1 . Every time the results of the international PISA test are released, the United States gets another opportunity to whip itself for students’ unsatisfying performance.
PISA is the Program for International Student Assessment, a test administered to students in 79 countries around the world. It allows critics on both sides of the school-reform debate to peer at the results of other nations, compare them to the U.S. outcomes and find examples that appear to confirm their own beliefs about why our 15-year-olds are not at the best in science, math and reading. Those opposed to standardized testing and accountability measures look at Finland’s high scores and point out that in that country, there are no mandatory standardized tests until the end of senior year of high school. Children are encouraged to play more. Their school days are shorter and no one attempts to hold teachers accountable according to a rigid set of rules. The students are given very little homework. The nation’s scores and ranking have slid over the past decade, but it still consistently outshines the U.S.
Meanwhile, fans of more regular testing are likely to hold up Singapore and South Korea as models. Singapore’s curriculum is highly scripted and pretty much the same across the nation — something that the Obama administration hoped to achieve through its Common Core curriculum. Teachers continually prepare students for hard tests and depend heavily on worksheets and drills. South Korean families depend heavily on private tutoring to help their children perform well on high-stakes tests. Students in these two countries also outperform American students on the PISA test.
But if Finland, Singapore and South Korea are all doing better than America, that suggests there may be a factor at play other than how students are taught. And indeed there is something that all three of these nations, and every other country that outranks America on the PISA test, have in common: lower rates of child poverty. “Socio-economically disadvantaged students across OECD countries are almost three times more likely than advantaged students not to attain the baseline level of proficiency (能力) in science,” PISA reported in a 2018 paper.
Though America is by most measures a wealthy country, it is one with many poor people. A 2017 UNICEF report looked at the relative child poverty rates of 41 well-off nations. America ranked seventh from the bottom.
“Because in every country, students at the bottom of the social class distribution perform worse than students higher in that distribution, U.S. average performance appears to be relatively low partly because we have so many more test takers from the bottom of the social class distribution,” A 2013 study by Stanford University researchers concluded.
There’s no getting around it: This is a shameful situation in a developed, wealthy nation. When poverty equates to lower academic performance, people pass that poverty from one generation to the next. Until they are willing to face that problem and take bold measures against it, the nation’s rankings will always be limited.
For various reasons, PISA results aren’t the ultimate measure of how well a nation’s schools are doing. But when it comes to measuring the effects of income inequality, PISA offers a powerful lesson for the United States: If they want a better educated population, they cannot ignore their culpability in allowing so many children to grow up in poverty.
1. We can learn from the passage that PISA is a test______.| A．administered to all the students around the world |
| B．reflecting students’ ability in science, math and reading |
| C．causing criticism from the educational authorities in the US |
| D．held by the United Nations annually for 15-year-old students |
| A．The US government has taken measures to handle poverty issues. |
| B．Scores of students from Finland in PISA have improved in recent years |
| C．The case in Singapore is used as opposition against standardized testing |
| D．For students in South Korea, the help from teachers in schools is not enough |
| A．The 2013 study by Stanford University researchers. |
| B．There are many test takers from lower class in the US. |
| C．The US ranked the seventh among 41 well-off countries. |
| D．The US average performance is poorer than other countries. |
| A．To present different opinions of the school-reform debate in the US. |
| B．To argue poverty contributes to the low ranking of the US in PISA. |
| C．To illustrate that the US students performed poorly academically. |
| D．To compare the education systems in the US and other countries |
The benefits of having a higher education are manifold (多样的) and range from financial to cultural and from common benefits to some unexpected surprises, below you will find a number of reasons which will help to serve as justification for a higher education.
For many high school students, it is hard to imagine what the long-term benefits of a college education might be. College is demanding; the work seems challenging, and meeting all new people seems overwhelming. However, what most young people do not realize is that there is a high likelihood at college that you will find new friends with similar interests and values. You may find yourself developing new interests by getting along with those who have completely different life experiences. An opportunity to get to know your professors can also be counted one of the benefits of having a college education. These intellectuals can be counted on to welcome questions and discussion from students. Therefore, one of the key benefits of a college education is the social bonds created and developed during this unique time in a person’s life.
Besides, the fact that you’ll be building a career for the rest of your life is reason enough to make time for a college education. Indeed, a clear benefit of a college education is that not only will it give you time to better know your likes and dislikes before entering the labor force, it will also enhance the likelihood of a more successful career for you. Many young people are uncertain about a career path at the start of college. This is a time of exploration, and taking the time to explore a variety of college majors is time well spent.
