Suppose nearly every student passed the tests. What would the respond be from politicians, business people and the media? Would these people shake their heads in admiration and say, "Damn, those teachers must be good!"?. But in the real world, it would be mentioned as evidence that the tests were too easy. For example, when results on New York's math exam rose in 2009, the minister of the state's Board of Regents said, "What today's scores tell me is not that we should be celebrating, but that New York State needs to raise its standards."
The unavoidable and deeply disturbing effect is that "high standards"really mean "standards that all students will never be able to meet". If everyone did meet them, the standards would just be ratcheted up again---as high as necessary to ensure that some students failed.
The standards-and-responsibility movement is not about leaving no child behind. On the contrary, it is a detailed sorting device, intended to separate wheat from chaff(谷壳). The fact that students from low-income- families and students whose first language isn't English are disproportionately(不成比例地) defined as chaff makes the whole enterprise even have more gradual and accumulated effects.
But my little thought experiment uncovers a truth that extends well beyond what has been done to our schools in the name of "raising the bar", We have been taught to respond with suspicion whenever all members of any group are successful. In America, excellence is regarded as a rare product. Success doesn't count unless it is obtained by only a few. The goal, in other words, isn't to do well but to defeat other people who are also trying to do well. Grades in this view should be used to announce who's beating whom. Comparative success just gives the winner rights to talk"We're No.1!" proudly. And again, it creates the misleading impression of unavoidable, permanent failure for some.
1. Which can replace the underlined words"ratcheted up"?| A．Ended up with bad result. | B．Increased by a fixed amount |
| C．Obtained within a certain time. | D．Presented in an unexpected way. |
| A．Critical. | B．Approval. |
| C．Unconcerned | D．Neutral. |
| A．What are the ideal test standards? |
| B．Why do students fail in their studies? |
| C．Why can't every student meet test standards? |
| D．When do students' backgrounds make effect? |
| A．People are encouraged to accept failure bravely. |
| B．People are used to taking the failure for granted |
| C．Some people lack the abilities to reach their goals. |
| D．One's success completely depends on oneself. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Today’s journalists face modern challenges. Online media platforms are springing up. And the lowly newspaper — and its reporters — are fighting money, tech, and distrust issues. Journalism students and teachers must emphasize new skills to keep their profession alive.
A trustworthy press helps inform people and monitor all levels of government. That is essential to a nation. Yet this useful establishment is growing increasingly unpopular. According to the University of North Carolina (UNC), newsroom jobs across the Country are fewer than half what they were 10 years ago. And on many college campuses, the news about the news is bleak too.
Take the Syracuse, New York, student-run newspaper The Daily Orange: It isn’t daily anymore. The paper prints just three times each week. Next year, The Diamondback of the University of Maryland will be online only. Half the newspapers that still exist on paper say they don’t print as many copies. And UNC’s The Daily Tar Heel has cut staff pay and rented cheaper offices to make is budget.
Considering the problems in journalism, it’s surprising that the enrollment (注册人数) in college journalism programs is up. The Daily Orange managing editor Catherine Leffert calls the layoffs and cutbacks disheartening. “But what keeps me wanting to be a journalist is seeing the effect that The Daily Orange has,” he says.
But journalism educators wonder, “Are we preparing young people for a dying industry?” Years ago, journalism graduates took low-level reporter jobs at newspapers or television stations. That sill happens. But today’s jobs more often involve digital editing, social media production, and video streaming. Some universities are taking action. The University of Florida offers a sports media program. Several schools highlight statistics-driven data journalism.
The news isn’t all bad. Journalism professor Kathleen Culver says, “When I look at 18-and 20-year-olds in journalism and see what they want to do, I’m optimistic.” Maddy Arrowood is the student editor of The Daily Tar Heel. She says her experience makes her more interested in a journalism career, not less. Her optimism “comes from knowing that people still need news. They still need information.”
