Passage 6
　　Headlines have bannered the sad news about American education for years: “Johnny Can’t Read”… “Johnny Can’t Count”… “Johnny Can’t Write.” Are youngsters in other Industrialized countries doing any better? Yes, in many ways they are, and there’s one big reason they work hard.
　　The consequences are sobering. Students in the U.X. now enter the job market with inferior skills. Once the unquestioned champion in industrial research, America is watching its lead dwindle. Some experts go so far as to suggest that failings in education put the nation in danger of becoming a second-class economic power. Whether or not that’s the case is a key element in a bubbling debate over international competitiveness. Consider just these few examples of how American students are falling behind:
　　When Japanese teenagers finish the 12th grade, they have the equivalent of three to four more years of school than U.S. high-school graduates. Stanford’s Thomas Rohlen, a leading expert on Japan, says half of them know as much as the average U.S. college graduate.
　　Nine of 10 Japanese get high-school diplomas. But nearly a quarter of America’s teenagers drop out, sending one million untrained youngsters into the job market every year. The problem would be worse, some experts say with a straight face, if so many teenagers didn’t stay in school so they could take driver’s education and get a driver’s license.
　　For years, foreigners have outclassed young Americans in academic knowledge, and this week sees still another indictment of U.S. education: New details on how thousands of 12th graders in selected countries did on a 1982 algebra test given by the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Hong Kong ranked first, barely ahead of Japan. The U.S. Finished 14th among the 15 countries, just ahead of Thailand, just behind Hungary. In a United Nations survey of what students in nine countries know about foreign cultures, the U.S. comes in next to last. One test of American 12-year-olds shows 20 percent unable to locate even their own nation on a world map. “Our students lag behind, and it doesn’t bode well for our country,” says Herbert Walberg, a comparative-education expert for the University of Illinois in Chicago. “Fifty-five percent of America’s jobs involve information processing. If we don’t have good, solid skills in language, geography, math and science, we’ll be at a severe disadvantage.”

61. American newspapers have carried the sad news about American education that __________.
A. Johnny can’t read or write
B. many American students can’t find job
C. American youngsters do not work hard
D. many American young people are illiterate

62. Which of the following sentences is not true according to the passage?
A. The United States was once considered the best in industrial research.
B. Japanese high-school students know much more than their American peers.
C. Only in these years have American students fallen behind foreigners in academic knowledge.
D. One out of four American teenagers choose to work before they finish high school education.

63. “With a straight face” in Paragraph 4 most probably means __________.
A. with a long face
B. with a clean face
C. with a serious expression
D. with an honest expression

64. A 1982 algebra test given by the IAEEA showed that __________.
A. Thai students were better than the Americans
B. American students were better than Thai students
C. Japanese students were the best
D. Hungarian students ranked the 15th

65. According to Herbert Walberg, American students will be at a serious disadvantage because _________.
A. there will not be sufficient jobs for them
B. they lack the skills needed for their future jobs
C. more foreigners will seek jobs in the U.S.
D. almost all the jobs require information processing

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