B
For a generation now, school reform has meant what students must be taught and carried out by standardized tests.
Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next year almost every student passed the tests. What would the reaction be from people? Would they shake their heads in respect and say, "Damn, those teachers must be good!?”
Of course not. Such remarkable success would be used as evidence that the tests were too easy and it needs to raise standards. “High standards” really means “standards that all students will never be able to meet”. My little thought experiment uncovers a truth that we have been taught to respond with doubt whenever all members of any group are successful. In America, success doesn't count unless it is got by only a few.
Consider widespread complaints about grade inflation(膨胀)in higher education. Many people don't even bother to stress that grades have risen over time. They simply point to how many students get A's right now. The goal, in other words, isn’t to do well but to defeat other people who are also trying to do well. Grades in testing should be used to announce who's beating whom. A school's final task, apparently, is not to help everyone learn but to prepare the game so that there will always be losers.
This makes no sense in any situation. Perhaps, for example, we can defend rating states or nations based on the quality of their air, health care or schools, but ranking them is foolish. School testing ranking doesn't lead to improvements in performance but tends to hold us back from doing our best. It makes productive teamwork less likely and leads all concerned to focus not on meaningful improvements but on trying to beat everyone else.
Most of all, it encourages the false belief that excellence is a zero-sum game. It would be more reasonable to rescue the spirit of the concept: Everyone may not succeed, but at least in theory all of us could.
24. What did the writer's thought experiment prove?
A. Good teachers represent higher test scores. B American tests are usually too easy
C. Excellence is regarded as a rare thing. D. Students don't meet the test standards.
25. What does the writer think American schools seem to do?
A. Promote teachers to teach better. B. Remove the belief of beating others.
C. Help all students do well at school. D. Ensure the existence of failures.
26. What is the writer's attitude towards schools testing ranking?
A. Sympathetic. B. Ambiguous . C. Disapproving. D.Unconcerned.
27. What is the best title for the text?
A. Why Can’t Everyone Get A’s? B. How Can Students Succeed?
C. What Standards Do Schools Set? D. Who Get Best Grades at School?
24-27CDCA
For a generation now, school reform has meant what students must be taught and carried out by standardized tests.
Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next year almost every student passed the tests. What would the reaction be from people? Would they shake their heads in respect and say, "Damn, those teachers must be good!?”
Of course not. Such remarkable success would be used as evidence that the tests were too easy and it needs to raise standards. “High standards” really means “standards that all students will never be able to meet”. My little thought experiment uncovers a truth that we have been taught to respond with doubt whenever all members of any group are successful. In America, success doesn't count unless it is got by only a few.
Consider widespread complaints about grade inflation(膨胀)in higher education. Many people don't even bother to stress that grades have risen over time. They simply point to how many students get A's right now. The goal, in other words, isn’t to do well but to defeat other people who are also trying to do well. Grades in testing should be used to announce who's beating whom. A school's final task, apparently, is not to help everyone learn but to prepare the game so that there will always be losers.
This makes no sense in any situation. Perhaps, for example, we can defend rating states or nations based on the quality of their air, health care or schools, but ranking them is foolish. School testing ranking doesn't lead to improvements in performance but tends to hold us back from doing our best. It makes productive teamwork less likely and leads all concerned to focus not on meaningful improvements but on trying to beat everyone else.
Most of all, it encourages the false belief that excellence is a zero-sum game. It would be more reasonable to rescue the spirit of the concept: Everyone may not succeed, but at least in theory all of us could.
24. What did the writer's thought experiment prove?
A. Good teachers represent higher test scores. B American tests are usually too easy
C. Excellence is regarded as a rare thing. D. Students don't meet the test standards.
25. What does the writer think American schools seem to do?
A. Promote teachers to teach better. B. Remove the belief of beating others.
C. Help all students do well at school. D. Ensure the existence of failures.
26. What is the writer's attitude towards schools testing ranking?
A. Sympathetic. B. Ambiguous . C. Disapproving. D.Unconcerned.
27. What is the best title for the text?
A. Why Can’t Everyone Get A’s? B. How Can Students Succeed?
C. What Standards Do Schools Set? D. Who Get Best Grades at School?
24-27CDCA
