六级真题2025年6月第一套 Passage One
六级真题2025年6月第一套 Passage One

①　Nationally, one in six children miss 15 or more days of school in a year. Education officials have deplored all this missed instruction.
②　These chronically absent students suffer academically because of all the classroom instruction they miss out on. In 2015, the U. S. secretary of education responded to this crisis, urging communities to support every student to attend every day and be successful in school. His open letter stated that missing 10% of school days in a year for any reason—excused or unexcused—is a primary cause of low academic achievement.
③　Worrying about whether children attend school makes sense. After all, if students don’t show up, teachers can’t teach them.
④　But what if America’s attendance crisis is about much more than students missing class? What if, instead, it is a reflection of family and community crises these students face—such as being ejected from the family apartment, fearing for their safety in their neighborhood or suffering an illness?
⑤　As social scientists we investigated how excused and unexcused absences relate to children’s academic achievement.
⑥　We find that absences excused by a parent do little to harm children’s learning. In fact, children with no unexcused absences-but 15 to 18 excused absences—have test scores equal to their peers who have no absences.
⑦　Meanwhile, the average child with even just one unexcused absence does much worse academically than peers with none.
⑧　We believe unexcused absence is a strong signal of the many challenges children and families face, including economic and medical hardships. Unexcused absences can be a powerful signal of how those out-of-school challenges affect children’s academic progress.
⑨　Our evidence suggests unexcused absences are problematic, but for a different reason than people often think. Absence from school, and especially unexcused absence, matters mainly as a signal of many crises children and their families may be facing. It matters less as a cause of lower student achievement due to missed instruction.
⑩　How we choose to think of school absences matters for educational policy. School attendance policies typically hold schools and families accountable for the days children miss, regardless of whether they were excused or unexcused absences.
⑪　These policies assume that missing school for any reason harms children academically because they are missing classroom instruction. They also assume that schools will be able to effectively intervene by reducing student absences. We find neither to be the case.
⑫　As a result, these attendance policies end up disproportionately punishing families dealing with out-of-school crises in their lives and pressuring schools who serve them to get students to school more often.
⑬　We instead suggest using unexcused absence from school as a signal to channel resources to the children and families who need them most.

1.1.What does the U. S. secretary of education say in his open letter?

A It is of vital importance to respond promptly to the school absence crisis.

B The academic performance of chronically absent students is deplorable.

C Low academic achievement is mainly attributed to school absences.

D The effect of school absences on American education is worrisome.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据题干信息词U. S. secretary of education和open letter可将答案线索定位至第二段。第二段最后一句提到了美国教育部长的公开信，他在信中指出，无论出于何种原因（有正当理由或无正当理由），一年中缺课天数达到10%是学业成绩低下的主要原因。C项与原文表述相符，该选项中的Lowacademic achievement是原词复现，is mainly attributed to是原文中is a primary cause的同义转述，故为正确答案。公开信未提到与A项、B项和D项有关的内容，故此三项排除。故选C。

2.2.What do the authors find about school absences?

A Excused school absences have little impact on children’s learning.

B There is little difference between unexcused and excused absences.

C Excused absences lead to comparatively better school performance.

D Unexcused absences are a big challenge to both schools and families.

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据题干信息词find和school absences可将答案线索定位至第六段和第七段。第五段提到，作者对缺课与儿童学业成绩之间的关系进行了调查，第六段和第七段为他们的发现。其中，第六段提到，作者发现经家长准许的缺课几乎不会影响孩子的学习。经家长准许的缺课属于因故缺课。A项是原文的同义转述，故为正确答案。原文第六段提到，因故缺课的孩子考试成绩与全勤的同龄人持平，而第七段提到，哪怕只有一次无故缺课的孩子也比全勤的同龄人学习成绩差很多，由此可见，无故缺课和因故缺课之间的差别是很大的，B项与原文表述不符，故排除。原文只是提到，因故缺课对学习成绩几乎没有什么影响，但并未提及它会带来更好的学业表现，C项无中生有，故排除。由第八段和第九段可知，文章重点强调无故缺课是儿童及其家庭面临在学校以外挑战的强烈信号，而非强调无辜缺课对学校和家庭是一大挑战，故D项排除。故选C。

3.3.What do the authors believe concerning unexcused school absences?

A They are likely to cause a decrease in students’ academic achievements due to missed instruction.

B They point directly to many of the out-of-school challenges confronting children and their families.

C They are matters the American government typically ignores when formulating educational policies.

D They give a clear signal to children and their families of the crises they are likely to face in the future.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据题干信息词 unexcused school absences可将答案线索定位至第八段。第八段提到，作者认为无故缺课是儿童和家庭面临诸多挑战（包括经济困难和医疗困难）的一个强烈信号，即无故缺课作为一个强烈信号，直接指向了儿童及其家庭面临的许多校外挑战，故B项正确。第九段提到，无故缺课在作为因错过教学内容而导致学生成绩下降的原因方面，其重要性相对较低，可见在作者看来，无故缺课对学生学习成绩的影响并非主要由于他们错过了教学内容，故排除A项。原文未提及政府在制定教育政策时是否会忽视无故缺课问题，仅讨论政策的假设错误，故排除C项。无故缺课是当前危机的信号，而非未来危机的信号，故排除D项。故选B。

4.4.What is the assumption underlying education policies in the U. S.?

A Children’s academic performance depends on reducing the number of absences.

B Schools can boost children’s academic performance by effective intervention.

C Schools as well as families should be held responsible for out-of-school crises.

D Children’s academic performance is closely related to the quality of instruction.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据题干信息词assumption和education policies可将答案线索定位至第十一段。第十一段提到了美国教育政策的两种潜在假设：一是任何原因的缺课（无故缺课和因故缺课）都会对儿童的学业造成损害，即任何缺课都会造成儿童学习成绩下降；二是针对缺课造成的儿童学习成绩下降现象，学校能够通过减少学生缺课来进行有效干预，即学校可以通过有效干预提高儿童的学习成绩。B项表述与第二种假设相符，故为正确答案。A项为强干扰项，文章只是提到学校可以通过减少学生的缺课次数从而提高他们的学习成绩，但并未明确说明减少缺课次数可以直接决定学习成绩，A项说法过于绝对，故排除。第十段提到，学校出勤政策通常要求学校和家庭对孩子缺课的天数负责，并未提到两者都要对校外危机负责，且C选项内容本身也不属于教育政策的假设范畴，故排除。D项内容原文未提及，故排除。故选B。

5.5.What do the authors suggest doing regarding school absences?

A Identifying their underlying causes.

B Reframing school attendance policies.

C Directing resources to helping needy children.

D Pressuring schools to reduce unexcused ones.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据题干信息词suggest和school absences可将答案线索定位至文章最后一段。作者在最后一段对缺课现象提出了建议，即将无故缺课视为一种信号，以此将资源导向最需要这些资源的儿童和家庭。C项表述与原文一致，故为正确答案。A项、B项和D项均不是作者所提出的建议，故全部排除。故选C。