快速导航
学历类
职业资格
公务员
医卫类
建筑工程
外语类
外贸类
计算机类
财会类
技能鉴定
Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time; if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the languages he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people. In the same way, when children learn to do all the other things they learn to do without being taught-to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle-compare those performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his own mistakes for himself,
let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end this nonsense of grades, exams, marks, Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
Let them get on with this job in the way that seems sensible to them. With our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential they will need to get in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.
1.What does the author think is the best way for children to learn
things?
A.by copying what other people do.
B.by making mistakes and having them corrected.
C.by listening to explanations from skilled people.
D.by asking a great many questions.
2.What does the author think teachers do which they should not do?
A.They give children correct answers.
B.They point out children’s mistakes to them.
C.They allow children to mark their own work.
D.They encourage children to mark to copy from one another.
3.The passage suggests that learning to speak and learning to ride a bicycle
are___.
A.not really important skills.
B.more important than other skills.
C.basically different from learning adult skills.
D.basically the same as learning other skills.
4.Exams, grades, and marks should be abolished because children’s progress
should only be estimated by___.
A.educated persons.
B.the children themselves.
C.teachers.
D.parents.
5.The author fears that children will grow up into adults while being___.
A.too independent of others.
B.too critical of themselves.
C.incapable to think for themselves.
D.incapable to use basic skills.
What does the future hold for the problem of housing? A good deal depends, of
course, on the meaning of “future”. If one is thinking in terms of science
fiction and the space age, it is at least possible to assume that man will have
solved such trivial and earthly problems as housing. Writers of science fiction,
from H.G. Wells onwards, have had little to say on the subject. They have
conveyed the suggestion that men will live in great comfort, with every
conceivable apparatus to make life smooth, healthy and easy, if not happy. But
they have not said what his house will be made of. Perhaps some new building
material, as yet unimagined, will have been discovered or invented at least. One
may be certain that bricks and mortar(泥灰，灰浆) will long have gone out of
fashion.
But the problems of the next generation or two can more readily be imagined.
Scientists have already pointed out that unless something is done either to
restrict the world’s rapid growth in population or to discover and develop new
sources of food (or both), millions of people will be dying of starvation or at
the best suffering from underfeeding before this century is out. But nobody has
yet worked out any plan for housing these growing populations. Admittedly the
worst situations will occur in the hottest parts of the world, where housing can
be light structure or in backward areas where standards are traditionally low.
But even the minimum shelter requires materials of some kind and in the teeming,
bulging towns the low-standard “housing” of flattened petrol cans and dirty
canvas is far more wasteful of ground space than can be tolerated.
Since the war, Hong Kong has suffered the kind of crisis which is likely to
arise in many other places during the next generation. Literally millions of
refugees arrived to swell the already growing population and emergency steps had
to be taken rapidly to prevent squalor(肮脏)and disease and the spread crime. The
city is tackling the situation energetically and enormous blocks of
tenements(贫民住宅)are rising at an astonishing aped. But Hong Kong is only one
small part of what will certainly become a vast problem and not merely a housing
problem, because when population grows at this rate there are accompanying
problems of education, transport, hospital services, drainage, water supply and
so on. Not every area may give the same resources as Hong Kong to draw upon and
the search for quicker and cheaper methods of construction must never cease.
1.What is the author’s opinion of housing problems in the first
paragraph?
A.They may be completely solved at sometime in the future.
B.They are unimportant and easily dealt with.
C.They will not be solved until a new building material has been
discovered.
D.They have been dealt with in specific detail in books describing the
future.
2.The writer is sure that in the distant future ___.
A.bricks and mortar will be replaced by some other building material.
B.a new building material will have been invented.
C.bricks and mortar will not be used by people who want their house to be
fashionable.
D.a new way of using bricks and mortar will have been discovered.
3.The writer believes that the biggest problem likely to confront the world
before the end of the century ___.
A.is difficult to foresee.
B.will be how to feed the ever growing population.
C.will be how to provide enough houses in the hottest parts of the world.
D.is the question of finding enough ground space.
4.When the writer says that the worst situations will occur in the hottest
parts of the world or in backward areas, he is referring to the fact that in
these parts ___.
A.standards of building are low.
B.only minimum shelter will be possible.
C.there is not enough ground space.
D.the population growth will be the greatest.
5.Which of the following sentences best summarizes Paragraph 3?
A.Hong Kong has faced a serious crisis caused by millions of refugees.
B.Hong Kong has successfully dealt with the emergency caused by millions of
refugees.
C.Hong Kong’s crisis was not only a matter of housing but included a number
of other problems of population growth.
D.Many parts of the world may have to face the kind of problems encountered
by Hong Kong and may find it much harder to deal with them.
Passage 4
Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage:
Culture shock is an occupational disease (职业病) for people who have been
suddenly transplanted abroad.
Culture shock is caused by the anxiety that results from losing all familiar
signs and symbols of social intercourse. Those signs are as following: when to
shake hands and what to say when meet people, when and how to give tips, how to
make purchases, when to accept and refuse invitations, when to take statements
seriously and when not. These signs, which may be words, gestures, facial
expressions, or customs, are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up
and as much a part of our culture as the language we speak or the beliefs we
accept. All of us depend on hundreds of these signs for our peace of mind and
day-to-day efficiency, but we do not carry most at the level of conscious
awareness.
Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these
familiar signs are removed. No matter how broadminded or full of good will you
may be a series of supports have been knocked from under you, followed by a
feeling of frustration. When suffering from culture shock people first reject
the environment which caused discomfort. The ways of the host country are bad
because they make us feel bad. When foreigners in a strange land get together in
complain about the host country its people, you can be sure that they are
suffering from culture shock.
16. According to the passage, culture shock is .
A. an occupational disease of foreign people B. may lead to very serious
symptoms
C. actually not a disease D. incurable
17. According to the passage, culture shock result from .
A. the sudden change of social atmosphere and customs
B. the sudden change of our daily habits
C. the sudden loss of our own signs and symbols
D. the discomfort that we feel when faced with a foreigner
18. Which one of the following may not be a symptom of culture shock?
A. You don’t know how to express your gratitude.
B. You don’t know how to greet other people.
C. You suddenly forget what a word means.
D. You don’t understand why a foreigner shrugs.
19. According to the passage, how would a person who stays abroad most
probably react when he is frustrated by the culture shock?
A. He is most likely to refuse to absorb the strange environment at
first.
B. He is really to accept the change and adapt himself to the new
environment.
C. Although he takes the culture difference for granted, he still doesn’t
know how to do with it.
D. He may begin to hate the people or things around him.
20. The main idea of this passage is that .
A. culture shock is an occupational disease
B. culture shock is caused by the anxiety of living in a strange culture
C. culture shock has peculiar symptoms
D. it is very hard to cope with life in a new setting
