—I regret____ to tell ____you that John has been fired.

—I can hardly believe my ears. He is such a fine worker.

A．telling  B．having told C．to tell  D．to have told

---I regret _____you John has been fired．
---I can hardly believe my ears．He’s such a fine worker．

High school dropouts（辍学者）earn an average of $ 9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study dispels a common belief why they quit. It’s much more basic than flunking out（不及格）.

    Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t cut it. They are lazy，and perhaps not too bright．So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.

    “The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school.” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About 1 million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic（美籍西班牙的）student will receive a diploma（证书），and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So， if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does? Again，John Bridgeland："The most dependable finding was that they were bored.” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated. They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations.”

    The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the US，only one state，New Mexico，has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions, another researcher，says raising the compulsory（义务的）attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school．

 　“As these dropouts look back，they realize they’ve made a mistake. And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and it through to the end, is probably helpful measure.”

    New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point－the need for reform. It's been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something. 　

Most high school students drop out of' school because＿＿．

A. they have failing grades                                B. they take no interest in classes

C. they are discriminated against                        D. they are lazy and not intelligent

Acceding to the passage，which state has a law requiring school attendance until they graduate?

A. New Hampshire        B. Utah　　C. New Mexico  　　D. The District of Columbia

The underlined words “stick it out” probably means“＿＿”．

A. complete schooling                                      B. solve the problem

C. love having classes                                       D. believe in themselves

From the passage，we can infer the following EXCEPT that＿．

A. the grades of most dropouts at school were acceptable

B. about 500, 000 high school dropouts are black and Spanish

C. classes don't appeal to dropouts

D. on average dropouts cannot get good jobs

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌的一下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加，删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在其下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

      2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

Miss Brown,

We have received your application last week. We regret to informing you that our company has hired other girl for the job of secretary. Having careful studied your certificate, we decided that we should need someone with more office’s experience for this particular position. You have impressed us，but, with your desire to learn and your ability to work hard, we do hope that you will apply position in our company sometimes in the future. We would like to thank you for your interesting in our company. Please contact to us if there are any further questions.

                                                                                        Yours

                                                                                    John Smith