2. 职称英语
  3. Until last spring, Nia Parker and the other kids in her neighborhood commute

Until last spring, Nia Parker and the other kids in her neighborhood commute

游客2024-02-16  16
问题     Until last spring, Nia Parker and the other kids in her neighborhood commuted to school on Bus 59. But as fuel rose, the school district needed to find a way to cut its transportation costs. So the school’s busing company redrew its route map, eliminating Nia’s bus altogether. Now, Nia and her neighbors travel the half mile to school via a "walking school bus" — a group of kids, supervised by an adult or two, who make the walk together.
    Like the rest of us, school districts are feeling pinched by rising fuel costs—and finding new ways to adapt. The price of diesel fuel has gone up 34 percent in the past two years. For the typical American school district, bus bills total 5 percent of the budget. As administrators look to trim, busing is an inviting target, since it doesn’t affect classroom instruction (or test scores). More than one third of school administrators have eliminated bus stops or routes in order to stay within budget.
    Many parents are delighted to see their kids walking to school, partly because many did so themselves: according to a 1969 survey, nearly half of school kids walked or biked to school, compared with only 16 percent in 2001. Modern parents have been leery of(对......存有戒心) letting kids walk to school for fear of traffic, crime or simple bullying, but with organized adult supervision, those concerns have diminished.
    Schools and busing companies are finding other ways to save. In rural areas where busing is a must, some schools have even chosen four-day school weeks. Busing companies instruct drivers to eliminate extra stops from routes and to turn off the engine while idling. They are also using computer software to determine the most fuel-efficient routes, which aren’t always the shortest ones.
    There could be downsides, however, to the busing cutbacks. If every formerly bused student begins walking to school, it’s an environmental win—but if too many of their parents decide to drive them instead, the overall carbon footprint can grow. Replacing buses with many more parent-driven cars can also increase safety risks: A 2002 report concluded students are 13 times safer on a school bus than in a passenger car, since buses have fewer accidents and withstand them better due to their size. And some students complain about the long morning hikes, particularly when the route contains a really big hill. [br] The author’s attitude towards busing cutbacks is______.
选项 A、critical
B、favorable
C、objective
D、indifferent
答案 C
解析 本文中作者由一个例子引出学校消减校车致使学生步行上学，随后说明原因，接着讲述家长的态度和可能的不良后果，由此可知，作者只是在进行客观的描述，并没有表明自己支持或者反对，故答案为[C]objective(客观的)。如果作者持critical(批判的)的态度，作者就不可能在文中提到家长对校车消减后孩子在大人监督下步行上学表示赞成这一正面信息，如果作者持favorable(赞成的、支持的)态度，作者就不可能在末段提及校车减少可能造成的不良影响，故排除[A]和[B]。如果作者对学校减少校车这一现象indifferent(漠不关心的)，那么作者就不会写这篇文章了，故排除[D]。
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