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Next month 11-year-olds will sit a series of short tests (SATs) in maths and English—a fact that causes much unhappiness among England’s teachers. At the National Education Union’s (NEU) recent conference, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leader, announced to hearty applause that he would scrap these tests and that he would review other primary-school assessments.

The attention serves as a reminder of the strength of feeling generated by testing young children. Unlike GCSE (taken at 16) and A-levels (at 18), SATs hold little sway over a pupil’s future. At most, they will help determine which academic stream the child enters in their first year at secondary school. Their chief purpose is to measure teachers and schools. If children are making good progress in their sums but not their reading, a school can devote more resources to English lessons.

Nevertheless, teachers complain that they are under too much pressure to squeeze high marks out of their pupils. League tables are based on the percentage of children reaching certain standards, the schools inspectorate uses their results to inform its judgments and some teachers are on performance-related pay. Not all respond well. One head teacher in Leeds dragged a high-performing pupil from their sick bed to take a test.

Another worry is that the emphasis on results has led to a narrowing of the curriculum as schools focus on maths and English, the only subjects tested. Two-thirds of primary schools spend less than two hours a week teaching science, which was dropped from the tests in 2009.

Both problems arise from the way in which schools respond to the tests, rather than from the tests themselves. Transmitting pressure to pupils “can be a symptom of bad teaching”, says Natalie Perera of the Education Policy Institute, a think-tank. One remedy to the problem of narrow curriculums might be to dictate the time spent on each subject, as is the case in Finland. Instead, the government is planning tweaks that will ease the pressure on schools. Plans under consultation would mean that poor exam results no longer triggered intervention, which can lead to management changes. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), meanwhile, is placing more emphasis in its inspections on ensuring that a “broad and balanced” curriculum is taught, as the law requires.

Mr Corbyn has promised that his alternative system will encourage creativity. It is a quality he will need himself if he is to find a way to keep tabs on how much pupils are learning without using tests.

31. From the first paragraph, we know that SATs ______.

[A] are disliked by 11-year-old students

[B] will be scrapped by the NEU soon

[C] are applauded by the Labour party

[D] arouse teachers’ negative emotion

32. One purpose of SATs is to ______.

[A] test students’ emotional strength

[B] improve kids’ academic ability

[C] help adjust schools’ curriculum

[D] offer careers guidance to pupils

33. Teachers feel pressure because of ______.

[A] using test scores as their performance indicator

[B] their students’ lower rank on League tables

[C] severe criticism from schools inspectorate

[D] high-performing pupils’ poor health condition

34. Which of the following statements is true according to Paragraph 5?

[A] Natalie Perera criticizes teachers for their bad teaching skills.

[B] Narrow curriculum is not in conformity with the current law.

[C] Schools plan to hire consultants to cope with poor exam results.

[D] The government intends to dictate the time spent on each subject.

35. The author’s attitude towards Mr Corbyn’s promise is one of ______.

[A] indifference

[B] appreciation

[C] skepticism

[D] hopefulness

    31.【答案】D

    【解析】本题为细节题。根据题干关键词thefirstparagraph与SATs可定位到原文第一段①句。破折号后指出，该事件引发了教师的不满。D项arouseteachers’negativeemotion(激起了教师的负面情绪)是其同义表达。故正确答案为D。

    【干扰项】A项中的11-year-olds源自①句，但原文并没说学生们讨厌考试。B项中的scrapped源自②句，但想要废除SATs的是JeremyCorbyn，并不是NEU。C项利用②句中的toheartyapplause制造干扰，但原文并没有说鼓掌的是Labourparty。

    32.【答案】C

    【解析】本题为细节题。根据题干关键词purpose可定位到第二段④句，该句指出SATs的主要作用是评估老师和学校。⑤句进一步举例指出，根据孩子不同科目的表现而调整教学资源。C项helpadjustschools’curriculum(帮助调整学校的课程)是这一含义的同义表述。故正确答案为C。

    【干扰项】A项是对第二段①句的曲解，原文说的是一旦涉及到测验儿童，人们会有强烈的感情反应，而不是teststudents’emotionalstrength(测试学生的感情力量)。B项利用③句中的academic一词制造干扰，但原文并没说improvekids’academicability(提高孩子的学术能力)。D项无中生有，原文没有提过offercareersguidancetopupils(为学生提供职业指导)。

