The World around Us. Любинская Н.А. - 5 стр.

termination and a dream. And I don’t know any school that teaches those things,
or any test that can discern or assess them.
                                                      William J.O’Malley, S.J.

       I am deeply troubled by society’s attention to the standardized tests used
by high school. High SAT scores prove just two things: math ability and good
vocabulary skills. Period. No one has invented a standardized test to assess the
qualities that really determine a prospective student’s ability to do well in col-
lege: willpower, self-control and self-motivation. Will my son or daughter walk
away from a party at 1 a.m., knowing he or she has an 8 a.m. class? Will they
put down the beer and pick up the books, with no adult around to tell them to do
it? Can an SAT score determine the values that are more important to a student’s
success in school than any knowledge or skill you can measure?
                                                                  Beverly J.Lynch
                                                (Newsweek. 2003. 27 September)

A. Comprehension
 I. Match the following words (1–10) with definitions (a-j)
 1. deplore             a.      subjects included in a course of studies
 2. meritocracy         b.      pursue constantly in order to discover or
                                reach
 3. hound               c.      a weight hung from a fixed point so that it
                                can swing freely
 4. quit                d.      disapprove of something, condemn with sad-
                                ness
 5. pendulum            e.      be given a label
 6. curriculum          f.      detect, find out
 7. empathy             g.      leave a job
 8. discern             h.      a full stop, showing that no discussion is nec-
                                essary
 9. be tagged           i.      the ability to share other people’s feelings
 10. period             j.      a system giving preference to students with
                                high test-scores

II.   Read the article again and answer the questions
1.     What is the subject of the discussion?
2.     What is the structure of the text?
3.     Comment on the views of correspondents.
4.     What is the real mission of education?
5.     What is your attitude to SSE?




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