1. What does the underlined word “bleak” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Useless. | B．Interesting. | C．Hopeless. | D．Encouraging. |
| A．They reduce student enrollment. |
| B．They offer students specialized programs. |
| C．They prepare students for low-level reporter jobs. |
| D．They encourage students to run their own newspaper. |
| A．To prove the potential of a career in journalism. |
| B．To show people’s positive attitudes to journalists. |
| C．To show the popularity of The Daily Tar Heel. |
| D．To prove people’s thirst for the latest news. |
| A．Does journalism have a future? | B．Are journalists still influential today? |
| C．What is journalism? | D．What does a journalist do? |
【推荐2】With the WHO no longer considering COVID-19 a global health emergency, it seems that the virus and its large number of deaths will soon fade from memory, along with N95 masks and PCR tests.
Our ability to forget a pandemic is partly a coping mechanism, reflecting the emotional immune system that enables us to move on with our daily lives. Every day, we receive massive information that our brains struggle to keep. Moreover, the process by which our brains assess risk is deeply personal and influenced by our own needs.
We are reminded why so many people were eager to forget the 1918 influenza pandemic and embrace the joys of the Roaring Twenties. But collective forgetting threatens to leave us unprepared for future airborne disease outbreaks, forcing us to re-learn fundamental lessons about the importance of masking and shifting activities outdoors to prevent transmission.
People often have a more positive view of the future than the past as a way of building psychological resilience (韧性). This is because, unlike the unchangeable past, the future offers endless possibilities. But our tendency to look forward also arrests progress on issues like pandemic preparedness, as it leads us to believe we are better equipped than we are.
Today, there’s still no comprehensive effort to carry out the detailed recommendations on how to improve pandemic preparedness. Today, we still lack clear explanations for why our public-health agencies are understaffed and undefended, why supply chains failed, why COVID-19 misinformation was allowed to overflow on media platforms, and why our public-health responses remain passive.
It has taken Ireland more than 150 years to build memorials and museums marking the impact of the disaster — the Great Famine of the 1840s. We cannot afford to let the same happen with COVID-19. Our ability to remember the past could affect billions of lives in the future.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The pandemic coping system. | B．The struggle of data memory. |
| C．The reasons for forgetting a pandemic. | D．The personal pandemic assessment. |
| A．To outline the astonishing parallel found in history. |
| B．To reveal the harmful effect of collective forgetting. |
| C．To uncover people’s collective loss of memory. |
| D．To reflect people’s interest in future possibilities. |
| A．good preparations for the next pandemic have been made |
| B．people’s ability to cope with a pandemic is underestimated |
| C．the suggestions on pandemic prevention are well adopted |
| D．a list of questions concerning the pandemic remain to be answered |
| A．Remember the pandemic. | B．Embrace the pandemic-free life. |
| C．Invest in the pandemic research. | D．Build memorials to the pandemic. |
【推荐3】In recent years American society has become increasingly dependent on its universities to find solutions to its major problems. It is the universities that have been charged with the principal responsibility for developing the expertise（专业知识）to place men on the moon; for dealing with our urban problems and with our worsening environment; for developing the means to feed the world’s rapidly increasing population. The effort involved in meeting these demands presents its own problems. In addition, however, this concentration on the creation of new knowledge significantly impinges on the universities’ efforts to perform their other principal functions, the transmission and interpretation of knowledge--the imparting of the heritage of the past and the preparing of the next generation to carry it forward.
With regard to this, college and universities today find themselves in a serious situation. On one hand, there is the American commitment, especially since World War Ⅱ, to provide higher education for all young people who can profit from it. The result of the commitment has been a dramatic rise in enrollments in our universities, coupled with a thorough shift from the private to the public sector of higher education. On the other hand, there are serious and continuing limitations on the resources available for higher education.
