Question

On a wet Wednesday evening in Seoul, six government employees gathered at the office to prepare for a late-night patrol(巡逻). The mission is to find children who are studying after 10 p. m. and stop them.

In South Korea, it has come to this. To reduce the country’s addiction to private, after-hours tutoring academies(called hagwons), the authorities have begun enforcing a curfew(宵禁令)—even rewarding citizens for turning in violators.

But cramming(临时死记硬背)is deeply anchored in Asia, where top grades have long been prized as essential for professional success. Before toothbrushes or printing presses, there were civil service exams that could make or break you. Chinese families have been hiring test preparation tutors since the 7th century. Nowadays South Korea has taken this competition to new extremes. In 2010, 74% of all students engaged in some kind of private after-school instruction, sometimes called shadow education, at an average cost of KRW 2, 600 per student for a year. There are more private instructors in South Korea than school teachers, and the most popular of them make millions of dollars a year from online and in-person classes. When Singapore’s Education Minister was asked last year about his nation’s reliance on private tutoring, he found one reason for hope, “We are not as bad as the Koreas. ”

In Seoul, legions of students who failed to get into top universities spend the entire year after high school attending hagwons to improve their scores on university admission tests. And they must compete even to do this. At the prestigious Daesung Institute, admission is based on students’ test scores. Only 14% of applicants are accepted. After a year of 14-hour days, about 70% gain entry to one of the nation’s top three universities.

South Koreans are not alone in their discontent. Across Asia, reformers are pushing to make schools more “American”—even as some U. S. reformers make their own schools more “Asian”. In China, universities have begun fashioning new entry tests to target students with talents beyond book learning. And Taiwanese officials recently announced that kids will no longer have to take high-stress exams to get into high school. In South Korea, the apogee of extreme education, gets its reforms right, it could be a model for other societies.

The problem is not that South Korea kids aren’t learning enough or working hard enough, but that they aren’t working smart. When I visited some schools, I saw classrooms in which a third of the students slept while the teacher continued lecturing, seemingly undisturbed.

The government has repeatedly tried to humanize the education system, but after each attempt, the hagwons come back stronger. But this time, its reforms are targeting not just the dysfunctional symptom but also the causes. It is working to improve normal public schools by putting teachers and principals through rigorous(严格的)evaluations—which include opinion surveys by students, parents and peer teachers—and requiring additional training for low-scoring teachers. At the same time, the government hopes to reduce the pressure on students. Admissions tests for high schools have been abolished. Middle schoolers are now judged on the basis of their regular grades and an interview. And 500 admissions officers have been appointed to the country’s universities, to judge applicants not only on their test scores and grades but also other abilities.

1.The six government employees were asked to .

A. arrest the students who work late at night

B. reward citizens who turn in violators

C. conduct a survey among students

D. prevent students from studying too late

2.In Paragraph 3 toothbrushes and printing presses are mentioned in order to .

A. tell us that they were invented in Asia

B. show that hagwons play an important role in people’s daily life

C. show that private tutoring has a long history

D. tell us that civil service exams are of equal importance as them

3.What can be concluded from the passage?

A. Hagwons are the source of South Korea’s educational problem.

B. Students in South Korea don’t learn efficiently.

C. It is the teachers and headmasters who are to blame for the educational problem.

D. Private tutoring is not common in Singapore.

4.The main point of the last paragraph is that .

A. it is very difficult to get rid of hagwons

B. the causes of hagwons have been found

C. teachers will have a hard time because of the reforms

D. the government is determined to reform the present education system

 

Answer 1

1.D

2.C

3.B

4.D

【解析】

1.细节理解题。根据文章第一段中的The misson is to find children who are studying after 10 p. m. and stop them. 可知他们的任务是阻止学生学得太晚。

2.推理判断题。根据第三段内容, 尤其是第一句中的But cramming is deeply anchored in Asia. 可推知, 私人辅导这种教育模式在亚洲根深蒂固。

3.推理判断题。根据文章倒数第二段可知, 不是韩国学生不努力, 而是他们不注重课堂效率。

4.段落大意题。根据最后一段可知, 政府此前对这一教育模式的改革收效甚微, 而这一次政府决心标本兼治, 对目前的教育体制进行大刀阔斧的改革。