Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap. Some
call it the summer learning setback. Put simply, it means the longer kids are out of school, the more they
forget. The only thing they might gain is weight. Recent studies show that children gain weight more
quickly in the summer vacation than when they are in school.
Most American schools follow a traditional nine-month calendar. Students get winter and spring
breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation. Some schools follow a year?round calendar. They
hold classes for about eight weeks at a time, with a few weeks off in between. But many experts point
out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school.
Last year, a study at Ohio State University reported that year-round students did not learn any more
than other students. Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said "year-round schools don't really solve the
problem of the summer learning setback. They simply spread it out across the year".
Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the
summer vacation than other students. Experts say this can be prevented. They note that many schools
and local governments offer the programs that can help.
But calling them "summer schools" could be a problem. The director of the summer learning center
at Johns Hopkins, Ron Fairchild, recently wrote about this issue on his blog.
He said that in American culture, the idea of summer vacation is connected to the beliefs about
freedom and the joys of childhood. He said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and
Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term summer school. They said it created an image
of children being forced to do work they missed during the school year.
1. Which of the following is the result of the long summer vacation?
A. Kids become much stronger.
B. More kids drop out of school.
C. Kids become poor in learning.
D. Kids take part in all kinds of activities.
2. Some American schools have their vacations ________.
A. every two months
B. every few weeks
C. every three months
D. every four months
3. The study at Ohio State University suggests that ________.
A. the traditional calendar is better than the year－round one
B. the year-round calendar is better than the traditional one
C. the traditional calendar is as bad as the year-round one
D. the year-round calendar is the same as the traditional one
4. The summer vacation is most likely to have bad effect on the kids ________.
A. who are too young
B. whose families are poor
C. who are too naughty
D. who don't work hard
5 According to American culture during the summer vacation kids ________.
A. should try their best to improve their lessons
B. must choose to take part in one of the programs
C. should do what they like and enjoy themselves
D. must be forced to make up for their poor lessons