While higher education has become a great "growth industry", it is also at the same time a tremendous drain on the resources of the nation. With the vast increase in enrollment and the shift in priorities away from education in state and federal budgets, there is in most of our public institutions a significant decrease in per capita expenses for their students. One crucial aspect of this drain on resources lies in the persistent shortage of trained faculty, which has led, in turn, to a declining standard of competence in instruction.
Intensifying these difficulties is, as indicated above, the concern with research, with its competing claims on resources and the attention of the faculty. In addition, there is a strong tendency for the institutions’ organization and functioning to cater to the demands of research rather than those of teaching.
1. According to the writer, ____ is the most important function of American universities.| A．creating new knowledge |
| B．providing solutions to social problems |
| C．meeting the demands of increasing population |
| D．preparing their students to transmit inherited knowledge |
| A．more students and less investment |
| B．education quality and economic profit |
| C．low enrollment rate and high dropout rate |
| D．private ownership and American commitment |
| A．Most teachers are devoted to improving their competence in instruction. |
| B．Research occupies more resources and teachers’ attention than teaching. |
| C．The institutions’ organization tends to meet the demands of teaching. |
| D．The inadequate enrollment contributes to the decline of the competence. |
| A．high quality attracts students to stay in public universities |
| B．the American commitment is to blame for all the difficulties |
| C．higher education used to have a priority in government budgets |
| D．the increasing expenses for each student drain the national resources |
【推荐1】Maths anxiety may be causing a national crisis, Cambridge University researchers have said, as they find that one in ten children suffer from anxiety at the subject.
Researchers surveyed 1,700 British pupils aged 8 to 13 about their feelings towards the subject. They found 10% of children suffered from maths anxiety. Other feelings caused by maths included fear and anger, while physical symptoms included a racing heart or struggling to catch breath.
“The project studied students’ attitudes towards maths because of what could be called a maths crisis in the UK,” researchers said. “Many children and adults experience feelings of anxiety, fear or discomfort when they face maths. This may be leading to a low level of maths in the country.” The number of adults with functional maths skills equal to a GCSE (英国普通中等教育证书) grade C has dropped from 26% in 2003 to only 22% in 2011, according to the survey. At the same time, only 57% of the children achieved the same level in functional maths skills.
Dr. Denes Szucs, a professor at Cambridge’s Centre for Neuroscience (神经科学) in Education said that there is a misunderstanding that only low performing children suffer from maths anxiety. “This is a common misunderstanding that we have seen in decision makers,” he said. “They assume people are anxious about maths because they are poor achievers.” In fact, more than 77% of children with high levels of maths anxiety are normal to high achievers. Dr Szucs went on, “Probably their maths anxiety will go unnoticed because their performance is good. But they are very worried and in the long term their performance is limited. This is a real danger here: these are children who are completely able to do maths at a normal level, but may keep away from it because they feel anxious.” The research also found that girls have higher levels of maths anxiety than boys.
John’s Hillman, director of education at the Nuffield Foundation said, “Mathematical achievement is valuable, as a foundation for many other subjects and as an important predictor of future academic learning, job hunting and even health. Maths anxiety can seriously influence students’ performance in both primary and secondary schools.”
1. What can we learn from the survey conducted by the Cambridge University researchers?| A．High performing children are safe from maths anxiety. |
| B．Adults suffer lower levels of maths anxiety than children. |
| C．Children with maths anxiety suffers both physically and mentally. |
| D．Girls’ bad performance leads to their high levels of maths anxiety. |
| A．They want to help improve students’ academic performance. |
| B．Maths anxiety may cause great damage to children’s development. |
| C．They intend to correct people’s misunderstanding on maths anxiety. |
| D．The maths anxiety shared by people of all ages caused a national crisis. |
| A．Presenting data. | B．Listing reasons. |
| C．Giving definition. | D．Providing examples. |
| A．boys suffered a higher level of maths anxiety than girls |
| B．maths anxiety of low performing children goes unnoticed |
| C．some of the high achievers also suffered from math anxiety |
| D．poor achievers might have physical problem in the long term |
| A．What should be done to improve students’ performance in maths? |
| B．What can be done to make children comfortable with maths? |
| C．How does maths anxiety influence people’s health? |
| D．How can children acquire functional skills? |
【推荐2】I remember my first true introduction to art fondly. It was my second year of university and I was a confused 19-year-old at the time, unsure of what academic path I wanted to pursue. I knew that I had always been fascinated by things that made me question the world around me, and my art history class was the first time I really got to get my feet wet.
