A
How cold is too cold to keep schools open? The question is being raised, at least in the Northeast, where the temperature is way below zero.
Keith Marty, superintendent（主管）of the Parkway School District in Missouri, published a letter to parents saying: “it is always challenging to balance my desire to have children in school and also my desire to keep them safe.” Location can affect closure decisions: children in Minnesota are accustomed to cold winter temperatures, but kids in the South aren’t. Also at play are concerns about state student attendance requirement and traffic issues, such as how long students have to wait outdoors for a bus, as well as health dangers caused by the cold and the condition of many old or poorly equipped school buildings.
And many districts worry about students who receive most or all of their meals at school and who have working parents who can't stay home with them. Matt Guilfoyle, spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia, said in an email that his school system “strongly believes students are better served by being in school. FCPS also considers the nearly 56,000 students who receive free and reduced-price meals each day at school. If schools are open and a parent does not believe it is safe for his or her child, the parent should keep the child at home for an excused absence.”
A few years ago, Chicago public schools closed when the National Weather Service said temperatures would feel, with wind chill（风寒）, like 30 degrees below zero. But they opened the next day even though the temperature didn't rise much. A Chicago lawyer named William Choslovsky wrote an opinion piece in Chicago Tribune mocking the schools for closing when Milwaukee schools stayed open with cold temperatures. “Consider this the continued wussification（娘娘腔）of society,” he wrote. “Our kids can go to school. Considering that so few even walk anymore, what difference does the temperature make?”
Still, sometimes, the temperatures demand school closure, at least in the eyes of school district officials. Buffalo officials decided to close schools for Friday, with the forecast calling for temperatures at around zero degrees, with wind chill making it feel more like 20 degrees below zero.
21. What can be learned from Paragraph 2?
A. Waiting for a school bus can be dangerous.
B. Many school buildings are too old to function.
C. Parents and schools differ on school closure.
D. School closure decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.
22. What was Matt Guilfoyle trying to express in his email?
A. Opening school is good for students.
B. FCPS offers excellent food for students.
C. Some parents are irresponsible caregivers.
D. Some parents prevent schools from opening.
23. What's the best title for the text?
A. Are students strong enough?
B. When is it too cold for school?
C. Is the weather getting colder and colder?
D. What are the schools doing to face cold weather?
