Homework

By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: October 16, 2003

This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report.
Students often say their teachers give them too much homework. Now, reports by two research organizations show that in the United States this argument is generally not true.
The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., wrote one of the reports. It shows that the 1)average student does less than one hour of schoolwork at home a night. The Rand Corporation¹ in California did the other study. The research shows that only one in ten high school students spends more than two hours a night on homework.
The findings² are based on information from the United States Department of Education and international studies. They are also based on research by 2)the University of Michigan, the University of California at Los Angeles and others.
The Brookings report notes an international math and science study from nineteen-ninety-five. The United States was near last among twenty countries in homework. Students in France, Italy, Russia, and South Africa reported they spent at least two times as long on homework.
The Rand report examined American homework levels during the second half of the twentieth century. Brian Gill helped write the report. He says there was only one time when homework sharply³ increased. That happened during the early nineteen-sixties. Americans were not happy when the Soviet⁴ Union became the first country to reach space. There was great concern about improving education.
Politicians, educators and parents called for more intensive⁵ study -- especially in mathematics and science. Still, at that time, only about twenty-five percent of high school students completed more than two hours of homework daily.
Not just children protest⁶ about homework. Some busy parents say their jobs leave them little time to help. Others want their children to have time for sports, music lessons and other activities after school. At the same time, some educators say schools need to give more meaningful homework.
Harris Cooper is an expert on homework. He is a professor at Duke University in North Carolina. Professor Cooper suggests ten minutes per grade level. That adds up to two hours a night by the last year of high school.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember.

注释：
1) average [ 5AvEridV ] adj.一般的, 通常的
2) the University of Michigan  密歇根大学

1 corporation   

n.公司，企业&n.社团，团体

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation. 这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• The inflation did the corporation up. 通货膨胀使这个公司破产了。

2 findings   

n.发现物( finding的名词复数 )；调查（或研究）的结果；（陪审团的）裁决

参考例句：

• It behoves us to study these findings carefully. 我们理应认真研究这些发现。
• Their findings have been widely disseminated . 他们的研究成果已经广为传播。

3 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 intensive   

adj.加强的，密集的；精工细作的，集约的

参考例句：

• I'll make an intensive study of a subject.我将集中学一门课程。
• There we received several weeks of intensive training.在那里我们受了几星期的集中训练.

6 protest   

v.反对，抗议；宣称；n.抗议；宣称

参考例句：

• I can't pass the matter by without a protest.我不能对此事视而不见，我要提出抗议。
• We translated his silence as a protest.我们把他的沉默解释为抗议。