A. when Britney Spears was found taking weight-loss pills with her

B. how Zantrex-3 became successful in the USA

C. weight-loss pills are very popular in the USA

D. Zantrex-3 mustn

’t be sold on the US market

D

Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In the age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. 90% of teachers say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. One study this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting. Some teachers are teaching handwriting by providing instructi

on for 10 ,15 minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for 60 to 70 minutes a day — which really for handwriting is pretty much.

Many adults remember learning that way — by copying letters over and over again. Today’s thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.

Handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency — writing without having to think about it. Fluency continues to develop up until high school.

But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs.

But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years. American children traditionally first learn to print, and then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT college admission test. More than 75 percent of students choose to print their article on the test rather than write in cursive.

34. We can learn ________ from Paragraph 1.

A. teaching handwriting is a basic requirement in teaching job

B. most teachers prefer to teach handwriting

C. teachers spend little time in teaching handwriting

D. a keyboard has taken the place of the handwriting completely.

35. Which of the following is WRONG for traditional handwriting in the USA?

A. The students are taught by practicing a long period.

B. The letters are repeated many times.

C. Handwriting includes two skills.

D. To write in cursive is taught first.

36. The underlined word “legibility” in Paragraph 3 means ________.

A. easy to read B. hard

C. unexpected D. unreadable

37. The best title for the passage is ________.

A. How to improve handwriting in school

B. Right or wrong: the death of handwriting

C. Handwriting involves two skills

D. Handwriting lessons are on the way out