2013同等學力申碩英語每日一練 12月14日

　　Directions : In this section ，you are required to read several excerpts from newspapers and / or magazines . These excerpts are followed by four questions or unfinished statements , each with four suggested answers A , B , C and D . Choose the best answer and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET .

　　Excerpt 1

　　The relationship between formal education and economic growth in poor countries is widely misunderstood by economists and politicians alike . Progress in both area is undoubtedly necessary for the social , political and intellectual development of these and all other societies , however , the conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor countries is wrong . We are fortunate that it is , because new educational systems there and putting enough people through them to improve economic performance would require two or three generations . The findings of a research institution have consistently shown that workers in all countries can be trained on the job to achieve radical higher productivity and , as a result , radically higher standards of living .

　　Excerpt 2

　　The most thoroughly studied in the history of the new world are the ministers and political leaders of seventeenth-century New England . According to the standard history of American philosophy , nowhere else in colonial America was “so much important attached to intellectual pursuits”. According to many books and articles , New England ' s leaders established the basic themes and preoccupations of an unfolding , dominant Puritan tradition in American intellectual life .

　　Excerpt 3

　　Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children : " We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or is years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing . " Mark Twain ' s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism . Its hero avoids being civilized---going to school and learning to read---so he can preserve his innate goodness .

　　Excerpt 4

　　While often praised by foreigners for its emphasis on the basics , Japanese education tends to stress test taking and mechanical learning over creativity and self-expression . " Those things that do not show up in the test scores personality , ability , courage or humanity are completely ignored , " says Toshiki Kaifu , chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ' s education committee . " Frustration against this kind of thing leads kids to drop out and run wild . " Last year Japan experienced 2 , 125 incidents of school violence , including 929 assaults on teachers . Amid the outcry , many conservative leaders are seekinga return to the prewar emphasis on moral education . Last year Mitsuo Setoyama , who was then education minister , raised eyebrows when he argued that liberal reforms introduced by the American occupation authorities after World War Ⅱ had weakened the “Japanese morality of respect for parents . "

　　Excerpt 5

　　There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student . Many European schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join . It is , however , pre-sumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists , so many business-men’so many accountants . Besides , this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations .

　　Excerpt 6

　　What accounts for the great outburst of major inventions in early America-breakthroughs such as the telegraph , the steamboat and the weaving machine ?

　　Among the many shaping factors , I would single out the country ' s excellent elementary schools ; a labor force that welcomed the new technology ; the practice of giving premiums to inventors ; and above all the American genius for nonverbal , " spatial " thinking about things technological .

　　Why mention the elementary schools ? Because thanks to these schools our early mechanics , especially in the New England and Middle Atlantic states , were generally literate and at home in arithmetic and in some aspects of geometry and trigonometry .

　　Acute foreign observers related American adaptiveness and inventiveness to this educational advantage . As a member of a British commission visiting here in 1853 reported , " With a mind prepared by thorough school discipline , the American boy develops rapidly into the skilled workman . "

　　1 . The author holds that the important of education in poor countries ____ .

　　A . is subject groundless doubts

　　B . has fallen victim of bias

　　C . is conventional downgraded

　　D . has been overestimated

　　2 . The author notes that in the seventeenth-century New England ____ .

　　A . Puritan tradition dominated political life

　　B . intellectual interests were encouraged

　　C . politics benefited much from intellectual endeavors

　　D . intellectual pursuits enjoyed a liberal environment

　　3 . Emerson is probably _____ .

　　A . a pioneer of education reform

　　B . an opponent of intellectualism

　　C . a scholar in favor of intellect

　　D . an advocate of regular schooling

　　4. Which of the following is true ?

　　A . Japanese education is praised for helping the young climb the social ladder

　　B . The European model of professional training is dependent upon the starting age of candidates .

　　C . More stress should be placed on the cultivation of creativity .

　　D . Adaptiveness and inventiveness of the early American mechanics was brought about by privileged home training .

　　5. According to the author, the great outburst of major inventions in early America was in a large part due to _____ .

　　A . elemental ' y schools

　　B . enthusiastic workers

　　C . the attractive premium system

　　D . a special way of thinking