When it comes to schooling， the Herrera boys are no match for the Herrera girls. Last week， four years after she arrived from Honduras， Martha， 20， graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. She managed decent grades while working 36 hours a week at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Her sister， Marlin， 22， attends a local community college and will soon be a certified nurse assistant. The brothers are a different story. Oscar， 17， was expelled two years ago from Fairfax for carrying a knife and later dropped out of a different school. The youngest， Jonathan， 15， is now in a juvenile boot camp after running into trouble with the law. “The boys get sidetracked more，” says the kids’ mother， Suyapa Landaverde. “The girls are more confident.”

This is no aberration. Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys， according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed， five-year study of immigrant children——the largest of its kind， including Latino， Chinese and Haitian kids——by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Though that trend holds for U.S.-born kids as well， the reasons for the discrepancy among immigrants are different. The study found that immigrant girls are more adept at straddling cultures than boys. “The girls are able to retain some of the protective features of [their native] culture” because they’re kept closer to the hearth， says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco， “while they maximize their acquisition of skills in the new culture” by helping their parents navigate it.

Consider the kids’ experiences in school. The study found that boys face more peer pressure to adopt American youth culture——the dress， the slang， the disdain for education. They’re disciplined more often and， as a result， develop more adversarial relationships with teachers——and the wider society. They may also face more debilitating prejudices. One teacher interviewed for the study said that the “cultural awareness training” she received as part of her continuing education included depictions of Latino boys as “aggressive” and “really macho” and of the girls as “pure sweetness.”

Gender shapes immigrant kids’ experiences outside school as well. Often hailing from traditional cultures， the girls face greater domestic obligations. They also frequently act as “cultural ambassadors，” translating for parents and mediating between them and the outside world， says Carola Suarez-Orozco. An unintended consequence： “The girls get foisted into a responsible role more than the boys do.” Take Christina Im， 18， a junior at Fairfax who arrived from South Korea four years ago. She ranks ninth in a class of 400 students and still finds time to fix dinner for the family and work on Saturdays at her mother’s clothing shop. Her brother? “He plays computer games，” says Im.

The Harvard study bears a cautionary note： If large numbers of immigrant boys continue to be alienated academically——and to be clear， plenty perform phenomenally——they risk sinking irretrievably into an economic underclass. Oscar Herrera， Martha’s dropout brother， may be realizing that. “I’m thinking of returning to school，” he recently told his mother. He ought to look to his sisters for guidance.

1. In the opening paragraph， the author introduces his topic by

[A]posing a contrast

[B]justifying an assumption

[C]making a comparison

[D]explaining a phenomenon

2. The statement “they also frequently act as ‘cultural ambassadors’”(Line two， Paragraph 4) implies that

[A]they work as a translator for their parents

[B]they help their parents have a better understanding of the foreign culture

[C]they encourage their parents to go into the outside world

[D]their parents help them realize their dream of becoming an ambassador.

3. Immigrant boys do not fare well in the outside world because of the following reasons， except that

[A]American youth culture has a bad influence on the boys

[B]people have prejudice against them

[C]their sense of responsibility is not as strong as that of the girls

[D]they do not get well along with the teachers and the outside world

4. Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco have eventually found in their study that

[A]the immigrant boys should not be allowed to go into the outside world

[B]the immigrant boys have no judgment about the youth culture

[C]the immigrant girls do a better job than the immigrant boys

[D]the immigrant boys should be severely disciplined

5. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

[A]All the dropouts should receive good education.

[B]Many immigrant boys are likely to fall into trouble in the future.

[C]Schooling education has been neglected.

[D]More attention should be paid to the immigrant children.

词汇注释

sidetracked 使受牵制的，误入歧途的

aberration 失常;偏差

outperform 胜过

preliminary 预备的，初步的

discrepancy 相差，差异，矛盾

adept at 熟练于…;擅长于…

straddle 跨坐

navigate 航行于，驾驶，操纵

adversarial 敌手的，对手的

debilitate 使衰弱，使虚弱

macho 男子的，男子气的

hailing from 来自，在某地生长

mediate 仲裁，调停

foist 偷偷插入，使混入

phenomenally 现象上的，明白地;惊人地

irretrievably 不能挽回地，不能补救地

look to sb. for sth.以来或指望某人提供或作某事物

fare 进展;成功

难句讲解

1. Last week， four years after she arrived from Honduras， Martha， 20， graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. She managed decent grades while working 36 hours a week at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[简析] 本句话是一个并列句，其主干“Martha graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. She managed decent grades…”。four years after she arrived from Honduras和20是插入语;while引导的断语作状语，表示让步。

2. “The girls are able to retain some of the protective features of [their native] culture” because they’re kept closer to the hearth， says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco， “while they maximize their acquisition of skills in the new culture” by helping their parents navigate it.

[简析]本句话的主干是“The girls are able to retain some of the protective features…”。Because引导的是原因庄宇从句;says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco是插入语;while 引导的是时间状语从句，其中的by引导的短语作状语，其中的it指的是new culture.

