It was no coincidence that Kalkaska shut its schools two weeks after residicted a 28 percent property-tax increase.The school board argued that without the increase it lacked the $ 1.5 million needed to keep schools open.
But the school system had not done all it could to keep the schools open.Officials declined to borrow against next year's state aid,they refused to trim extracurricular activities and they did not consider seeking a smaller-perhaps more acceptable-tax increase.In fact,closing early is costing Kalkaska a significant amount,including 4600,000 in unemployment payments to teachers and staff and $250,000 in lost state sid.In February,the school system promised teachers and staff two months of retirement payments in case schools closed early,a deal that will cost the district $ 275,000 more.
Other signs suggest school authorities were at least as eager to make a political statement as to keep schools open.The Michigan Education Association hired a public relations firm to stage a rally marking the school closings,which attracted 14 local and national television stations and networks.The president of the National Education Association,the MEA's parent organization,flew from Washington,D.C.,for the event.And to union tutored school officials in the art of television interviews.School supervisor Doyle Disbrow acknowledges the district could have kept schools open by cutting programs but denies the moves were politically motivated.
Michigan lawmakers have reacted angrily to the closings.The state Senate has already voted to put the system into receivership (破产管理) and reopen schools immediately;the Michigan House Plans to considr the bill this week.
31.We learn from the passage that schools in Kalkaska,Michigan,are funded______ .
A)mainly by the state government
B)exclusively by the local government
C)by the National Education Association
D)by both the local and state governments
32.One of the purposes for which school officials closed classes was ______.
A)to draw the attention of local taxpayers to political issues
B)to avoid paying retirement benefits to teachers and staff
C)to pressure Michigan lawmakers into increastng state funds for local schools
D)to make the financial difficulties of their teachers and staff known to the public
33.The author seems to disapprove of________ .
A)the shutting of schools in Kalkaska
B)the involvement of the mass media
C)the Michigan lawmakers' endless debating
D)delaying the passage of the school funding legislation
34.We learn from the passage that school authorities in Kalkaska are more concerned about_______ .
A)making a political issue of the closing of the schools
B)the attitude of the MEA's parent organization
C)a raise in the property-tax rate in Michigan
D)reopening the shools there immediately
35.According to the passage,the closing of the schools developed into a crisis because of _______.
A)the strong protest on the part of the students'parents
B)the political motives on the part of the educators
C)the weak response of the state officials
D)the complexity of the problem
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage.
Early in the age of affluence (富裕) that followed World War Ⅱ，an American retailing analyst named Victor Lebow proclaimed, "Our enormously productive economy……demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, is consumption. …… We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate."
Americans have responded to Lebow's call, and much of the world has followed. Consumption has become a central pillar of life in industrial lands and is even embedded in social values. Opinion surveys in the world's two largest economics-Japan and the United States-show consumerist definitions of success becoming ever more prevalent.
Over consumption by the world's fortunate is an environmental problem unmatched in severity by anything but perhaps population growth. Their surging exploitation of resources threatens to exhaust or unalterably spoil forests,.
上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] 下一页