The United States is trying to improve an edueation system that produces millions of citizens who cannot read, write, or add—let alone finding their country on a map.
In his first State of Union message since taking office a year ago, President George Bush promised to wipe out illiteracy(文盲) in the next decade and declared that“by the year 2008, U.S students must be first in the world in math and science achievements. ” They have a long way to go. American students were placed 14th in a recent general science test conducted in 16 countries. In a separate survey of chemistry students, the United States came 12 out of 14. In a mathematics test, they were last. According to Bush, there are 17 million illiterates in this country of 245 million people. Other estimates put the number as high as 23 million. In percentage terms, that ranks the United States alongside Niearague and below Cuba. “This nation,”Bush said in his State of the Union address, “will not accept anything but excellent in education.” Bush, who has declared himself “Education president”, and senior officals of his administration are warning that the United States will be unable to pete in the world without an educated workforce.
How to increase educational standards is a matter of debate in a country whose schools have no uniform national curriculum and are subject to a confusing variety of state and local controls. Most experts think that the problem lies at the elementary and high school'levels rather than with universities-but even their graduates show huge gaps in general knowledge. Among the root causes most frequently mentioned in education debates is the low respect in which U.S. society holds teachers-in contrast to Japan and Germany. In Japan teaching is a profession of high prestige(威望) and high pay. In the United States teachers are near the bottom of the society.
5.By“the United States came 12 out of 14”(Para. 2), the author means .
A.the United States ranked 12th not 14th in the chemistry test
B.the United States ranked 12th in the chemistry test conducted by 14 countries
C.the United States progressed from 14th to 12th in the chemistry test
D.the United States ranked 12th in chemistry test and 14th in general science test
6.The cause of low educational level in America include the following EXCEPT that .
A.some problems exist in primary and secondary education
B.society keeps teachers in low respect
C.America pays more attention to economy instead of education
D.America has no uniform national courses
7.Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
A.President Bush carried out his promise made in his first State of Union message.
B.The education in Japan and Germany is in higher level.
C.According to Bush, the number of illiterates accounts for 9% of the total.
D.Teachers in the United States enjoy good treatment and great respect.
8.Which of the following is the right order of the least-first of the percent of illiterates?
A.Germany, Cuba, Nicaragua. B.Germany, Nicaragua, Cuba.
C.Nicaragua, Japan, Cuba. D.Cuba, Japan, Nicaragua.5-8 BCBA
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(答案→)5-8 BCBA
解析：
5.B 此处“12 out of 14”是指“在多少里面排名第几，占第几位”，所以在此处意思应为:在14个国家的学生进行的化学测试中，美国学生的成绩排第12位，由此可知B为正确答案。
6.C 文章第三段提到“whose schools have no uniform national curriculum”，“the problem lies at the elementary and high school levels...”以及“Among the root causes most frequently mentioned... the low respect in which U.S. society holds teachers”。由此可知A、B和D三项均是教育水平低的原因，选项C未在文中提及，故为正确答案。
7.B 第二段开头指出，布什总统曾许诺要在接下来的十年里消除文盲，文章后面指出“According to Bush，there are l7 million illiterates in this country of 245million people...They have a long way to go”，由此可知，布什并没有实现诺言，故选项A不对，根据布什的统计，文盲比例应为17／245约为7％，而不是9％，故排除C，根据文章最后一句话可知：在美国，老师的地位几乎在最底层，由此可排除D;根据文章最后一段倒数第三句可推断出B为正确答案。
8.A 题目要求按文盲比率由低到高的顺序排列。根据文章倒数第三句话可知：在德国，教师地位比较高，由此可推断出其教育水平高，文盲也较少，以及第二段中间部分的“in percentage terms，that rank the United States alongside Nicaragua and below Cuba.”，也就是说，美国和尼加拉瓜并列，位于古巴之后，由此可判断出：德国的文盲率最低，其次是古巴，然后是尼加拉瓜，故A为正确选项。