3. One teacher interviewed for the study said that the “cultural awareness training” she received as part of her continuing education included depictions of Latino boys as “aggressive” and “really macho” and of the girls as “pure sweetness.”

[简析]本句话的主干是“One teacher said that…”。interviewed for the study作定语修饰teacher;that 引导的是宾语从句，其中的she received as part of her continuing education是一个省略了引导词的定语从句，修饰cultural awareness training.

4. The Harvard study bears a cautionary note： If large numbers of immigrant boys continue to be alienated academically——and to be clear， plenty perform phenomenally——they risk sinking irretrievably into an economic underclass.

[简析]本句话的主干是“The Harvard study bears a cautionary note…”。冒号后面的句子是在解释前面的句子;if 引导的是条件状语从句;破折号里面的内容是在进一步说明if 引导的从句。

　　答案与解析

1. C 结构题。本题的问题是“在开始段落，作者通过 介绍他的主题”。文章第一段提到，谈到学校教育，哈瑞罗家的男孩无法与女孩相提并论;随后，作者分别介绍了女孩和男孩的表现;该段最后引用孩子们的母亲的话指出，男孩子大都误入歧途，而女孩子却更自信。这说明，作者是通过相互比较引出其主题的。[C]“做比较”是对该段的恰当概括，为正确答案。[A]“形成对照”不准确，因为contrast主要指的是对立，与文意不符;第一段中没有提到某种假设，所以[B]“证明一种假设正确”不对;第一段中只是提出了女孩在学校教育方面比男孩表现好，并没有解释原因，所以[D]“解释一种现象”不对。

2. B 推论题。本题的问题是“‘她们也常常担任文化大使’(第四段)这句话暗示 ”。文章第二段提到，移民女孩比男孩更擅长于适应不同的文化，并且她们可以帮助其父母适应新文化;而第四段前面部分提到，女孩面临更多家庭义务，她们也常常担任“文化大使”。为她们的父母担任翻译，并且在父母与外部世界之间进行协调。由此可知，该句话表明，女孩可以帮助父母理解外国文化。[B]“她们帮助父母更好地了解外国文化”是对文中相关信息的改写，为正确答案。[A]“她们充当她们父母的翻译”是该句话的字面意思，不能表达深层含意，所以不对;[C]“她们鼓励父母进入外面的世界”是误解了该句话的意思;[D]“她们的父母帮助她们实现成为大使的梦想”明显与文意不符。

3. A 细节题。本题的问题是“由于下面的原因，移民男孩不会在外面获得成功，除了”。文章第三段介绍了男孩受到的影响，指出，他们受惩戒的次数更多，因此，他们会跟老师以及更广大的社会发展更敌对的关系，他们也可能面对更多令人沮丧的偏见：这说明，[B]“人们对他们有偏见”和[D]“他们没有处理好与老师和外面社会的关系”是移民男孩不会获得成功的原因;第四段提到，由于女孩通常是在传统文化中成长起来的，所以她们面临更多家庭义务，女孩不得不承担的责任比男孩多;这说明，[C]“他们的责任感不像女孩那么强烈”是移民男孩不会获得成功的原因。[A]“美国的青少年文化对男孩有不利的影响”是针对第三段第二句设置的干扰项，文中说的是“研究发现，男孩要想接受美国的青少年文化，他们会面临更多同龄人的压力”，说明[A]与文意不符。

4. C 细节题。本题的问题是“马赛罗和卡罗拉。苏瑞兹。欧罗丝科在研究中最后发现”。文章第二段提到，根据马赛罗和卡罗拉。苏瑞兹。欧罗丝科刚刚完成的一项研究初步结果可知，移民女孩一向优于男孩;随后的段落解释了造成这种状况的原因，指出，哈佛大学的研究显示，大量移民男孩在学业上荒废，许多人的学业成绩差得令人难以置信。这说明，他们的研究发现，移民男孩的表现比女孩差。[C]“移民女孩比移民男孩的表现好”是对文中相关信息的概括，为正确答案。[A]“移民男孩不应该被容许进入外面的世界”属于无中生有;[B]“移民男孩对青少年文化没有判断力”是针对文中“boys face more peer pressure to adopt Anierican youth culture”这句话设置的干扰项，与文意不符;文章第三段提到，正因为移民男孩受到更多的惩戒，所以他们会跟老师和社会发展更敌对的关系，说明惩戒太多会产生不好的影响，所以[D]“移民男孩应该受到严厉惩戒”与研究的发现相反。

5. B 推论题。本题的问题是“根据最后一段，我们可以推知什么?”最后一段提到，哈佛大学的研究表明，如果大量移民男孩继续在学业上荒废，那么他们将不可避免地面临在经济上陷入社会底层的风险。[B]“许多移民男孩将来可能陷入困境”是对该句话的mt.-~，为正确答案。[A]“所有辍学者都应该接受良好的教育”和[D]“应该更关注移~——T-A-”属于无中生有;[C]“学校教育被人们忽视了”是对文中“imlnigrant boys continue to be alienated academically”设置的干扰项，是误解了be alienated academically的意思。