第四部分  写作(共两节，满分35分

第一节  任务型读写(共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分

认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填1个单词，请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。

President Barack Obama shouldn’t be surprised if his approval rating among students has plummeted( 陡然变差 ). In a recent speech about US education, he called for extending the school day and year. "The challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom. Why more time? Because US students are falling behind students in other countries," he said.

More school

US schools need to lengthen school days and the school year. If we intend to stay competitive with the rest of the world on test scores and in the job market, we need to add classroom hours and get rid of summer break almost entirely. As President Obama said. South Korean students spend mere than a month longer in school — and achieve better results than us.

The current two-term school year and the school days that form it were developed based on an old system of agriculture. The long summer break allowed children to be home to help tend the fields. It is not necessary anymore. It may not be popular to cut summer break or extend school days, but that’s the only way to improve US education and get back the American jobs lost to foreign countries.

Home Time

Adding school hours won’t solve the problems with our school system. The USA is different from other countries. US families have full schedules, with participation in sports, community groups, and other interests. In places such as South Korea, where only several hours of a day aren't spent on school work, children don t have time to participate in many of those activities.

Giving kids time outside of school allows them to grow in other areas. That’s just as important as learning fractions (分数). Fingers shouldn't be pointed at the school year for being too short, but at teachers and schools that don't challenge their students and just pass kids along to the next grade. We do need to hold ourselves accountable for an education system falling behind other countries, but we also need a solution that actually works.