“I had a Welsh speaking test. I'd had to memorize a paragraph in front of the whole class. I just couldn’t do it,” says 13-year-old Mary. “I pretended to be ill.” But Mary did not enjoy her day off. “I watched TV all day — it was boring. I wished I had gone to school.”
Mary’s story is not unusual in Britain. According to the latest government figures, pupil absences are rising, despite schools taking a hard line on truancy (逃学)．
Philippa James, a PhD researcher at Cardiff University’s school of social sciences, thinks she knows why: “The more schools improve methods of detection（检查）, the more children work out better methods of deception.” Teenagers told her it was now harder to skip a single lesson, so they’d miss whole days to avoid being caught.
For several years, James has researched student truancy of 60 teenagers, aged 13 and 14, including Mary, to see how the teenagers truant, for how long, and why.
Through online conversations and face-to-face interviews, she discovered that most truancy was “a response to factors within the school”. Truants are not necessarily less advanced or less intelligent. They complained of teachers who failed to engage them, and of “boring” lessons. “Many truants really enjoy school and believe in education, but drop out when aspects of it were ineffective.” James says.
The views of students like Adam, who believes that skipping lessons has little impact on his schooling, were common. “I only take-off for a lesson, or a couple of days. It doesn’t affect my education,” he told James.
James’ study concludes that schools need to address the question of why pupils want to leave in the first place. “Pupils need help from the start.” she says. “It’s a two-way process – schools must be responsive. We need to look at the reasons for truancy rather than the number, so that instead of walking away from school, students have the skills and chances to talk through problems and make a change.”
小题1:What is one of the reasons for school truancy according to James’ study?
A．Truants are fallen behind in their studies.
B．Truants have no interest in school subjects.
C．Truants have more interesting things to do.
D．Truants are not satisfied with the teachers.小题2:The underlined phrase “taking a hard line” (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to“ ”.
A．experiencing a problem with
B．having a strict attitude towards
C．finding it difficult to solve
D．having little success with小题3: By citing Adam's remark, James wants to show that .
A．school education is not efficient and needs improvement
B．it’s a popular belief that occasional truancy won't cause much harm
C．school truancy is becoming more serious and needs more concern
D．even good students may sometimes need a break from school小题4: What is Philippa James’ suggestion to schools?
A．Schools should solve the problem of teachers.
B．Schools should be more active in helping beginner truants.
C．Schools should have a better control of hidden truants.
D．Schools should find out who truant and how they it.
