Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
About the time that schools and others quite reasonably became interested in seeing to it that all children, whatever their background, were fairly treated, intelligence testing became unpopular.
Some thought it was unfair to minority children. Through the past few decades such testing has gone out of fashion and many communities have indeed forbidden it.
However, paradoxically, just recently a group of black parents filed a lawsuit(诉讼) in California claiming that the state’s ban on IQ testing discriminates against their children by denying them the opportunity to take the test. (They believed, correctly, that IQ tests are a valid method of evaluating children for special education classes.) The judge, therefore, reversed, at least partially, his original decision.
And so the argument goes on and on. Does it benefit or harm children from minority groups to have their intelligence tested? We have always been on the side of permitting, even facilitating, such testing. If a child of any color or group is doing poorly in school it seems to us very important to know whether it is because he or she is of low intelligence, or whether some other factor is the cause.
What school and family can do to improve poor performance is influenced by its cause. It is not discriminative to evaluate either a child’s physical condition or his intellectual level.
Unfortunately, intellectual level seems to be a sensitive subject, and what the law allows us to do varies from time to time. The same fluctuation back and forth occurs in areas other than intelligence. Thirty years or so ago, for instance, white families were encouraged to adopt black children. It was considered discriminative not to do so.
And then the style changed and this cross-racial adopting became generally unpopular, and social agencies felt that black children should go to black families only. It is hard to say what are the best procedures. But surely good will on the part of all of us is needed.
As to intelligence, in our opinion, the more we know about any child’s intellectual level, the better for the child in question.
31. Why did the intelligence test become unpopular in the past few decades?
A) Its validity was challenged by many communities.
B) It was considered discriminative against minority children.
C) It met with strong opposition from the majority of black parents.
D) It deprived the black children of their rights to a good education.
32. The recent legal action taken by some black parents in California aimed to .
A) draw public attention to IQ testing
B) put an end to special education
C) remove the state’s ban on intelligence tests
D) have their children enter white schools
33. The author believes that intelligence testing .
A) may ease racial confrontation in the United States
B) can encourage black children to keep up with white children
C) may seriously aggravate racial discrimination in the United States
D) can help black parents make decisions about their children’s education
34. The author’s opinion of child adoption seems to be that .
A) no rules whatsoever can be prescribed
B) white families should adopt black children
C) adoption should be based on IQ test results
D) cross-racial adoption is to be advocated
35. Child adoption is mentioned in the passage to show that .
A) good will may sometimes complicate racial problems
B) social surroundings are vital to the healthy growth of children
C) intelligence testing also applies to non-academic areas
D) American opinion can shift when it comes to sensitive issues
