With a mixed feeling of pride and discontent, Prof. Mitchell sat on the front lawn of Princeton High School, watching the Class of 2004 (47) . Her pride was for the seniors’’ average SAT score of 1237, third-highest in the state, and their admission to famous universities like Harvard, Yale and Duke. As president of the high school alumni(校友) association, Ms. Mitchell deserved to (48) the tradition of public-education excellence.
Though, she felt quite (49) about Blake, her own son. He was receiving his diploma on this June afternoon only after years of struggle. More often than not, the science teacher said he was merely (50) of C’’s. Even at that, Ms. Mitchell realized, Blake had done (51) better than several friends who were not (52) at the graduation ceremony. They were headed instead for crash courses(补习班).
"I said to myself: ’’Oh, no. Please, no, ’’" Ms. Mitchell recalled. "I was so hurt. These were (53) kids. This shouldn’’t have been happening."
It did not escape Ms. Mitchell’’s notice that her son and most of those less (54) classmates were black. They were the (55) of an accomplished school district’’s dirty little secret, a racial achievement gap that has been (56) and left uncorrected for decades. Now that pattern may have to change under the pressure of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
WORD BANK
[A] absent [F] graduate [K] bright
[B] pleased [G] capable [L] enjoy
[C] dissatisfied [H] successful [M] slightly
[D] weakness [I] hardly [N] recognized
[E] finish [J] evidence [O] present