My professor, a post-graduate with natty (齐整的) hair, entertained us with her stories of travel and revealed the arts of the world to us, something that had not been touched on since my primary school years. The grand story of time was told in broken Greek sculptures, figures whose amazingly detailed limestone carvings were often missing arms and heads to the brittle ravages (无情的破坏) of time. We explored the patterns of the Medieval era and the early Renaissance religious symbolism of Michelangelo and Botticelli. We analyzed the mustard (芥末黄) and chiaroscuro (明暗对比) glare of the Baroque paintings of Caravaggio and El Greco, and we were amazed by the sandcastle-naturalism of the Spanish architect Gaudi. The history of art has fascinated me ever since.
I never had a talent for art myself, but I always did have a well-grounded appreciation for those who did. In primary school, we explored art through music and painting classes, but once we entered secondary school, art was an elective course and quickly limited to the dustbins of my memory. It was only after that humble art history class that I realized what I had been missing.
I strongly believe that a well-rounded society needs everyone to have an early education in the arts. A healthy society needs all its members to open their eyes—and their minds—so that they can learn what is true and beautiful, just as the famous Greek philosopher Plato said, “The reflection of beauty causes the soul to grow wings”.
1. What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence in the first paragraph?| A．The author got lost in the art history class due to the confusion. |
| B．The author was starting to figure out the exact academic path. |
| C．The author was starting to learn to appreciate art. |
| D．The author wet his feet because of carelessness. |
| A．To show his love for Greek sculptures. |
| B．To show the beginning of his love for art. |
| C．To tell readers the professor’s love for grand stories. |
| D．To tell readers what the Renaissance religious symbolism is. |
| A．Ambiguous | B．Supportive | C．Opposed | D．Doubtful |
| A．To advocate the popularity of art history. |
| B．To propose a change in the education of art history. |
| C．To urge people to explore more art classes in an early age. |
| D．To arouse people’s awareness of the importance of early art education. |
How do students spend their spare time after finishing their homework? Watch TV, play computer games, or go outside to relax? Here's a good example.
Tim and Kerry Meek are both teachers. They live in the UK with their two daughters: eleven-year-old Amy and nine-year-old Ella. Recently, the Meek family has become the focus of the whole country after they completed 100 different outdoor activities in one year.
The Meek couple didn't want their children to spend all their free time in front of the TV and become "couch potatoes". So about one year ago, the Meeks decided that watching TV and playing computer games were not permitted. Instead, they set 100 tasks for the two girls to do outside. Although Mr. and Mrs. Meek are not outdoor activity fans, they took part in all the activities to encourage their daughters. It turns out that the two sisters really had a good time joining activities.
Every holiday and weekend, whether it's sunny, rainy or snowy, the Meeks' would set off to try the activities on their list, including hiking, sailing, climbing, skiing, and so on. The two little girls not only had a wonderful time, but also learned a lot of skills from the activities. They were even able to stand up in front of their school to give a talk for charity. "Our friends spend a lot of their free time doing things which are harmful to their health. Luckily, we've had the chance to experience something different." Amy and Ella also helped their parents to draw up a new list of challenges for the next 12 months.
