2019年12月英语四级改革模拟题：长篇阅读测试(3)

2019年12月英语四级改革模拟题：长篇阅读测试(3) Education Study Finds U. S. FallingBehind

A Teachers in the United States earn less relative tonational income than their counterparts in many industrialized countries, yet they spend far more hours in front of the classroom, according to a major newinternational study.

B The salary differentials are part of apattern of relatively low public investment in education in the United States compared with other member nationsof the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group in Paris that compiled thereport. Total government spending on educational institutions in the United Statesslipped to 4.8 percent of gross domestic product in 1998, falling under theinternational average — 5 percent — for the first time.

C “The whole economy has grown faster thanthe education system,” Andreas Schleicher, one of the reports’

authors,explained. “The economy has done very well, but teachers have not fullybenefit.” The report, due out today, is the sixth on education published since1991 by the organization of 30 nations, founded in 1960, and now covering muchof Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

D In addition to the teacher pay gap, thereport shows the other countries have begun to catch up with the United Statesin higher education： college enrollment has grown by 20 percent since 1995across the group, with one in four young people now earning degrees. For thefirst time, the United

States’ college graduation rate, now at 33percent, is not

the world’s highest. Finland,the Netherlands, New Zealand

and Britain have surpassed it.

E The United States is also producingfewer mathematics

and science graduates than most of the other member

states.And, the report says, a college degree produces a greater boost in income herewhile the lack of a high school diploma imposes a bigger income penalty. “The number of graduates is increasing, but that stimulates even more of a demand —there is no end in sight,” Mr. Schleicher said. “The demand for skill, clearly,is growing faster than the supply that is coming from schools and co lleges.”

F The report lists the salary for a highschool teacher in the United Stateswith 15 years experience as $36,219, above

the international average of $31,887but behind seven other countries and less than 60 percent of Switzerland’s$62,052. Because teachers in the Unites States have a heavier

classroom load —teaching almost a third more hours than

their counterparts abroad — theirsalary per hour of actual teaching is $35, less than the international averageof $41 (Denmark, Spain and Germany pay more than $50 per teaching hour, SouthKorea $77). In 1994, such a veteran teacher in the United States earned 1.2 times theaverage per capita income whereas in 1999 the salary was just under thenational average. Only the Czech Republic, Hungary,Iceland and Norway pay their teachers less relative tonational income; in South Korea, teachers theactual teaching salary earn 2.5 times the nationalaverage. Teacher pay accounts for 56 percent of what the United Statesspends on education, well below the 67

percent average among the group ofcountries.