Part III
Reading Comprehension
（40 minutes）
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word
for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage
through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter.
Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through
the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.
Questions 36 to 45 are based on the following passage.
Quite often, educators tell families of children who are learning English as a second language
to speak only English, and not their native language, at home. Although these educators may have
good ___36___, their advice to families is misguided, and it ___37___ from misunderstandings
about the process of language acquisition. Educators may fear that children hearing two languages
will become ___38___ confused and thus their language development will be ___39___; this
concern is not documented in the literature. Children are capable of learning more than one
language, whether ___40___ or sequentially（依次地）. In fact, most children outside of the
United States are expected to become bilingual or even, in many cases, multilingual. Globally,
knowing more than one language is viewed as an ___41___ and even a necessity in many areas.
It is also of concern that the misguided advice that students should speak only English is
given primarily to poor families with limited educational opportunities, not to wealthier families
who have many educational advantages. Since children from poor families often are___42___ as
at-risk for academic failure, teachers believe that advising families to speak English only is
appropriate. Teachers consider learning two languages to be too ___43___ for children from poor
families, believing that the children are already burdened by their home situations.
If families do not know English or have limited English skills themselves, how can they
communicate in English? Advising non-English-speaking families to speak only English is
___44___ to telling them not to communicate with or interact with their children. Moreover, the
___45___ message is that the family’s native language is not important or valued.
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