Question

As a professor I have grown accustomed to the opinion regarding American education. We are repeatedly told that American schools are failing, that colleges are not teaching, and that the students of today are not as good as the students of the past.

There are, of course, problems with the education system. Because of economic inequality some schools are significantly better than others and the ideas of equality of education and equality of opportunity are cruel jokes. However, the mere fact that there are some serious problems does not mean that all the dire claims are true.

One stock (陳腐的) claim is that America has fallen behind the world in education in terms of performance on various tests. While the fact that America is behind other countries is a point of concern, there are at least three points worth considering here. The first is the above-mentioned economic inequality which will tend to result in poorer performance when taking the average for America. The second is that many countries have put considerable effort into improving their education systems and hence it is worth considering that America’s decline is also due to the improvement of others. The third is the matter of the measures— do they, in fact, present an accurate picture of the situation? I am not claiming that the data is bad. I am merely raising a reasonable concern about how accurate our picture of education is at this time.

Another stock claim is that American students are doing badly on standardized tests. While there is clearly value in assessment, it is reasonable to consider whether or not such tests are a proper and adequate measure of education. It is also worth considering whether the puzzle with these tests is itself causing damage to education. That is, as teachers teach for the test and students learn for the test, it might be the case that what is being taught is not what should be taught and what is being learned is not what should be learned.

1.According to the professor, many people’s attitude towards American colleges is .

A. negative B. positive C. approving D. indifferent

2.What does the underlined word “dire” in the second paragraph mean?

A. Exact or precise. B. Extremely serious or terrible.

C. Fair or objective.D. Long and boring.

3.Judging by the text ,the claims are centered on .

A. what should be taught in the American classroom

B. fair judgment of American education

C. American students’ performance on tests

D. an accurate picture of American colleges

4.The passage is written mainly to .

A. defend American education

B. show dissatisfaction with American education

C. explain why American students do badly on tests

D. offer advice on American education reform

 

Answer 1

1.A

2.B

3.C

4.A

【解析】

試題分析：文章大意：本文作者就一些對(duì)美國教育的不滿言論發(fā)表了自己的看法。

1.American schools are failing, that colleges are not teaching, and that the students of today are not as good as the students of the past.可知，這些言論都是負(fù)面的，因此人們對(duì)美國大學(xué)教育的態(tài)度是消極的（negative），所以答案選A。

2.B 詞義猜測(cè)題。 根據(jù)第二段…h(huán)e mere fact that there are some serious problems does not mean that all the dire claims are true.可知，作者并不同意這些所謂的dire言論，所以可以猜測(cè)dire指“極端的，糟糕的”所以正確答案為B。

3.C 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段開頭句子in terms of performance on various tests和第四段開頭句子American students are doing badly on standardized tests.可知，這些言論都是集中在學(xué)生在考試中的表現(xiàn)。所以答案選C。

4.寫作意圖題�？v觀全文并結(jié)合上面的幾個(gè)題目可以得出本文作者的寫作意圖是在為美國教育辯護(hù)。所以答案選A。

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