Last year, on report card day, my son and a bunch of his 13-year-old friends pil

Last year, on report card day, my son and abunch of his 13-year-old friends piled into the back seat of my car, ready forthe last-day-of-school party at McDonald’s. “Jack got a laptop for gettingstraight A’s, and Laurie got a cellphone,” one boy said. “Oh, yeah, and Sarahgot an iPod Nano, and she’s only in third grade,” said another. “And how aboutBrian? He got $ 10 for each A.”

I suddenly became concerned. These payoffsmight get parents through grammar school, but what about high school andbeyond? What would be left after the electric guitar, the cellphone, and theportable DVD player?

I saw the road ahead: As the homework loadincreased, my income would decrease. I saw my comfortable lifestyle vanishbefore my eyes-no more of those $ 5 bags of already-peeled organic carrots. No moreorganic anything!

I started to feel surprised and nervous.Would every goal attained by my two children fetch a reward? A high grade pointaverage? A good class ranking? Would sports achievements be included in thisreward system: soccer goals, touchdowns, runs-batted-in? What about orchestra?Would first chair pay more than second? I’d be penniless by eighth-gradegraduation.

“We never paid anything for good grades,”said my neighbor across the street, whose son was recently accepted at MIT. “Hejust did it on his own. Maybe once in a while we went out for pizza, but that’sabout it.”

Don’t you just hate that? We’re all runningaround looking for the MP3 player with the most updates, and she’s spending afew dollars on pizza. She gets motivation; we get negotiation.

1．The sentence “As the homework load increased, my income woulddecrease.” in the third paragraph probably means _____________.

A．taking care of the children would influence my work

B．I would spend more money on my children’s homework

C．reducing children’s homework load would cost me a lot

D．more rewards would be needed as the children grew up

2．We can tell from the passage that the author’s son was in___________.

A．primary school B．junior middle school   C．highschool        D．university

3．It can be inferred from the passage that ____________.

A．if you pay the children for good grades, they would take it forgranted

B．if you buy children pizza for good grades, they would work harder

C．children would not ask for rewards when they enter high school

D．children would not ask for rewards when they enter university

4．The example of the author’s neighbor shows that ____________.

A．pizza is the best way to motivate children

B．reward is not the only way to motivate children

C．the author’s neighbor was very poor

D．the author’s neighbor’s son didn’t like reward

5．What is the author’s attitude toward paying children reward for goodgrades?

A．Favorable B．Ambiguous      C．Disagreeable   D．Unknowable

试题答案

【答案】

 D

 B

 A

 B

 C

【解析】略