美国出现“教师荒”

山东 李全忠

主题语境：人与社会

篇幅：330词

建议用时：7分钟

1 The teacher shortage in America has hit crisis levels—and school officials every⁃where are scrambling (争抢) to ensure that as students return to classrooms,someone will be there to educate them.

2“We estimate about 300,000 shortages of teachers and support staff across this nation as students go back to school,”Rebecca Pringle,the president of the National Education Association said.

3The Nevada State Education Association estimated that roughly 3,000 teaching jobs remained unfilled across the state's 17 school districts as of early August.In a report,the Il⁃linois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools found that 88 percent of school districts statewide were having problems of teacher shortage—while 2,040 teacher open⁃ings were either empty or filled with“less than qualified”hires.And in the Houston area,the largest five school districts all reported that between 200 and 1,000 teaching positions remain open.

4Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four⁃day weeks this fall due to lack of staff.Florida is asking veterans (老兵) with no teaching background to enter classrooms.Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children.

5“The political situation in the United States,combined with the consequences of COVID⁃19,has created this shortage.This shortage is contrived (精巧地制造；人为的),”said Randi Weingarten,president of the American Federation of Teachers.

6Leslie Houston,president of the Fairfax Education Association,said she has never in her career seen so many teachers leaving the job because they feel disrespected,primarily by politicians and some parents.

7“The solutions to lack of staff are offering teachers better pay and increasing the pool of people who qualify as educators to enlarge class sizes.Nevertheless,many of these tem⁃porary fixes are likely to harm students by affecting their ability to learn,”predicted Dawn Etcheverry,president of the Nevada State Education Association.“When you start to double classes,teachers are badly needed,”Etcheverry said.

Reading

Check

1.What can be learned about the teacher shortage in the Nevada State from paragraph 3?

A.It involved 17 schools nationwide in all.

B.It can be settled by filling with qualified hires.

C.It accounts for 1%of the total shortage in the country.

D.It happened only in 88 percent of school districts nationwide.

2.What does the fourth paragraph mainly focus on?

A.Analysis of teacher shortage.

B.Seriousness of the problem.

C.Challenges school districts are faced with.

D.Approaches to dealing with the problem.

3.Which of the following statements would Leslie Houston agree with?

A.Teachers quit for not being treated fairly.

B.Politicians'little investment caused the problem.

C.Teachers were looked down upon by their students.

D.Unqualified teachers brought a bad reputation to the nation.

4.What's Dawn Etcheverry's attitude to the current solutions to teacher shortage?

A.Tolerant. B.Doubtful.

C.Positive. D.Indifferent.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Useful expressions

less than 少于；不足

switch to 切换到；转换到

lack of 缺少；缺乏

be combined with 与……结合；联合

be likely to 有可能；很可能

Ⅱ.Difficult sentence

The teacher shortage in America has hit crisis levels—and school officials everywhere are scrambling to ensure that as students return to classrooms,someone will be there to edu⁃cate them.美国的教师短缺已经达到危机水平，各地的学校都在努力确保当学生们回到教室时，有人会在那里给他们授课。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句。句中的that引导宾语从句，作动词ensure的宾语；as引导的是一个时间状语从句。