was not positive or opinionated and he did not deny that at certain moments he pondered and hesitated long before he decided on his course. But though he could keep a policy in suspense, waiting for events to guide him, he did not waver. He paused and reconsidered, but it was never his way to go back on a decision once more or to waste time in vain regrets that all he had expected had not been attained. He took advice readily and left many things to his ministers; but he did not lean on his advisers. Without vanity or ostentation(卖弄), he was always independent, self-contained, prepared to take full responsibility for his acts.