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  3. Miriam and Christian Rengier, a German couple moving to New York, visited so

Miriam and Christian Rengier, a German couple moving to New York, visited so

游客2023-12-15  25
问题     Miriam and Christian Rengier, a German couple moving to New York, visited some private elementary schools in Manhattan last spring in search of a place for their son. They immediately noticed the absence of ethnic diversity, and the chauffeurs ferrying children to the door. And then, at one school, their guide showed them the cafeteria.
    "The kids were able to choose between seven different lunches: sushi and macrobiotics and whatever," Ms. Rengier recalled. "And I said, ’What if I don’t want my son to choose from seven different lunches?’ And she looked at me like I was an idiot."
    For the Rengiers, the decision was clear: Their son would go to public school.
    "It was not the question if we could afford it or not," said Ms. Rengier, whose husband was transferred to the city because of his job as a lawyer and tax consultant. "It was a question of whether it was real life or not."
    In New York, the affluent typically send their children to private schools. But not the foreign-born affluent. In a divergence, a large majority of wealthy foreign-born New Yorkers are sending their children to public schools, according to an analysis of census data. There are roughly 15,500 households in the city with school-age children where the total income is at least $150,000 and both parents were born abroad. Of those, about 10,500, or 68 percent, use only the public schools, the data show. That is nearly double the rate of American-born parents in the city in the same income bracket.
    The census data include both immigrants and those temporarily stationed in the city for work. The disparity is even sharper for foreign-born parents with household incomes of $200,000 or more. About 61 percent send their children only to public schools, compared with 28 percent of native-born couples in the same income bracket. As a result, some public elementary schools in wealthier parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn are experiencing an unexpected increase in foreign-born students, especially Western Europeans.
    A similar divergence exists in other major cities, the census data show. For example, in Los Angeles and Chicago, roughly 60 percent of foreign-born couples with at least $150,000 in household income send their children only to public schools, a rate far higher than that of native-born parents.
    In the United States over all, there is almost no difference between the two groups, apparently because wealthy people outside of urban areas are much more likely to show allegiance to the public schools. Nationally, 73 percent of native-born couples and 76 percent of foreign-born couples send their children only to public schools, according to the data, which was provided by Andrew A. Beveridge and Susan Weber-Stoger, demographers at Queens College.
    In interviews, affluent foreign-bom New Yorkers said that like all conscientious parents, they weighed various criteria in choosing schools, including quality, cost and location. But many said they were also swayed by the greater ethnic and economic diversity of the public schools. Some said that as immigrants, they had learned to navigate different cultures—a skill they wanted to imbue in their children.
    "When they go to public school, they’re in a whole new world, a whole world of different people and different values, which is what the world is like," said Lyn Bollen, who grew up in Birmingham, England, and attended—and taught at—state-run schools. "Shielding them from that is doing them a disservice."
    She and her husband, who works for Citigroup, moved to Manhattan with their children two years ago and now send their eldest son to public school near their home in Battery Park City.
    Of course, affluent foreign-born New Yorkers tend to live in relatively well-to-do neighborhoods, which often have better public schools.
    Still, some said that because they grew up in countries with strong public school systems, they arrived in New York with a more open mind about public education.
    "I grew up in Denmark, which is a society in which everything is public, everything is state-financed," said Morten Degnemark, who arrived in the United States in 2004 and runs a diamond and jewelry company in Manhattan. "I’m from the public schools myself. It went O.K. for me, so, already, I started with an attitude that public school could be a good thing."
    Private school tuition in the city has risen sharply over the past decade, with at least one elementary school topping $40,000 a year, and several foreign-born parents said they found such prices startling.
    Ashima Dayal, a lawyer who arrived from India as a child, said her parents had instilled in her an immigrant’s toughness and resourcefulness. She said this experience had probably made her less demanding of certain amenities and more accepting of some of the public system’s shortcomings.
    "Speaking to my American friends, they say, ’The cafeteria is not nice,’ " Ms. Dayal said. "I don’t give a damn if the cafeteria is nice! I would like there not to be splinters in the gym." She paused, adding, "I just come from a different place."
                                        From The New York Times, February 15, 2012 [br] What kind of skill do many immigrants want their children to learn?
选项 A、Dealing with different cultures.
B、Locating schools.
C、Evaluating the quality of schools.
D、Familiarizing the cost of schools.
答案 A
解析 本题为细节题。根据文章第九段可以得知，谨慎的父母会根据质量、价格和位置来选择学校，但是很多父母认为他们仍然会为公办学校种族的多样化而动摇(…they weighed various criteria in choosing schools，including quality, cost and location．But many said they were also swayed by the greater ethnic and economic diversity of the public schools)，有些父母认为作为移民，他们已经学会了如何成功应对不同的文化，希望能把这种技能灌输给自己的孩子，因此应选择A。
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