时间:2018-12-18 作者:英语课 分类:英语作文


英语课

 We might marvel 1 at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive 2 as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to devise anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For all the pious 3 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 4 of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell nothing about a person’s true ability and aptitude 5.


As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided 6 in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother dies. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after sleepless 7 night, yet this is precisely 8 what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition 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 utter failures before they have even embarked 9 on 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 10 laid down by a syllabus 11, so the student is encouraged to memories. 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 12. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedom. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress 13.
The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective 14 assessment 15 by some anonymous 16 examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled 17 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 on 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. It is cynical 18 to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate 19 message recently scrawled on a wall: ‘I were a teenage drop-out and now I are a teenage millionaire.’

1 marvel
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事
  • The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
  • The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。
2 primitive
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物
  • It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
  • His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。
3 pious
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的
  • Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。
  • Her mother was a pious Christian.她母亲是一个虔诚的基督教徒。
4 knack
n.诀窍,做事情的灵巧的,便利的方法
  • He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
  • Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难,但有窍门。
5 aptitude
n.(学习方面的)才能,资质,天资
  • That student has an aptitude for mathematics.那个学生有数学方面的天赋。
  • As a child,he showed an aptitude for the piano.在孩提时代,他显露出对于钢琴的天赋。
6 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
7 sleepless
adj.不睡眠的,睡不著的,不休息的
  • The situation gave her many sleepless nights.这种情况害她一连好多天睡不好觉。
  • One evening I heard a tale that rendered me sleepless for nights.一天晚上,我听说了一个传闻,把我搞得一连几夜都不能入睡。
8 precisely
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地
  • It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
  • The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。
9 embarked
乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 ); 装载; 从事
  • We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
  • She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。
10 rigidly
adv.刻板地,僵化地
  • Life today is rigidly compartmentalized into work and leisure. 当今的生活被严格划分为工作和休闲两部分。
  • The curriculum is rigidly prescribed from an early age. 自儿童时起即已开始有严格的课程设置。
11 syllabus
n.教学大纲,课程大纲
  • Have you got next year's syllabus?你拿到明年的教学大纲了吗?
  • We must try to diversify the syllabus to attract more students.我们应该使教学大纲内容多样化,可以多吸引学生。
12 cramming
n.塞满,填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 );填塞;塞满;(为考试而)死记硬背功课
  • Being hungry for the whole morning, I couldn't help cramming myself. 我饿了一上午,禁不住狼吞虎咽了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She's cramming for her history exam. 她考历史之前临时抱佛脚。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 duress
n.胁迫
  • He claimed that he signed the confession under duress.他说他是被迫在认罪书上签字的。
  • These unequal treaties were made under duress.这些不平等条约是在强迫下签订的。
14 subjective
a.主观(上)的,个人的
  • The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
  • A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。
15 assessment
n.评价;评估;对财产的估价,被估定的金额
  • This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
  • What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何?
16 anonymous
adj.无名的;匿名的;无特色的
  • Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
  • The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。
17 scrawled
乱涂,潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 )
  • I tried to read his directions, scrawled on a piece of paper. 我尽量弄明白他草草写在一片纸上的指示。
  • Tom scrawled on his slate, "Please take it -- I got more." 汤姆在他的写字板上写了几个字:“请你收下吧,我多得是哩。”
18 cynical
adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的,不信世道向善的
  • The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大,他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
  • He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。
19 illiterate
adj.文盲的;无知的;n.文盲
  • There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
  • I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲,今天也认字了。
标签: 应试教育
学英语单词
3-hydroxyphthalic acid
Acrilan
actual available bed days
administrative-practice standards
air valve spring holder
aircomatic welding
alcantara
apple fields
be appalled at...
bouquet of treaty
brainstormers
Brosteni
bulge grain carrier
bull-nose stretcher
ccetsws
charged particle carriers
colmation
concave side of blade
connection splitting
drilling life of drill pipe
empirical comparison
endochonaral ossification
enlaid
enroll with an agency
equilibrium of consumer
Falconiformes
feyffe
final approach point
firebolting
forced dormancy
fusion facility
Gatling guns
genus Scindapsus
geodetic photogrammetry
governator
guiding beater
Gyrocotyloidea
haemosiderosis
heavy heart
herpetic fever
hnp
hynagogic
ingrowing nail
injectors spacing
insapient
Internet Engineering and Planning Group
just in time manufacturing
khodro
knife-edge cutter
krasnovite
lamp frame
laser semi-active homing guidance
Librilla
lift slab system
lymphatic valve
magnetic flux concentration
masterhead
multiformat
mysmena taiwanica
noncommutative
nonenes
nuclear airburst
on your time
pappataci fever
parties
partitive datives
pattern cutter
perpatic(c.i.p.w.)
plicae adiposae
punctate sensitivity
range of stress
ratio of the three colour primary signals
refined manganese dioxide
residua liquid,residual magma
respiratory substrate
rotational of beam
row-bowls
Sade, Comte de
salivarian
sand valve stem
screechies
semiapochromat
series modality
spheric granules
spin room
stab wounds
stickleys
strategy of economic development
texasin
three-point loading
throw sth back in sb's face
tongue depressors
tounament
Toungo
trip holder
two spindle system
vegeculture
wall sided ship
well-glebed
wild camomile
working heads
Zambrano, R.