2013年浙江省杭州市外国语学校高考英语（阅读理解提分训练）每日一练03.docVIP

倒数第十周星期三 A My daughter is a junior in high school and has been on an individualized education program since fourth grade．She plans to go to college and intends to finish with a master’s degree．Her performance is fairly good, but test scores are very low．She has held many leadership and volunteer positions．We have been advised to have her write an essay about how her learning disability is a barrier that she has overcome．Will that help or hurt her chances for admission? —Deborah First let me answer the question on low standardized test scores （ACT/ SAT）．There are hundreds of colleges that are “test optional” which means students can choose not to release their test scores in the application process．Admission decisions at these colleges for students who do not submit their test scores are made based on other factors．A list of test optional colleges can be found at fairtest．org．It is important, however, to make sure that the college is the right fit academically regardless of the test optional policy． You also asked if your daughter should write about her disability and if this would hurt her chances of being admitted．Please know that colleges do not deny admission based on disability．“Disclosing” a learning disability in a personal statement within the college application can certainly help．By writing a personal statement, students can potentially demonstrate, for example, their understanding of the challenge they face．They might also demonstrate an improved grade trend in that subject area, and show interest in more complex courses in spite of this disability．More importantly, a student disclosure can show self-confidence, motivation and an understanding of the disability． —Ms．Kravis My son is still very young but he has an expressive language disorder．It took more than two years of speech therapy for him to be able to learn to speak at the same level as his 2 years old brother．He is very smart, but he struggles with language．Unfortunately, many schools require four