The effect of the baby boom on the schools helped to make possible a shift in thinking a

bout the role of public education in the 1920’s. In the 1920’s, but especially __1__the Depression of the 1930’s, the United States experienced a__2__birth rate. Then with the prosperity__3__on by the Second World War and the economic boom that followed it, young people married and__4__households earlier and began to__5__larger families than had their__6__during the Depression. Birth rates rose to 102 per thousand in 1946, 106.2 in 1950, and 118 in 1955. __7__economics was probably the most important__8__, it is not the only explanation for the baby boom. The increased value placed__9__the idea of the family also helps to__10__this rise in birth rates. The baby boomers began streaming__11__the first grade by the mid -1940’s and became a __12__by 1950. The public school system suddenly found itself __13__The wartime economy meant that few new schools were built between 1940 and 1945.__14__, large numbers of teachers left their profession during that period for better-paying jobs elsewhere.

__15__, in the 1950’s, the baby boom hit an antiquated and inadequate school system. Consequently, the custodial rhetoric of the 1930’s no longer made__16__; keeping youths ages sixteen and older out of the labor market by keeping them in school could no longer be a high__17__for an institution unable to find space and staff to teach younger children. With the baby boom, the focus of educators__18__turned toward the lower grades and back to basic academic skills and__19__. The system no longer had much__20__in offering nontraditional, new, and extra services to older youths.

1. A.in B.for C.at D.on

2. A.accelerating B.strengthening C.declining D.fluctuating

3. A.took B.produced C.brought D.carried

4. A.adopted B.incorporated C.administered D.established

5. A.increase B.raise C.erect D.generate

6. A.predecessors B.successors C.processors D.oppressors

7. A.Since B.Despite C.Although D.Unless

8. A.tenant B.determinant C.lubricant D.repentant

9. A.at B.on C.for D.with

10. A.demonstrate B.interpret C.exhibit D.explain

11. A.through B.across C.into D.towards

12. A.creek B.flood C. bonus D.pledge

13. A.overtaxed B.overdosed C.overweighed D.overlapped

14. A.Moreover B.However C.Otherwise D.Thus

15. A.Nevertheless B.Therefore C.Furthermore D.Hence fore

16. A.sense B.meaning C.sensible D.meaningful

17. A.notoriety B.compatibility C.proximity D.priority

18. A.refutably B.indispensably C.inevitably D.respectively

19. A.conference B.symposium C.seminar D.discipline

20. A.ability B.advantage C.benefit D.interest