A survey suggests that people who have dropped out from high school just earn an average of $9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study removes a common belief why they quit. It’s much more basic than flunking out(不及格).
Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t cut it. They are lazy, and perhaps not too bright. So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.
“The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school.” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About one million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic(美籍西班牙的)students will receive a diploma(证书), and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So, if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does? Again, John Bridgeland: “The most dependable finding was that they were bored.” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated. They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations.”
The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the U.S., only one state, New Mexico, has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions. Jeffrey Grin, another researcher, says raising the compulsory attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school.
“As these dropouts look back, they realize they’ve made a mistake. And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and see it through to the end, is probably helpful measure.”
New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point—the need for reform. It’s been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something.
According to researchers’ study, most high school students drop out of school because____________.

A．they have failing grades

B．they are lazy and not intelligent

C．they are discriminated against

D．they take no interest in classes

According to the passage, which state has a law requiring school attendance until they graduate?

A．New Hampshire.

B．Utah.

C．New Mexico.

D．The District of Columbia.

In the last paragraph, the writer is trying to__________.

A．suggest raising the compulsory attendance age

B．analyze the reason why students quit school

C．raise awareness of reforming high school dropouts

D．wish to make laws to guarantee no dropouts

From the passage, we can infer the following EXCEPT that __________.

A．the grades of most dropouts at school were acceptable

B．dropouts’ salary is not as satisfying as graduates’

C．classes don’t appeal to dropouts

D．about 500,000 high school dropouts are black and Spanish

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