One more justification for higher education could be that it is the best way to enhance yourself in an all-round way. Getting a good education may be the most important price you can pay for your personal advancement, because perhaps more than anything else, what you do with that huge gray material between your ears will determine your future. You never know where your talent could reach. So higher education can provide you with the chance to realize your personal value.
Therefore, never undervalue the benefits of entering a higher education, which surely will bring you something beyond expectation.
原因：1.家庭贫穷，供不起儿童上学，他们不得不在家赚钱养家。
2.部分家长认为女孩上学无用，不愿让她们上学。
3.部分儿童对功课不感兴趣，不愿上学。
看法：1.每个儿童包括女孩都应有受教育的机会。
2.全社会都应重视儿童教育，他们对国家的未来将起到重要的作用。
要求：1.不要逐字逐句翻译。 2.语句要连贯通顺。 3.字数在100个左右。
参考词汇： 失学 out of school 负担得起，提供 afford
养家 support/keep the family
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Being Authoritative Parents
Phrases like “tiger mom” and “helicopter parent” have made their way into everyday language.
Parental involvement has a long history of being studied. Many of the studies, conducted by Diana Baumrind, a famous psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that a good parent is the one who is involved and reacts to her child in a positive way, who sets high expectations but gives her child independence. These “authoritative parents” appear to hit the sweet spot of parental involvement and generally raise children who do better academically, psychologically and socially than children whose parents are not strict and less involved, or controlling and more involved.
Authoritative parents actually help improve motivation in their children. Carol Dweck, a social psychologist at Stanford University, has done research that indicates why authoritative parents raise more motivated children. In a typical experiment, Dr. Dweck takes young children into a room and asks them to solve a simple puzzle. Most do so with little difficulty. But then Dr. Dweck tells some, but not all, of the kids how clever they are. As it turns out, the children who are not told they're smart are more motivated to solve increasingly difficult puzzles. They also show higher levels of confidence and show greater progress in puzzle-solving.
The central task of growing up is to develop a sense of self that is independent and confident. If you treat your young child who is just learning to walk as if she can't walk, you reduce her confidence.
| A．Allowing children to make mistakes is one of the greatest challenges of parenting. |
| B．How is this parenting style different from the western concept of self-realization? |
| C．Many of us find ourselves drawn to the idea that with just a bit more parental hard work and effort, we might turn out children with bright futures. |
| D．As the experiment suggests, praising children's talents and abilities seems to shake their confidence. |
| E．Why is this parenting style so successful? |
| F．It can be learned from the experiment that parental expectations can motivate children to build a strong mind and encourage them to achieve their best academic performance. |
5 . What do people in the outside world do when they want to learn something? They go to somebody who knows about it, and ask him. They do not go to somebody who is supposed to know about everything ---except, when they are very young, to their parents: and they speedily become dissatisfied with that variety of knowledge. They go to somebody who might reasonably expected to know about the particular thing they are interested in, When a man buys a motor-car, he does not say to himself: “Where can I find somebody who can teach me how to run a motor car?" He does not look in the telephone directory under T. He just gets an experienced driver to teach him. He just pays attention and asks questions and tries to do the thing himself, until he learns.
But this case, of course, assumes an interest of the pupil in the subject, a willingness and even a desire to learn about it, a feeling that the matter is of some importance to himself. And come to think of it, these motives are generally present in the learning that goes on in the outside world. It is only in school that the pupil is expected to be unwilling to learn.
When you were a child, and passed the door of the village blacksmith(铁匠) shop, and looked in, day after day, you admired his skill, and stood in awe of his strength; and if he had offered to let you blow the bellows for him and shown you how to make a red-hot penny, that would have been a proud moment. It would also have been an educational one. But suppose there had been a new shop set up in the town, and when you looked in at the open door you saw a man at work painting a picture; and suppose a bell rang just then, and the man stopped painting right in the middle of a brush-stroke, and started to read aloud “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"; and suppose when he was halfway through, the bell rang again, and he said, "We will go on with that tomorrow," and started to chisel the surface of a piece of marble; and then, after a little, somewhat exhaustedly, started in to play "The Rock of Ages" on a flute, interrupting the tune to order you to stand up straight and not whisper to the little boy beside you. There's no doubt what you would think of him; you would know perfectly well that he was crazy; people don't do things in that way anywhere in the world, except in school.
