15．Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades．Other forms of prenatal involvement，including volunteering at school and observing a child's class，also fail to help，according to the most recent study on the topic．
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting（养育子女） where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education．Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time，fed，dressed and ready to learn．
Kaith Robinson，the author of the study，said，"I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids'education that leads to declines in their academic performance．One of the things that was consistently negative was parents'help with homework．"Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task．"They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now，or in some cases never learnt it themselves，but they're still offering advice．"
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks．In general，about 20% of parental involvement was positive，about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant．
Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because"children with good academic success do have involved parents"，admitted Robinson．But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success．"A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved．They took a more reasonable approach，conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives．"
58．The underlined expression"parental involvement"in Paragraph 1probably meansB．
A．parents'expectation on children's health
B．parents'participation in children's education
C．parents'control over children's life
D．parents'plan for children's future
59．What is the major finding of Robinson's study？C
A．Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way．
B．Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging．
C．Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected．
D．Parents are not able to help with children's homework．
60．The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents shouldA．
A．help children realize the importance of schooling
B．set a specific life goal for their children
C．spend more time improving their own lives
D．take a more active part in school management．
分析 文章介绍和很多人预期不同的是父母过度地参与孩子的教育未必有好的效果．父母应该帮助孩子意识到学校教育的重要性．
解答 58．答案：B．句意理解题．根据第一段的句子"Other forms of prenatal involvement，including volunteering at school and observing a child's class，"可知，"prenatal involvement"指的是"父母参与孩子的教育"．
59．答案：C．细节理解题．根据第三段的句子"but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids'education that leads to declines in their academic performance．"可知．Kaith Robinson的研究发现是父母参与孩子的教育没有预料的那么有效．
60．答案：A．细节理解题．根据文章最后一段的句子"They took a more reasonable approach，conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives．"可知美国父母的例子暗示父母应该帮助孩子意识到学校教育的重要性．
点评 这种说明文阅读中要求学生要抓住关键词、中心词，迅速在文中进行定位，解决细节题．对文章的内容要了解，通常主题在第一段最后出现，所以学生要善于把握主题．
