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Some schools that are not year-round often have summer programs. In many cases, students take summer classes to repeat a subject they failed. This way they get a second chance to succeed. But schools also offer summer classes to students who want to be free of a required class during the next school year.
Generally, students in these classes want to take fewer subjects during the year because they are involved in a lot of activities. They might be involved in sports or music programs. Or both – and more.
These summer school students do the same amount of work as if they took the class during the school year. But they do it in a much shorter time, one or two months. They say it makes for a lot of reading and homework and not much time for anything else. Some education experts are worried about high school students who take summer school because of pressure to attend a top university.
The New York Times recently reported about summer classes at one of the best high schools in the United States. New Trier High School is in Winnetka, Illinois. Almost six hundred students are in school this summer. Only twenty are repeating classes that they failed. The others are in difficult courses like physics and history.
The students say taking classes like these in the summer means that they can take even more difficult classes next year. They say this shows not only that they are serious about their studies but that they have experienced the most difficult high school program.
Another place with a lot of students in summer school is Palo Alto, California. The Mercury News reported that about twenty percent of the students in the city schools are in class this summer. That is more than two thousand teenagers.
A third are in classes they failed before. The others are taking subjects they do not have time for during the normal school year.
But they are not taking subjects like physics and history. The students in Palo Alto are in classes like creative writing, film studies, literature and cooking.
63. This passage mainly talks about ______.
A. summer classes in American schools
B. why American schools offer summer classes
C. the advantages of American summer school
D. experts’ anxiety(担忧)about American summer school
64. Which of the following is NOT the reason for the students’ attending summer classes in America?
A.Repeating a subject.
B.Completing a required subject ahead of time.
C.Improving their physical quality
D.Learning some special skills
65. What’s the biggest difference between the summer classes in New Trier High School and in Palo Alto?
A.There are more students attending classes that they failed before in Palo Alto.
B.Some students in Palo Alto learn some special skills instead of taking physics and history.
C.Some students in Palo Alto take some subjects so that they can join in sports or music programs later.
D.The students’ attitude towards studies in Palo Alto is worse than that in New Trier High School.
66. What can we infer from the passage?
A.American students in schools don’t have any pressure to attend top universities.
B.Summer school students don’t do the same amount of work as they do during the school year.
C. American students attend summer schools in order to relax themselves very much.
D. American students in high schools face great pressure to attend top universities.