And even if he had assured you that what were taught were later in your life going to be matters of the deepest importance and interest, and that you should start in now with the determination of becoming proficient in them, it would not have helped much. Not very much. It's nonsense that children do not want to learn. Everybody wants to learn. And everybody wants to teach. And the process is going on all the time. All that is necessary is to put a person who
knows something---really knows it---within the curiosity-range of someone who doesn't know it: the process begins at once, It is almost irresistible
If there were no teachers---no hastily and superficially trained Vestals who were supposed to know everything---but just ordinary human beings who knew passionately and thoroughly one thing and who had the patience to show little boys and girls how to do that thing---we might get along with our learning pretty well, Of course, we'd have to pay them more, because they could get other jobs out in the larger world; and besides, you couldn't expect to get somebody who knows how to do something, for the price you are accustomed to pay those who only know how to
teach everything,
1. What does the author mainly want to say with this article?
| A．An education without teachers is unimaginable, |
| B．A teacher who knows everything is more welcome, |
| C．School teachers are far from satisfactory and necessary, |
| D．We have paid too much for teachers for school education. |
| A．A teacher. | B．A parent. |
| C．A man in the outside world. | D．A man like the blacksmith, |
| A．Useless subjects like painting and poetry, sculpture and music were taught. |
| B．The man at work became crazy with so many subjects to deal with. |
| C．One man teaching everything influenced the efficiency of learning. |
| D．Children listened carefully and often discussed about what is taught with others. |
| A．Teachers are not as useful as parents in helping a child to learn, |
| B．Schools are the places killing students' interest and willingness to learn, |
| C．Learning life related skills like blacksmithing is more important than arts. |
| D．Teachers are ordinary human beings who know thoroughly everything. |
a. exemplification(举例)
b. exaggeration(夸张)
c. personification(拟人)
d. irony(讽刺)
e. analogy (类比)
| A．abc | B．ade |
| C．bcd | D．cde |
| A．introduces a new idea | B．raises a new question |
| C．gives some new evidence | D．stresses his viewpoint |
增加:在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除:把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改:在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:
1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Before I went to Yunnan to attend a teaching activity, I had wondered what music to bring into the mountains to share with the children there. Music is an universal language, that is the best way to communicate with the children there. And I was afraid that the children would be too shy not to sing a song.
However, when I arrived, I found there was nothing to worry. They were extreme energetic during my class. I choose a famous song by Jay Chou “Fragrance of Rice”, tell the children whatever happened, their family would always be there for them. They should cherish anything and try their best to overcome difficulty in their life.
7 . We talk continuously about how to make children more “resilient (有恢复力的)”, but whatever we’re doing, it’s notworking. Rates of anxiety disorders and depression are rising rapidly among teenagers. What are we doing wrong?
Nassim Taleb invented the word “antifragile” and used it to describe a small but very important class of systems that gain from shocks, challenges, and disorder. The immune (免疫的) system is one of them: it requires exposure to certain kinds of bacteria and potential allergens (过敏原) in childhood in order to develop to its full ability.
Children’s social and emotional abilities are as antifragile as their immune systems. If we overprotect kids and keep them “safe” from unpleasant social situations and negative emotions, we deprive (剥夺) them of the challenges and opportunities for skill-building they need to grow strong. Such children are likely to suffer more when exposed later to other unpleasant but ordinary life events, such as teasing and social rejection.
It’s not the kids’ fault. In the UK, as in the US, parents became much more fearful in the 1980s and 1990s as cable TV and later the Internet exposed everyone, more and more, to those rare occurrences of crimes and accidents that now occur less and less. Outdoor play and independent mobility went down; screen time and adult-monitored activities went up.
Yet free play in which kids work out their own rules of engagement, take small risks, and learn to master small dangers turns out to be vital for the development of adult social and even physical competence. Depriving them of free play prevents their social-emotional growth. Norwegian play researchers Ellen Sandseter warned: “We may observe an increased anxiety or mental disorders in society if children are forbidden from participating in age adequate risky play.”
They wrote those words in 2011. Over the following few years, their prediction came true. Kids born after 1994 are suffering from much higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than did the previous generation.
What can we do to change these trends? We can’t guarantee that giving primary school children more independence today will bring down the rate of teenage suicide tomorrow. The links between childhood overprotection and teenage mental illness are suggestive but not clear-cut. Yet there are good reasons to suspect that by depriving our naturally antifragile kids of the wide range of experiences they need to become strong, we are systematically preventing their growth. We should let go—and let them grow.
