70. A spider's ability to finish an
incomplete web proves that＿
A. it has a highly
preprogrammed brain B. it
reuses its web protein to reproduce new silk
C. the web is everything for
a spider D. it is
able to rebuild a destroyed web
(E)
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 two 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. (380)