The Traditional Method
a. is clearly based on religious doctrines.
b. is not recommended for beginning homeschools.
c. most closely follows the style of public schools
d. is unusual and rarely used by parents.
Ques. 2Why have states developed statutes for homeschooling?
a. so that no one has to follow guidelines and restrictions
b. so that homeschools have a stricter curriculum than public schools
c. so that students don't have to attend a minimum number of hours
d. so that all homeschoolers follow the same guidelines and restrictions
Ques. 3Why do some parents object to a state-approved curriculum?
a. They want their children to become like-minded workers.
b. They feel it prevents their children from becoming free thinkers.
c. They think it doesn't prepare their children for the U.S. economy.
d. They think it gives too much multicultural knowledge.
Ques. 4According to the reading, one academic concern many parents have is
a. the lack of challenging course content
b. the lack of highly trained teachers
c. the lack of small classes
d. the lack of homework for their children
Ques. 5Religious doctrine cannot be taught in public schools
a. because there are too many religious beliefs
b. because of the separation between church and state
c. because morality is not connected to education
d. because of the book Origin of the Species
Ques. 6Why are more and more parents choosing homeschooling?
a. because the cost of private education is high
b. because research shows it's a better system
c. because of religious and academic concerns
d. because their children prefer it
Ques. 7All it takes is a few nightly news stories showing young bodies being wheeled out of schools on gurneys to convince the world that violence in our schools is increasing. Certainly, it is shocking when a couple of adolescents open fire in a school with semiautomatic weapons. It is shocking when a sixteen-year-old in Pearl, Mississippi, stabs his mother to death and then shoots two classmates to death and wounds several others. When adolescents are depicted on the evening news, it is often in the context of violence, particularly at schools. In fact, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, crime in the nation's schools has been decreasing since 1993. Victimization rates at schools have dropped from 48 crimes per 1,000 students to 43 crimes per 1,000 students. The fact is, only one-half of 1 percent of juveniles are arrested for violent crime in any given year today. School shootings are still extremely rare; they are not on the increase. In the 1992-1993 school year, there were fifty-five school-associated violent deaths. In the 2001-2002 school year, there were only four. Indeed, adolescents are not really killing other adolescents at an increasing rate. They rarely kill one another. Less than 3 percent of homicides in the United States involve an individual under the age of eighteen killing another person under eighteen. Nevertheless, Americans believe that juveniles are responsible for 43 percent of all homicides. In fact, they are responsible for only 9 percent. The Wall Street Journal took a poll a few years ago. Seventy-one percent of respondents believed that a killing was likely in their schools. In reality, the chances of that happening are one in a million. Perhaps as a result of a misguided perception about school violence, we are in an era of zero tolerance. Authorities seize not only weapons and illegal drugs at school, but also nail clippers, asthma inhalers, and headgear. Even though less than 1 percent of all violent incidents involving teen-agers occur on school grounds, authorities believe that zero tolerance is necessary. As a consequence, a large number of innocent schoolchildren are being accused of violating the rules. Sometimes, accusations border on the bizarre. In one case, a six-year-old was apprehended for bringing a weapon to school. The weapon was a plastic knife given to him by his grandmother so that he could spread peanut butter on his sandwich. The main idea of this passage is that
a. violence by youth is an ever increasing problem.
b. the media tend to distort the truth about violence by youth.
c. innocent school children are being accused of criminal behavior.
d. school violence is not as bad as most people believe.
Ques. 8The plight of the homeless remains a problem. Indeed, some observers argue that the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 has increased the numbers of homeless people. There are no hard statistics on the homeless, but estimates of the number of people without a home on any given night in the United States range from a low of 230,000 to as many as 750,000 people. It is difficult to estimate how many people are homeless because the number depends on how the homeless are defined. There are street peoplethose who sleep in bus stations, parks, and other areas. Many of these people are youthful runaways. There are the so-called sheltered homelessthose who sleep in government-supported or privately funded shelters. Many of these individuals used to live with their families or friends. While street people are almost always single, the sheltered homeless include numerous families with children. Homeless families are the fastestgrowing subgroup of the homeless population. As a policy issue, how to handle the homeless problem pits liberals against conservatives. Conservatives argue that there are not really that many homeless and that most of them are alcoholics, drug users, or mentally ill. Conservatives argue that these individuals should be dealt with either by the mental-health system or the criminal justice system. In contrast, many liberals argue that homelessness is caused by a reduction in welfare benefits and by excessively priced housing. They want more shelters to be built for the homeless. In the past decade, cities have attempted to criminalize homelessness. Many municipalities have outlawed sleeping on park benches and sidewalks, as well as panhandling and leaving personal property on public property. In some cities, police sweeps remove the homeless, who then become part of the criminal justice system. Because there is so much disagreement about the number of homeless persons, the reasons for homelessness, and the possible cures for the problem, there has been no consistent government policy. Whatever policies have been adopted usually have been attacked by one group or another. The author's tone in this passage is
a. reticent.
b. pessimistic. c. optimistic. d. apathetic.
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