1 . The way people work has changed. The increasing use of technology presents new and continual challenges to small and large businesses, employees and managers, teachers and students.
In today’s world, training and learning do not stop when we finish school.
As technologies grow and develop, ongoing training will continue to be necessary.
| A．They are especially significant in the workplace. |
| B．They must now continue throughout our working lives. |
| C．It seems that everyone is being affected by the technological revolution. |
| D．Besides, this also highlights the need for teacher training, and re-training. |
| E．Moreover, what the professors need to do is to continue lecturing online. |
| F．The changing work environment is also affecting education and how we learn. |
| G．To be successful in the workplace, people will not stop learning when they leave school. |
2 . For many years, school children in the US have taken on “field trips” to cultural institutions such as museums of art. Educators arrange them in the belief that schools exist not only to teach economically useful skills, but also to produce civilized young people who appreciate the art and culture. While there are parents who will take their children to cultural places in their free time, there are plenty of other children who will never have this kind of opportunity unless schools offer it. So you could say that taking school students on field trips is a means of giving everyone equal access to their cultural heritage.
However, the attitude towards field trips in recent years is changing, with the number of tours organized for school groups falling significantly in museums all around the country. The most obvious reason is the issue of finance. Because there are increasing demands on their funds, after all, computers and sports facilities aren’t cheap, schools are forced to make a difficult choice about how to spend the limited money they have. Faced with this dilemma, field trips are an obvious thing to cut since they are seen by many as a luxury.
Additionally, the nature of these field days is also changing. Schools increasingly use trips to amusement parks or sporting events as a treat for students rather than an opportunity for cultural learning. This shift could have a basis in generational differences between teachers’ reasons for organizing days out of school. A recent survey conducted among 500 Arkansas teachers showed that older teachers were significantly more likely to take the primary purpose of a field trip as a learning experience than younger teachers, who view it as fun.
Some evidence shows the trend of fewer trips may have a negative effect on children’s development. A research led by Jay Greene at Arkansas University found that students who received a tour of an art museum greatly improved their knowledge of art and the ability to think critically about art. They also display stronger historical interest and were more likely to visit cultural places in the future. The researchers warn that if schools cut field trips or switch to less educational destinations, valuable opportunities to broaden and enrich children’s learning experiences are lost.
1. What is the initial purpose of field trips to cultural institutions?| A．To leach students useful skills in economics. |
| B．To make every student exposed to art and culture. |
| C．To educate students to preserve cultural heritage. |
| D．To encourage parents to take their children there. |
| A．The drop in school funds. | B．Students’ demand for fun. |
| C．The dilemma of school finance. | D．Teachers’ generational differences. |
| A．The switch from old generations to young generations. |
| B．The switch from sporting events to cultural experiences. |
| C．The change from an opportunity to learn to a treat to entertain. |
| D．The change from educational destinations to luxurious attractions. |
| A．Students are rewarded with more cultural knowledge. |
| B．Amusement parks enrich children’s learning experiences. |
| C．Cutting field trips is critical to the future of the museum. |
| D．Field trips guarantee better future academic performance. |
3 . I’d like to talk about my first teaching experience. It was in the fall of 2010—I had to teach integral calculus (积分学). I had taught before but it was always 2-3 students at a time. I had no experience of classroom teaching. So I had butterflies in my stomach.
Anyway, the appointed hour came and I had no choice but to go on. I introduced myself, asked each one of them to do a brief introduction and got down to business. Fortunately, it was a worksheet session, so I didn’t have to do much. The students were well prepared—most of them had done AP calculus. The first day was a success.
As the quarter went by, I found the work more and more easygoing. So I was lax and stopped preparing the homework problems beforehand. How wrong I was!
One day we were doing surfaces of revolution. I used to do them in a more different way than it was taught in the text. I tried to do the first problem but it wasn’t just a piece of cake—I had to step back and think for five minutes before the solution came to me. To the credit of my students, no one showed any sign of impatience in the meantime. I was feeling doubly uncomfortable because it was a day of observation by the school leaders.
The next class I tried to give some additional resources on advanced materials, especially to students who would stay after the class or come to my office hours.
My evaluations were mixed. Two major complaints were about my accent and my handwriting on the board.
I learned a lot about teaching after this course. In my view, teaching is like a performing art. No amount of reading or attending workshops will prepare you for the challenge. You only get better with practice.
1. What made the author feel uneasy at first?| A．Teaching a difficult subject. | B．Lack of teaching experience. |
| C．Missing the appointed hour. | D．Failure of choosing a topic. |
| A．Careless. | B．Tense. | C．Annoyed. | D．Amused. |
| A．Because he delayed doing surfaces of revolution. |
| B．Because the students showed no sign of interaction. |
| C．Because he was stuck in his class watched by leaders. |
| D．Because the leaders blamed him for his performance. |
| A．Do as the Romans do. | B．Well begun is half done. |
| C．It never rains, but it pours. | D．Practice holds the key to progress. |
4 . At some point in our lives, most of us have attended a school or university lecture. These learning sessions give us some insightful and valuable knowledge or can be something we yawn through, trying to keep awake. Whatever our experience, lectures have been and still are the most common teaching method in education. But will they exist in the future?
