The standardized educational or psychological tests, which are widely used to aid in selecting, assigning or promoting students, employees and military personnel, have been the target of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press, and even in Congress. The target is wrong, for, in attacking the tests, critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-in formed or incompetent users. The tests themselves are merely specified condition. Whether the results will be valuable, meaningless, or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself but largely upon the user.
All informed predictions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance. How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends up on the amount, reliability and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted. Anyone who keeps careful score knows that the information available is always incomplete and that the predictions are always subject to error.
Standardized tests should be considered in this context: they provide a quick, objective method of getting some kind of information about what a person has learned, the skills he has developed, or the kind of person he is. The information so obtained has, qualitatively, the same advantages and shortcomings as other kinds of information~ Whether to use tests; other kinds of information, or both in a particular situation depends, therefore, upon the empirical evidence concerning comparative validity and upon such factors as cost and availability.
In general, the tests work most effectively when the traits or qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined(for example, ability to do well in a particular course of training pro gram)and least effectively when what is to be measured of predicted cannot be well defined, for example, personality or creativity. Properly used, they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information about many people~ Sometimes they identify students whose high potential has not been previously recognized.
In this passage, the author is primarily concerned with ______.
A. the necessity of standardized tests
B. the validity of standardized tests
C. the method used in interpreting the results of standardized tests
D. the theoretical grounds of standardized tests
听力原文: When John Milton, writer of Paradise Lost, entered Cambridge University in 1625, he was already skilled in Latin after seven years of studying it as his second language at St. Paul's school, London. Like all English boys who prepared for college in grammar school, he had learned not only to read Latin but also to speak and write it fluently and correctly. His pronunciation of Latin was English, however, and seemed to have sounded strange to his friends when he later visited Italy.
Schoolboys gained their skill in Latin in a bitter way. They memorized rules to make learning by heart easier. They first made a word-for-word translation and then an idiomatic translation into English. As they increased their skill, they translated their English back into Latin without referring to the book and then compared their translation with the original. The schoolmaster was always at hand to encourage them.
After several years of study, the boys began to write compositions in imitation of the Latin writers they read. And as they began to read Latin poems, they began to write poems in Latin. Because Milton was already a poet at ten, his poems were much better than those painfully put together by other boys. During the seven years Milton spent at the university, he made constant use of his command of Latin. He wrote some excellent Latin poems which he published among his works in 1645.
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A. How John Milton Wrote Paradise Lost.
B. How John Milton Became a Poet.
C. How John Milton Studied Latin.
D. How John Milton Became Famous.
Section B
Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passage and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D.
听力原文: There was once a time, a long time ago, when children had a different way of life. Back during this point in history, the only thing that children needed to learn was how to cope with the environment around them. They had to learn physical survival skills such as being alert around moving objects and drawing back when they met something unsafe. They didn't need to attend schools because they could learn everything from the school of experience. The experience of their daily lives gave them enough education to survive during that less complex period.
School was not necessary for them to learn other skills because their parents would teach them all they needed to know about capturing their food and plowing the earth. Learning the basic survival skills of how to feed oneself and grow food was the only thing most people needed to learn during that time period. Slowly, however, life became more complex, and people found the need to communicate with people in distant places. The world was expanding, and people needed to interact with people outside of their little town or village for business or for personal reasons. Then, it became important that children learn to read and write. When money became the form. of buying and selling, they needed to learn how to count and calculate. These things were fundamental for children to know in order to survive in this more complicated world. And because these skills could not be learned from first-hand experience, schools became necessary to teach them these skills. Children were taught what are now called the three R's, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
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A. Because teachers came to the children's homes.
Because children acquired the information they needed by direct experience.
C. Because children were taught in small, personalized groups at home.
D. Because parents would teach children the three R's themselves.
A.They're trying to win a school competition.B.They're hoping to finance a celebration
A. They're trying to win a school competition.
B. They're hoping to finance a celebration.
C. They need their car washed.
D. They want to put up a large banner.