Section III Reading Comprehension(60 minutes)

Part A

D．irections :

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D.Mark your answers on, ANSWER SHEET1.

Text 1

C．ompetition for admission to the country's top private schools has always been tough, but this year Elisabeth realized it had reached a new level. Her wake-up call came when a man called the Dalton School in Manhattan, where Elisabeth is admissions director, and inquired about the age cutoff for their kindergarten program. After providing the information, she asked about the age of his child. The man paused for an uncomfortably long time before answering. "Well, we don't have a child yet. We're trying to figure out when to conceive a child so the birthday is not a problem. "

Worries are spreading from Manhattan to the rest of the country. Precise current data on private schools are unavailable, but interviews with representatives of independent schools all told the same story: an oversupply of applicants, higher rejection rates. "We have people calling us for spots two years down the road," said Marilyn of the Seven Hills School in Cincinnati. " We have grandparents calling for pregnant daughters. " Public opinion polls indicate that Americans' No. 1 concern is edu-cation .Now that the long economic boom has given parents more disposable income, many are tuming to private schools, even at price tags of well over $ 10,000 a year. "We're getting appli-cants from a broader area geographically than we ever have in the past," said Betsy of the Latin School of Chicago, which experienced a 20 percent increase in applications this year.

The problem for the applicants is that while demand has increased, supply has not. "Every Year ,there are a few children who do not find places, but this year, for the first time that I know of , there are a significant number without places ,"said Elisabeth.

So what can parents do to give their 4-year-old an edge? Schools know there is no easy way to pick a class when children are so young. Many schools give preference to children of their gradu- ates. Some make the choice by drawing lots. But most rely on a mix of subjective and objective measures: tests that at best identify developmental maturity and cognitive potential, interviews with parents and observation of applicants in classroom settings. They also want a diverse mix. Children may end up on a waiting list simply because their birthdays fall at the wrong time of year, or be- cause too many applicants were boys.

The worst thing a patent can do is to pressure preschoolers to perform-for example, by push-ing them to read or do math exercises before they're ready. Instead, the experts say, parents should take a breath and look for alternatives. Another year in preschool may be all that's needed.

41. From this text we learn that it is

[A] harder to make a choice between public and private schools.

[B] harder to go to private schools this year than before.

[C] more difficult to go to public schools than to private schools.

[D] as difficult to go to private schools this year as before.