1. Why did the Meeks become the focus of the UK? (no more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined phrase "couch potatoes" mean? (no more than 15 words)
3. When did the Meeks go out to do the activities? (no more than 5 words)
4. What did the two little girls learn from the activities?(no more than 5 words)
5. What have you learnt from the story? (no more than 25 words)
【推荐1】Victor Frankl, the author of Mans Search for Meaning, once wrote, “Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. Frankl was right. Attitude is a choice. You could be faced with a thousand problems, many or most over which you have absolutely no control. However, there is always one thing you are in complete and absolute control of and that is your own attitude.
To be honest, it wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I finally understood its full impact. All through my teens and into my early adult life, I can’t tell you the number of times that I heard, “Bob, if you’d just change your attitude, you would do a lot better.”At that time, I didn’t know what attitude was, let alone know how to change it!
Attitude and results are inseparable. They follow one another as night follows day. One is the cause, while the other, the result. There is a term we use to distinguish this “cause and effect” relationship, which is called The Law of Cause and Effect. Simply stated, if you think in negative terms, you will get negative results; if you think in positive terms, you will achieve positive results. Some people always see wrong things in the world. These individuals are quick to blame circumstances or other people for their problems, rather than accepting responsibility for their life and their attitude. Thus, it would appear as if they were born with bad luck and it has followed them around their whole life. However, there are others who are forever winning and living the good life. They are the real movers and shakers who make things happen. They seem to go from one major accomplishment to another. They’re in control of their life. Their wins are a matter of choice.
You can experience that kind of life as well, you only need to decide. Dorothea Brand once said, “Act as if it were impossible to fail,” and I challenge you to do so. By simply becoming aware that you can choose your thoughts each and every day, you will change your entire outlook. You have the power to choose an abundant life no matter what your circumstances are. Don’t wait to experience all the wonderful things the universe has in store for you. Start today by working on your attitude and welcome the abundant life that you are meant to lead.
1. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 1?| A．Freedom is the last thing we can control. | B．Most problems in life are in our control. |
| C．A man can lose anything but freedom. | D．We can choose our attitude at any time. |
| A．To show attitude is important to the old. | B．To prove attitude changes on its own. |
| C．To show understanding attitude takes time. | D．To prove the author was very stubborn. |
| A．Understand what causes a good attitude. | B．Know the benefit of choosing active attitude. |
| C．Analyze the effect of a negative attitude. | D．Understand “cause and effect”relationship better. |
| A．Attitude is human freedom. | B．Winnings is a matter of control. |
| C．Attitude and results are separable. | D．Success begins with positive attitude. |
【推荐2】Do you remember all those years when scientists argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn’t know for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science uncertain? That the antismoking lobby was out to destroy our way of life and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.
There are upsetting parallels today, as scientists in one wave after another try to awaken us to the growing threat of global warming. The latest was a panel from the National Academy of Sciences, enlisted by the White House, to tell us that the Earth’s atmosphere is definitely warming and that the problem is largely man-made. The clear message is that we should get moving to protect ourselves. The president of the National Academy, Bruce Alberts, added this key point in the preface to the panel’s report: “Science never has all the answers. But science does provide us with the best available guide to the future, and it is critical that our nation and the world base important policies on the best judgments that science can provide concerning the future consequences of present actions.”
Just as on smoking, voices now come from many quarters insisting that the science about global warming is incomplete, that it’s OK to keep pouring fumes into the air until we know for sure. This is a dangerous game: by the time 100 percent of the evidence is in, it may be too late. With the risks obvious and growing, a prudent people would take out an insurance policy now.
Fortunately, the White House is starting to pay attention. But it’s obvious that a majority of the president’s advisers still don’t take global warming seriously. Instead of a plan of action, they continue to press for more research — a classic case of “paralysis by analysis.”
To serve as responsible stewards of the planet, we must press forward on deeper atmospheric and oceanic research. But research alone is inadequate. If the Administration won’t take the legislative initiative, Congress should help to begin fashioning conservation measures. A bill by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which would offer financial incentives for private industry, is a promising start. Many see that the country is getting ready to build lots of new power plants to meet our energy needs. If we are ever going to protect the atmosphere, it is crucial that those new plants be environmentally sound.
