For years, studies have found that first-generation college students—those who do not have a parent with a college degree—lag other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they succeed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created “a paradox” in that recruiting first-generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has “continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close” an achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science.

    But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem, suggesting that an approach (which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program) can close 63 percent of the achievement gap (measured by such factors as grades) between first-generation and other students.

    The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findings are based on a study involving 147 students (who completed the project) at an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree. Most of the first-generation students (59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for undergraduates with financial need, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree.

    Their thesis—that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact—was based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students. They cite past research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.

    Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education, learn the ‘rules of the game,’ and take advantage of college resources,” they write. And this becomes more of a problem when colleges don’t talk about the class advantages and disadvantages of different groups of students. “Because US colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students’ educational experience, many first-generation students lack insight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students ‘like them’ can improve.”

答案精析：根据题干中的authors of the paper believe和first-generation students可定位至原文第四段，对应第四段首句出现的the view that first-generation students。该句指出，他们的理论基于这样一种观点：第一代大学生可能最缺乏的不是潜力，而是如何应对大多数大学生面临的问题的实用知识。也就是说，这些学生在大学里处理问题缺乏经验。D项中的inexperienced对应原文lacking…in practical knowledge，故正确答案为D。

错项排除：原文中虽然有提到achievement gap，但并没有说到过学生对成绩差距的态度是怎样的，A项内容无中生有，故排除。第四段首句虽然出现了potential一词，但该句说的是大学生的潜力，并非对其他学生的潜在影响，B项内容与原文意思不符，故排除。全文并未提及有关申请研究项目的信息，C项内容无中生有，故排除。

长难句分析：Their thesis—that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact—was based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students.

本句主干为Their thesis…was based on the view…，主谓宾结构。两个破折号之间的内容是由that引导的同位语从句，用于对主语thesis进行解释说明。主句宾语the view后面的that引导同位语从句，用于对view进行解释说明。该从句的谓语部分由not…but…连接，意为“不是……而是……”。句末issues后面的that引导定语从句，修饰issues。

句意为：他们的理论认为相对温和、简单的干预可能会产生巨大影响。这一观点基于这样一种认识：第一代学生可能最缺乏的不是潜力，而是如何应对大多数大学生面临的问题的实用知识。