With the growth of the Internet and so much information at our fingertips, you may think there is no need to gather together at a fixed location holding a handful of textbooks. BBC journalist Matt Pickles says, “Research has shown that students remember as little as 10 percent of their lectures just days afterwards.”
Professor Carl Wieman, who campaigns against the traditional lecture, felt talking at students and expecting them to absorb knowledge was not that effective so he introduced “active learning” that encourages problem solving in small groups. He listens to them and guides their discussions. The result has improved exam results. Other new alternatives to the lecture have included peer-to-peer learning and project-based learning that enable students to link up and work cooperatively on projects such as building a computer game.
But new learning methods can come at a high financial cost compared to the relatively cheap way of being taught face to face by an academic. The real issue according to Professor Dan Butin, founding dean of the school of education and social policy at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, is that “Academics put thousands of hours of work into their books and much less time into thinking about the effectiveness of their teaching style.” But he says, “The lecture has survived because research, not teaching, determines the success of a university and its academics.”
So if research quality is a measure of a university’s success and money is tight, then the lecture could be here for a little longer.
1. What may Matt Pickles agree with?| A．Students have a poor memory. |
| B．Students don’t work hard enough. |
| C．Lectures are not so effective as expected. |
| D．The Internet offers far more information than lectures. |
| A．Teaching projects. | B．Learning strategies. |
| C．Alternatives to lectures. | D．Ways of communication. |
| A．They promote active learning. | B．They call for the least memory work. |
| C．They determine the success of a university. | D．They contribute to academic achievements. |
| A．By analyzing data. | B．By listing opinions. |
| C．By making comparison. | D．By concluding general rules. |
5 . If you have spent any time reading papers on teaching strategies in the past few years, you have probably noticed a strong backlash against drill & practice, in favor of “constructivist activities” and “project-based learning”.
Memorizing facts, many people argue, is an outdated educational practice, since anyone could just Google a fact on demand or look it up on Wikipedia nowadays. They consider that we should focus all school activities on the acquisition of skills as opposed to knowledge.
However, learning by rote (memorization by repetition) is more important than you think. There are many cases in which having knowledge immediately on the tip of your tongue can have great social and professional value. For example, last night at a networking event, when I casually asked a Nigerian entrepreneur how much of his business was conducted in English versus in his native Yoruba, he immediately became more engaged in our conversation. It was as if the simple fact that I knew that Yoruba was spoken in Nigeria won his trust, and therefore built up our relationship.
The same goes for professional settings. If I am a pharmaceutical salesman talking to a doctor about a specific digestion drug, and he asks if it has any effect on the process of peristalsis, it will look quite unprofessional if I have to pull out my medical dictionary to look up the word. I need to memorize those facts so that I can access them immediately.
Of course, most constructivist educators will argue that on-the-job training and project-based learning are more effective at learning new concepts than rote memorization. The problem is that no single cost-effective constructivist activity will guarantee that you will be exposed to all the concepts you need, or that you will fully remember the facts that you are exposed to. If you actually want to acquire a full range of knowledge about a given topic, the most guaranteed and efficient way is to study deliberately using the time-honored practice of repetition—specifically confidence-based repetition.
1. Which of the following is the most popular teaching method now?| A．Drill & practice. | B．Memorizing facts. |
| C．Constructivist activities. | D．Confidence-based repetition. |
| A．Outdated idea. | B．Negative reaction. |
| C．Educational standard. | D．Official support. |
| A．To show the value of knowing about Yoruba. |
| B．To support his argument for learning by rote. |
| C．To introduce effective communication skills. |
| D．To prove the power of having a wide range of knowledge. |
| A．It is of limited value in learning new concepts. |
| B．It is an efficient way to learn a new concept. |
| C．It should be combined with a full range of knowledge. |
| D．It will be replaced by the time-honored practice of repetition. |
6 . Parents feel that it is difficult to live with teenagers. Then again, teenagers have
The research, conducted by St. George University, shows that different parents have different
Psychologists say that
| A．natural | B．strong | C．guilty | D．similar |
| A．interest | B．argument | C．link | D．knowledge |
| A．noisy | B．crowded | C．messy | D．locked |
| A．homework | B．housework | C．problem | D．research |
| A．washing | B．using | C．dropping | D．replacing |
| A．approaches | B．contributions | C．introductions | D．attitudes |
| A．complex | B．popular | C．scientific | D．successful |
| A．later | B．deliberately | C．seldom | D．thoroughly |
| A．behavior | B．taste | C．future | D．nature |
| A．failures | B．changes | C．consequences | D．thrills |
| A．defend | B．delay | C．repeat | D．reconsider |
| A．communication | B．bond | C．friendship | D．trust |
| A．reply | B．attend | C．attach | D．talk |
| A．hate | B．scold | C．frighten | D．stop |
| A．loving | B．observing | C．understanding | D．praising |
