The longitudinal study demonstrates that students who receive ESL(English as a second language)instruction are far better than those taught primarily in their native language. A comparison of the three-year exit rates for students in ESL and bilingual programs shows that those who receive ESL instruction test out faster and in higher percentages than those who receive instruction in their native language, regardless of the grade in which they entered school. For example, 79.3 percent of the children who entered ESL programs in kindergarten tested out, while only 51.5 percent of those who received their education in their native languages did. Likewise, 72.9 percent of the LEP(limited English proficiency)students who entered programs in the first grad tested out, while only 38.5 of those in bilingual programs did. For students who instruction classes still hadrit tested out after three years, as compared with 78 percent of those in ESL classes.
Furthermore, children who had been in ESL classes tested 4 higher in English and math once they exited LEP programs than those who had received native-language instruction. Of the LEP students who entered in kindergarten or the first grade, 49 percent of those who had been in ESL classes eventually read at grade level, while only 32 percent of those who had been in bilingual classes performed that well. In math, the statistics are even more impressive. Of the children who entered in kindergarten or the first grade, more than 69 percent of those who had been in ESL classes eventually performed at grade level or above, as opposed to 54 percent of those who had been in bilingual classes.
Naturally, the study provoked a barrage of criticism from the highly political and vocal bilingual lobby, which prompted the New York City Board of Education to issue a paper in November 1994 mitigating the findings of the study and ignoring the distinction between students in ESL and bilingual education programs. Rather than exit rates, this paper focuses on the achievement of LEP students during the period in which they are in bilingual or ESL classes. The authors show that although the scores of LEP students were below average on the English-language test, their scores in al areas showed improvement; they point out that in math, there were insufficient data on the progress of LEP students to draw valid conclusions.
However, a report on citywide mathematics test results in New York in the spring of 1995 deals more fully with the math scores of the 26, 248 stud examined the previous school year in Chinese, Spanish, or Haitian Creole. According to this document only 16.6 percent of these children were performing at or above grade level in mathematics. Although this figure represents animprovement of 1.1 percent over the scores of the previous year, it discredits the argument that ne-language instruction keeps performing at grade level in subject areas. Although LEP students are improving faster than the national norm, they continue to perform far below the norm.
题1，From Paragraph 1 we learn that
[A] ESL instruction could test students faster than LEP instruction
[B] LEP students performed worse than did ESL students
[C] native-language instruction classes seemed to fail utterly
[D] the data of the longitudinal study were likely tentative
感觉第一段主要说的是ESC（应该就是双语教学）和本土语言教学的对比，但选项都不是这方面相关的感觉。而且第一段中For example, 79.3 percent of the children who entered ESL programs in kindergarten tested out, while only 51.5 percent of those who received their education in their native languages did. Likewise, 72.9 percent of the LEP(limited English proficiency)students who entered programs in the first grad tested out, while only 38.5 of those in bilingual programs did.这句话有两个对比，感觉逻辑上有矛盾。likewise前面说的是ESL比本土语言教学好，但likewise后又说LEP（仅限于英语掌握，应该就是单语言教学）比双语言好，是我理解错了吗。还有文中的exit rates和test out怎么理解？
题2，The author believes(Paragraph 2)that
A] ESL children tested higher in English than LEP children
[B] bilingual programs failed the students performing well in math
[C] the math data are still more credible than those on English
[D] bilingual classes had 54% of students exiting from grade level
感觉四个选项都在原文有对应，该选哪个？
题3，According to the NY 1995 report, it is unbelievable that
[A] a great number of multilingual students were examined accuratel
[B] native-language instruction keeps performing well in subjects
[C] any document on subject instructions can draw valid conclusions
[D] LEP students are improving faster than the national norm
我选的B，因为文中明确说了discredit the argument，但C怎么排除呢，感觉也是不可信的，是不是文中没提这方面的信息就不能选它啊。