It is curious that Stephen Koziatek feels almost as though he has to justify his efforts to give his students a better future.

    Mr. Koziatek is part of something pioneering. He is a teacher at a New Hampshire high school where learning is not something of books and tests and mechanical memorization, but practical. When did it become accepted wisdom that students should be able to name the 13th president of the United States but be utterly overwhelmed by a broken bike chain?

    As Koziatek knows, there is learning in just about everything. Nothing is necessarily gained by forcing students to learn geometry at a graffitied desk stuck with generations of discarded chewing gum. They can also learn geometry by assembling a bicycle.

    But he’s also found a kind of insidious prejudice. Working with your hands is seen as almost a mark of inferiority. Schools in the family of vocational education “have that stereotype... that it’s for kids who can’t make it academically,” he says.

    On one hand, that viewpoint is a logical product of America’s evolution. Manufacturing is not the economic engine that it once was. The job security that the US economy once offered to high school graduates has largely evaporated. More education is the new principle. We want more for our kids, and rightfully so.

    But the headlong push into bachelor’s degrees for all—and the subtle devaluing of anything less—misses an important point: That’s not the only thing the American economy needs. Yes, a bachelor’s degree opens more doors. But even now, 54 percent of the jobs in the country are middle-skill jobs, such as construction and high-skill manufacturing. But only 44 percent of workers are adequately trained.

    In other words, at a time when the working class has turned the country on its political head, frustrated that the opportunity that once defined America is vanishing, one obvious solution is staring us in the face. There is a gap in working-class jobs, but the workers who need those jobs most aren’t equipped to do them. Koziatek’s Manchester school of Technology High School is trying to fill that gap.

    Koziatek’s school is a wake-up call. When education becomes one-size-fits-all, it risks overlooking a nation’s diversity of gifts.

答案精析：根据题干中的broken bike chain可定位至第二段最后一句。文中说到，科佐泰克的学校更加注重学生的实践能力（第二段），且学生通过组装自行车也能学到几何学（第三段）。作者在定位句使用问句是为了提出质疑：学生应该说出美国第十三任总统的名字，但对断了链子的自行车而手足无措，这什么时候成为了公认的智慧？可见学生在理论上学有所成，但缺乏动手实践能力，因此选择B项。

错项排除：选项A中的academic出现在第四段最后一句（academically），但作者在此处是为了说明人们对职业教育的偏见，而与学生缺乏什么能力无关，故A项错误。C选项中的pioneering出现在第二段第一句，但这里说的是科佐泰克具有开拓精神，原文中并没有提及学生是否缺乏开拓精神，故排除C项。mechanical memorization出现在第二段第二句，学生并不缺乏机械式的记忆能力，相反，作者对具有这种只会死记硬背而没有实践能力的学生持否定态度，因此D项错误。

长难句分析：When did it become accepted wisdom that students should be able to name the 13th president of the United States but be utterly overwhelmed by a broken bike chain?

本句主干是特殊疑问句：When did it become accepted wisdom，后面是that引导的同位语从句，其中使用and连接了从句的并列谓语should be able to name... and be utterly overwhelmed.

句意为：从何时开始，学生们可以说出美国第十三任总统的名字，但面对一条断了的自行车链却完全手足无措这种现象被广为认可了呢？