15. The place where you can
find the local area code
E. China
Northeast
Section D Questions 16 - 20 are based on this section. (10 points)
Directions: Read the following passage and choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Education is an enormous and expensive part of American life. Its size is matched by its variety. Differences in American schools compared with those found in the majority of other countries lie in the fact that education here has long been intended for everyone—not just for a privileged elite. Schools are expected to meet the needs of every child, regardless of ability, and also the needs of society itself. This means that public schools offer more than academic subjects. It surprises many people when they come here to find high schools offering such courses as typing, sewing, radio repair, computer programming or driver training, along with traditional academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and languages. Students choose their curricula depending on their interests, future goals, and level of ability. The underlying goal of American education is to develop every child to the utmost of his or her own possibilities, and to give each one a sense of civic and community consciousness.
Schools have traditionally played an important role in creating national unity and “Americanizing” the millions of immigrants who have poured into this country from many different backgrounds and origins. Schools still play a large role in the community, especially in the small towns.
The approach to teaching may seem unfamiliar to many, not only because it is informal, but also because there is not much emphasis on learning facts. Instead, Americans try to teach their children to think for themselves and to develop their own intellectual and creative abilities. Students spend much time, learning how to use resource materials libraries, statistics and computers. Americans believe that if children are taught to reason well and to research well, they will be able to find whatever facts they need throughout the rest of their lives. Knowing how to solve problems is considered more important than the accumulation of facts.
This is America’s answer to the searching question that thoughtful parents all over the
world are asking themselves in the fast-moving time: “How can one prepare today’s child for a tomorrow that one can neither predict nor understand?”
16. What is the underlying goal of American education? A. To teach every learner practical skills. B. To teach every learner rich facts.
C. To provide every student with the opportunity to fully develop his or her ability. D. All of the above.
17. It is implied in the passage that in American high schools ____________________. A. all the students are offered the same courses B. all the students must take practical courses C. teachers choose the courses for their students D. the subjects each student takes may vary
18. American schools place great emphasis on the learner’s _____________________. A. accumulation of facts B. acquisition of creative abilities C. the ability to memorize things D. the ability to use time
19. According to the passage, American education meets the needs of __________________. A. the bright students B. the slow students C. the immigrant students
D. all of the above
20. Which of the following best states the feature of American education that makes it different from the education in other countries? A. The large number of its schools.
B. The variety of the courses offered in its schools. C. Its special consideration given to immigrants.
D. Its underlying goal to develop every child’s abilities to the fullest extent.
Section E Questions 21- 25 are based on this section. (10 points)
Directions: Read the following passage and choose the best answer from A, B, C and D. Blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
No matter who we are or where we live, no matter what our language or our culture is, we have many things in common with all other human beings. We can all feel the breeze on our skin, hear a child cry, enjoy the smell of the flowers, see the stars in the night sky, feel the pain of a knife cut on a finger, experience heat and cold, thirst and hunger and tense and relax our muscles. To use our computer image, we all have the same hardware, the same equipment. We all have similar eyes, ears, muscles and nerve endings that enable us to sense the world.
We can also all think and as a result of thinking, we all know that the physical world exists apart from our ability to sense it. We know that the moon exists even though we have never been there or talked to anyone who has been there. It may look like a shining flat round disk when we look at it, but others tell us that it is more like a round ball with rocks and soil. We believe them even though that is not what we see when we look at the moon. We know many things that we have not directly experienced and we accept the idea that others know these things too. There is a physical reality that is “out there” quite separate from our experience of it.
Our senses and the world beyond our bodies are physical realities that have nothing to do with culture, yet we interpret the information we receive from our senses and this process of interpretation is molded by culture. We interpret a flash of red colour as the
rising sun or a sharp cry as a hungry baby. It is in our culture that we learn how to interpret our sensations. We learn what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
A European coming to China for the first time may think that everyone looks alike because he sees people with black hair and dark eyes everywhere. After a time, if the newcomer is paying attention, he or she will start to see differences in the blackness of hair. It is the same with the taste of food, the sound of voices and the sounds of music. For someone unfamiliar with Asia, at first all rice will just taste like rice. They may not notice differences in types and quality until someone points out their characteristics. In learning Chinese it is especially difficult for speakers of Western languages to hear the tones of Chinese words because words in their languages do not have tones. It is the same for a person from a tropical country who travels to the far north for the first time. He can only see “snow” until a native points out the differences among the various types of snow. In time he will learn to see, to feel and even smell different types of snow. As he walks, he can feel which type of snow is under his feet.
I hope these examples convince you that how we experience the world through our senses is molded by our home culture. One of the least recognized difficulties that people have when they move from a familiar to an unfamiliar culture is the difficulty in perceiving things as the local people do.
21.
The
main
idea
the
author
conveys
in
this
article
is
that
__________________________.
A. we humans have a lot in common in our ability to sense the world B. a physical world does exist beyond our ability to sense it C. our view of what the world looks like is shaped by our culture D. it is difficult for speakers of Western languages to learn Chinese
22. “To use our computer image, we all have the same hardware, the same equipment.” This sentence means that ____________________________. A. the senses of all humans function the same
B. we all use the same hardware and the same equipment in our computers C. our computer image is the same
