Question

There’s a dark little joke: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year sleep. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices. Young people sit on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls― every place Rip goes just puzzles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. "This is a school," he declares. "We used to have these black in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green."

American schools aren’t exactly frozen in time, but considering the pace of change in other areas of life, our public schools tend to feel like throwbacks. Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading textbooks that are out of date. A yawning chasm separates the world inside the schoolhouse from the world outside.

The national conversation on education has long focused on reading scores, math tests and closing the "achievement gap". This is not a story about that conversation. This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams or speak a language other than English.

This week the conversation will burst onto the front page, when the NCSAW releases a blueprint for rethinking American education from pre-K to 12 and beyond to better prepare students to thrive in the global economy. While that report includes some debatable proposals, there is a remarkable agreement among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st century. Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st-century skills.

 

64. What is the writer’s purpose to use a dark little joke in the first paragraph?

   A. To serve as an introduction to Rip Van Winkle.

   B. To draw readers’ attention to the present situations in American schools.

   C. To remind people that American literature plays an important role in economy.

   D. To let its readers enjoy the article from the very beginning.

65. What is the writer’s general impression of American school children?

   A. They look much like their great-grandparents.

   B. They can do everything as they like.

   C. They are well developed on all sides.

   D. They are almost separated from the outside world.

66. From the third paragraph, we know the writer ________. 

   A. has focused on reading scores and math tests

   B. tells a story about the national conversation

   C. tends to care much about the big public conversation

   D. promises to help kids with their grade in the global economy

67. The underlined part “to thrive” in the last paragraph most probably means ________.

   A. to become and continue to be successful and strong.

   B. to enjoy something especially other people would not like.

   C. to compete with other people for better positions

   D. to work in teams with any other people.

Answer 1

BDCA