18考研英语:阅读理解模拟训练之教育学话题(三)
做题引导 原文阅读 High teaches at Providence Elementary School in Fairfax City, Va., which has a lot riding on the success of her efforts. As part of Virginia's high-stakes testing program, schools that don't boost their scores by the year 2007 could lose state funding. So Fairfax City, just 18 miles southwest of the White House, has upgraded its two crumbling elementary schools with new high-tech television studios, computer labs and one very old feature——mandatory Latin. Here lies one of the more counterintuitive developments of the standardized-testing movement: Though some critics complain that teachers are forced to dumb down their lessons and “teach to the test,” some schools are offering more challenging course work as a way of engaging students. In the past three years, scores of elementary schools in high-stakes testing states such as Texas, Virginia and Massachusetts have added Latin programs. Says Allen Griffith, a member of the Fairfax City school board: “If we're trying to improve English skills, teaching Latin is an awfully effective, proved method.” This is not your father's Latin, which was taught to elite college-bound high schoolers and drilled into them through memorization. Its tedium and perceived irrelevance almost drove Latin from public schools. Today's growth in elementary school Latin has been spurred by new, interactive oral curriculums, enlivened by lessons in Roman mythology and culture. “One thing that makes it engaging for kids is the goofy fun of investigating these guys in togas,” says Marion Polsky, author of First Latin: A Language Discovery Program, the textbook used in Fairfax City. Latin enthusiasts believe that if young students learn word roots, they will be able to decipher unfamiliar words. (By some estimates, 65% of all English words have Latin roots.) Latin is an almost purely phonetic language. There are no silent letters, and each letter represents a single sound. That makes it useful in teaching reading. And once kids master the grammatical structure of Latin——which is simple, logical and consistent——they will more easily grasp the many grammatical exceptions in English. 注(1):本文选自Time;12/11/2000, p61; 1. From the first Paragraph we learn that _____. 2. Which of the following statements is not true according to the text? 3. According to Allen Griffith, Latin _______. 4. Which of the following best defines the word “plaudite”? 5. One reason for Latin enthusiasts to support young students‘ learning Latin is _______.
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