1. Why does the author mention the immune system in Paragraph 2?| A．To stress its importance. | B．To analyze the cause of anxiety. |
| C．To question the latest discovery. | D．To help understand a new word. |
| A．they are concerned about their children’s safety |
| B．they want to keep children from being teased |
| C．parent-monitored activities are a must |
| D．children are not independent enough |
| A．promote children’s resilience |
| B．strengthen children’s friendship |
| C．reduce children’s risky behavior |
| D．develop children’s leadership skills |
| A．Stop trying to perfect your child. |
| B．It takes great courage to raise children. |
| C．Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. |
| D．The more exposed the children are to the risks, the more resilient they would become. |
8 . Much of the public debate around early childhood education comes down to which matters more： academics or play. That's a false dilemma. Play is really the way that young children learn and guided play is the key. It's a way that they experience the world, and it helps them learn more deeply.
We should be concerned that the“skill and drill”approach to teaching academics is most frequently used in classrooms serving at-risk preschoolers, in an attempt to close the gap on school readiness. Unfortunately, these teaching methods can turn young kids off to school and introduces the possibility of shame and anxiety. 46 Skill and drill” doesn't teach kids the curiosity and critical (批判的）thinking skills that they need to develop in early childhood.
However, pure free play—an approach advocated more frequently by wealthier groups—also misses the mark. “I hear a lot about just ‘free play classrooms’. ” But Suzanne Bouffard, an education researcher, said if it only involves setting out materials and not thinking about learning goals, there’s a real missed opportunity. For example, she said, researchers have found that children used more complex language about building activities when they had a goal in mind.
What effective preschools aim for is “guided play”，in which adults create a purposeful play environment that encourages students to explore，For example, in setting up blocks, a teacher might put up pictures of buildings to inspire kids. They may ask students, “What are you doing?” and gently push kids’ thinking by offering new information.
Of course, the ability to find this balance rests with teachers. Good teachers make it look really easy，That's why it's really important that we invest(投入）in teachers and give them the training to guide play without overly controlling it and to encourage kids to develop an understanding of letters and numbers without “skill and drill”.
1. Which of the following matters most in early childhood education?| A．Having guided play. | B．Learning after play. |
| C．Seeing the world. | D．Studying academic courses. |
| A．It works best for preschoolers. |
| B．It helps develop kids’ curiosity. |
| C．It limits kids’ development. |
| D．It bridges the gap on school readiness. |
| A．Meets learning goals. | B．Loses points in exams. |
| C．Troubles the classroom. | D．Fails to achieve the goal. |
| A．To encourage the kids to copy. |
| B．To offer extra information. |
| C．To share the teaching purpose with the kids. |
| D．To inspire the kids to explore. |
9 . Why you shouldn't punish your kids for lying
Getting your children to stop lying is challenging. There are many influences（TV，movies and video games）in which lies are common. Children see parents lie to others，if only to be polite. Most parents add to that with tales about the lives and activities of Santa Claus or the tooth fairy.
The most common reactions to children who lie are explaining why it is wrong and punishments.
Give praise: You could ask your child to say something that happened at school that is true. When your child obeys, praise him enthusiastically. Be specific.
Act as a model: Explicitly（明确地）tell the truth. This could be about something that happened when you were a child or something that happened during the day. It need not be dramatic. Another option is to play a game at dinner. Each person tells one thing that was true that day. Again，give a little praise to the child who normally lies if she plays along.
Decrease punishments and moralizing（说教）：They are unlikely to change behavior or develop the conduct you want.
| A．It is not what that is，but about practice. |
| B．As ways of changing behavior，these are ineffective. |
| C．That does not mean ignoring，lying or letting it go. |
| D．“That was great！You told me what happened just like I asked. Wow！” |
| E．Try these procedures for two to three weeks and see where you are. |
| F．“You did a good job，but what you said was not what I'd like to know！” |
| G．Parents do this out of love，but for some children，lying can become a problem. |
10 . We might be surprised at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to design anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For the claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack(窍门) of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and attitude.
As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the marks of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of various competitions where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of ‘drop-outs’: young people who are written off as failures before they have even started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?
A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus(教学大纲), so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive(剥夺) the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under pressure.
The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark piles of hastily scrawled (潦草的) scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities.
1. The main idea of this passage is _______.| A．examinations produce a harmful influence on education |
| B．examinations are ineffective |
| C．examinations are important to students’ development |
| D．examinations are a burden on students |
| A．supportive | B．neutral | C．critical | D．indifferent |
| A．education | B．examiners | C．examinations | D．students themselves |
| A．to encourage students to read widely | B．to train students to think on their own |
| C．to teach students how to deal with exams | D．to master his fate |
| A．Judges are not important. |
| B．The examiner has the final say concerning the result of the examination. |
| C．Prisoners are more powerful than students. |
| D．The court decisions are often inaccurate. |
