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  3. Nick Gibb, the School Minister, said that reading books for just half an hour a day could be worth up to 12 months’ extra school

Nick Gibb, the School Minister, said that reading books for just half an hour a day could be worth up to 12 months’ extra school

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问题     Nick Gibb, the School Minister, said that reading books for just half an hour a day could be worth up to 12 months’ extra schooling by the age of 15.
    Today, the Department for Education will unveil plans for a national reading competition for children in the last three years of primary education and the first year of secondary school.
    The contest—launched in the autumn—will be designed to boost literacy standards and encourage a generation of "reluctant readers" to pick up books.
    But ministers said that the move would be particularly appealing to boys who often thrive on a "bit of healthy competition".
    The announcement comes just days after Claire Tomalin, acclaimed biographer of Charles Dickens, warned that modern youngsters did not have the attention span necessary to read one of his novels.
    Speaking ahead of today’s announcement, Mr. Gibb said: "Children should always have a book on the go. The difference in achievement between children who read for half an hour a day in their spare time and those who do not is huge—as much as a year’s education by the time they are 15.
    "A new national reading competition is designed to give a competitive spur to those reluctant readers who are missing out on the vast world of literature."
    He added: "There is a group of children who can read but won’t read—’the reluctant readers’."
    "I hope this competition will inspire all children to read more, but boys especially who are spurred on by a bit of healthy competition."
    Currently, as many as one-in-six children are still struggling to read when they leave primary school, figures show. One-in-ten boys aged 11 has a reading age no better than a seven-year-old.
    Failure to pick up the basics at a young age is believed to have serious long-term consequences. A recent international report showed that almost four-in-ten teenagers in England never read for pleasure—considerably more than that in other countries.
    To address the concerns, all primary schools are now being expected to teach using phonics—the back-to-basics method of reading in which children break words down into individual sounds.
    Six-year-olds are also being given a reading test—requiring them to accurately decode 30 words—in an attempt to pick out those that need extra support.
    Today, it will be announced that the Government will launch a reading competition for seven to 12-year-olds in England from this autumn.
    It is understood that the competition will be based around who can finish the most books, with youngsters encouraged to read fiction in particular. Local, regional and national prizes will also be awarded.
    The Department for Education is currently considering bids to design and deliver the competition and will make a further announcement in coming weeks.
    Stephen Twigg, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, criticised the move, which came after Government cuts to reading programmes, including one-to-one tuition.
    "This announcement will do nothing to help the 9,000 children who will miss out on one-to-one reading tuition this year, a drop of nearly half," he said.
    "Scrooge-like ministers say they want pupils to be able to read Dickens by age 11, but they will have a hard time if they are denied reading support at primary school."
                                         From The Daily Telegraph, February 7, 2012
Which of the following has the closest meaning of "spur" in Paragraph 7?
选项 A、help
B、stimulus
C、advantage
D、determination
答案B
解析 本题为语义题。根据第七段目的短语“to give a competitive spur to those reluctant readers who”中的“competitive”、 “reluctant readers”以及表目的的涵义可知B最贴切。
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