1. What was an argument made by supporters of smoking?| A．There was no scientific evidence of the correlation between smoking and death. |
| B．The number of early deaths of smokers in the past decades was insignificant. |
| C．People had the freedom to choose their own way of life. |
| D．Antismoking people were usually talking nonsense. |
| A．A protector. | B．A judge. | C．A critic. | D．A guide. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Arbitrary. | C．Responsible. | D．Expericed. |
| A．They both suffered from the government’s negligence. |
| B．A lesson from the latter is applicable to the former. |
| C．The outcome of the latter aggravates the former. |
| D．Both of them have turned from bad to worse. |
【推荐3】________
“Practice makes perfect” is a very popular expression. However, can we take this saying literally? Many scientific studies have sought to either prove or disprove this idea. So does enough practice literally lead to perfection, or at least to a level of expertise?
One popular theory is that if a person practises for at least 10,000 hours, they will reach “perfection”—or, in other words, become an expert in their field. This theory was made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 best-selling book, Outliers: The Story of Success. He claimed 10,000 hours of practice to be “the magic number of greatness”. He gave the examples of the music group The Beatles and Microsoft co-creator Bill Gates. Although they all seemed to have lots of natural talent, they also clearly put in over 10,000 hours of practice before they became successful.
However, Gladwell’s book has been said by many to be too simplistic and generalising. Gladwell’s work was largely based on research done by Anders Ericsson, who argued that Gladwell misinterpreted his research. Firstly, Ericsson stated that 10,000 hours was an average figure. Some people, for example, needed far fewer than 10,000 hours, and others many more. More importantly, Ericsson said that just practising a lot was not enough; the type and quality of practice was also essential. He went on to explain the importance of “deliberate practice”, which is when a person practises a specific part of a skill in depth rather than practising a skill as a whole. Deliberate practice is said to be much more effective, albeit more tiring.
Despite the theories mentioned above, many other studies argue that practice alone is far from enough. In fact, a more recent study from Princeton University stated that practice only accounted for up to 26% of reaching an expert level. So what are the other factors that contribute to people becoming experts ?
Many people say that natural talent has a large influence on becoming an expert. Another natural factor is physical superiority, which is especially evident in sports. For instance, many baseball players in America have amazing vision that allows them to see the ball much sooner than others do. So no matter how much a “normal” person practises, it is very hard for them to be as good as someone who has natural talent or physical superiority and who also practises.
And how about other factors that go into creating an expert? Many say IQ, personality, attitude, and starting age are decisive factors, too. It is also important to note that becoming an expert doesn't equal instant success. Success also relies on social factors, environmental factors, and even just being in the right place at the right time!
In conclusion, practice may not make perfect, but deliberate practice has been shown to lead to significant improvement. Based on Ericsson's research, here are some tips on how to practise effectively: be motivated; make specific and realistic goals; work outside your comfort zone; be consistent and persistent; ask for others’ opinions; and, of course, get plenty of rest! For those wanting to become an expert in something, remember that being motivated is key—enjoy what you do and follow your passions.
1. What examples did Gladwell use for his claim?| A．Many scientific studies. |
| B．His own learning experience. |
| C．Many baseball players in America. |
| D．A music group and the Microsoft co-creator. |
| A．Because he did a scientific studies. |
| B．Because he found deliberate practice less effective. |
| C．Because he agreed with the influence of the natural talent. |
| D．Because he thought the type and quality of practice was also essential. |
| A．Practice only accounted for a small share in reaching an expert level. |
| B．Attitude and starting age are decisive factors to become an expert. |
| C．Twenty-six percent of the tested subjects can gain success. |
| D．It is very hard for a “normal” person to be a natural talent. |
| A．A new scientific discovery |
| B．Does practice really make prefect? |
| C．Advantages and disadvantages of making practice |
| D．The more you practice, the more success you will receive. |