    33.【答案】A

    【解析】本题为细节题。根据题干关键词teachers与pressure可定位到第三段①句。该句指出老师们很难让学生考出高分。②句继而指出，学生分数关系到他们的工资。A项usingtestscoresastheirperformanceindicator(使用测试成绩作为教学表现的指标)是其总结概括。故正确答案为A。

    【干扰项】B项中的Leaguetables源自②句，但这并非指学生排名，而是学校排名。C项中的schoolsinspectorate源自②句，但原文并没提到severecriticism(严厉批评)。D项是对④句的曲解，但这不是老师觉得压力很大的原因，而是老师在高压下的极端反应。

    34.【答案】B

    【解析】本题为细节题。根据Paragraph5只可定位到第五段，只能再利用选项中的关键词一一回文定位。从⑥句可知，法律要求教授“广泛而平衡”的课程。B项Narrowcurriculumisnotinconformitywiththecurrentlaw.(狭窄的课程不符合当前法律要求)是该含义的同义表述。故正确答案为B。

    【干扰项】A项利用②句进行干扰，但原文并未提到criticizesteachers(批评教师)。C项利用⑤句中的consultation和poorexamresults等片段信息制造干扰，但原文根本没提到hireconsultantstocopewithpoorexamresults(招聘顾问应对糟糕的考试成绩)。D项利用③句进行干扰，但这是芬兰的做法，政府并没有采用。

    35.【答案】C

    【解析】本题为态度题。根据题干关键词MrCorbyn可定位到第六段。②句用强调句Itisaqualityhewillneedhimself…指出创新是他自己都需要的品质，言下之意是MrCorbyn的提议没有创造力，不太可行。因此作者持怀疑态度。故正确答案为C。

    【干扰项】A项indifference(漠不关心)、B项appreciation(欣赏)、D项hopefulness(充满希望)都不符合题意。

    【参考译文】

    下个月，11岁的孩子们将会参加一系列数学和英语小测验(SATs)——这在英国教师中引发诸多不满。最近，在全国教育联盟(NEU)的一次会议上，工党领袖杰里米·科尔宾宣布他将取消这些测试，这一决定获得了听众热烈的掌声，而且他还宣布他将重新考察其他小学测试。

    这次对SATs考试的关注提醒人们，当涉及到测验儿童时，人们产生的感情很强烈。与普通中等教育考试(在16岁时参加)和A-levels考试(在18岁时参加)不同，SATs对学生未来几乎没有什么影响，最多能够帮助学生确定中学第一年时的分班。其主要作用是评估老师和学校。如果孩子们在算术上进步很大，但在阅读上却没有进步，那么学校就可以投入更多的资源到英语课程上。

    然而，教师们抱怨说，他们面临的压力太大，无法鞭策学生考出高分。学校排名表是基于达到某一成绩标准的学生的百分比来算的，学校监察机构以学生的考试成绩作为评判的依据，一些教师的工资与学生的成绩挂钩。这并没有产生积极的效应。利兹市的一位班主任将一名成绩优异的学生从病榻上拽起来去参加考试。

    另一个担忧是，过度强调考试结果会导致课程内容变窄，因为学校只专注于数学和英语(只有这两门科目有考试)。2009年科学考试被取消，目前三分之二的小学每周教授科学课的时间不足两个小时。

    这两个问题的根源不在考试本身，而是校方对待考试的方式。教育政策研究所的娜塔莉·佩雷拉说，向学生传递压力“可能是教学质量低下的征兆”。解决课程狭窄问题的一个解决方法是：像芬兰一样，规定每个科目所花费的时间。相反，政府正计划进行一些调整以减轻学校的压力。正在协商的计划意味着糟糕的考试成绩将不再引发干预，这可能导致管理层的变化。与此同时，教育标准办公室(Ofsted)更加重视检查以确保根据法律要求教授“广泛而平衡”的课程。

    科尔宾先生承诺，他的替代方案将会鼓励学生的创造力。如果他要找到一种方法能够不通过考试就能掌握学生的学习情况，那么他自己得有点创造力。

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