Our listener question this week comes from Abdullahi Farah, who wants to know about the life and work of Doctor Benjamin Carson. Doctor Carson is an internationally recognized doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the hospital for twenty-five years. At the age of thirty-three, he became one of the youngest doctors in the United States to hold that position. And he was the first African-American to have that position at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Ben Carson is known for his work as a brain surgeon for children. For example, in nineteen eighty-seven, he led a team of seventy doctors and nurses in an operation to separate two babies joined at the head. Earlier attempts by other on other babies had failed. Doctor Carson successfully performed the operation. Both babies were able to survive independently. Doctor Carson has written four books. His first book, "Gifted Hands," tells the story of his life. Benjamin Carson was born in nineteen fifty-one in Detroit, Michigan. As a boy, Ben was not a good student. In fact, he was the worst in his class. When his mother learned of his failing grades she asked her sons to read two library books every week. She limited the amount of time they watched television. And she told them to respect every person. Ben Carson soon became the top student in his class. He went on to study at Yale University, one of the best universities in the country, and later to medical school at the University of Michigan. Doctor Carson has received many awards and honors. Last year he received the nation's highest civilian honor. Former President George W. Bush presented Benjamin Carson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House. What's the aim to write the passage? A) To call on us to learn from Benjamin Carson. B) To praise Benjamin Carson for his achievements. C) To show us how Benjamin Carson succeeded D) To introduce Benjamin Carson's life and work
D
Chances I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job. I also think my work is important. There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career . I wasn't an excellent student because I didn't do much schoolwork. In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn't have much to offer. I just accepted that I wasn't the type to have a career. I then found myself a job, looking after two little girls. It wasn't too bad at first. But the problems began when I agreed to live in, so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening. We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week, she'd give me time off the next. But unfortunately, it didn't often work out. I was getting extremely tired and fed up, because I had too many late nights and early morning with the children. One Sunday, I was in the park with the children, and met Megan who used to go to school with me. I told her about my situation. She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification if I wanted to work with children. I didn't think I would be accepted because I didn't take many exams in school. She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful. My experience counted for a lot and I got on a parttime course. I had to leave my job with the family, and got work helping out at a kindergarten. Now I've got a fulltime job there. I shall always be thankful to Megan. I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career, even if you aren't top of the class at school. When staying with the two girls' family, the author _ . A) was paid for extra work B) got much help from her boss C) took a day off every other week D) often worked long hours
D
Q: As a professor I have grown accustomed to the opinion regarding American education. We are repeatedly told that American schools are failing, that colleges are not teaching, and that the students of today are not as good as the students of the past. There are, of course, problems with the education system. Because of economic inequality some schools are significantly better than others and the ideas of equality of education and equality of opportunity are cruel jokes. However, the mere fact that there are some serious problems does not mean that all the _ claims are true. One stock claim is that America has fallen behind the world in education in terms of performance on various tests. While the fact that America is behind other countries is a point of concern, there are at least three points worth considering here. The first is the above-mentioned economic inequality which will tend to result in poorer performance when taking the average for America. The second is that many countries have put considerable effort into improving their education systems and hence it is worth considering that America's decline is also due to the improvement of others. The third is the matter of the measures-- do they, in fact, present an accurate picture of the situation? I am not claiming that the data is bad. I am merely raising a reasonable concern about how accurate our picture of education is at this time. Another stock claim is that American students are doing badly on standardized tests. While there is clearly value in assessment, it is reasonable to consider whether or not such tests are a proper and adequate measure of education. It is also worth considering whether the puzzle with these tests is itself causing damage to education. That is, as teachers teach for the test and students learn for the test, it might be the case that what is being taught is not what should be taught and what is being learned is not what should be learned. Judging by the text ,the claims are centered on _ . A) what should be taught in the American classroom B) fair judgment of American education C) American students' performance on tests D) an accurate picture of American colleges
A: C
Last week, I was invited to a doctor's meeting at the Ruth Hospital. In one of the rooms a patient, an old man, got up from his bed and moved slowly towards me. I could see that he hadn't long to live, but he came up to me and placed his right foot close to mine on the floor. "Frank!" I cried in surprise. He couldn't answer, as I knew, but he tried to smile, all the time keeping his foot close to mine. My thoughts raced back more than thirty years - to the dark days of 1941, when I was a student in London. The scene was an air-raid shelter , in which I and about a hundred other people slept every night. Among them were Mrs West and her son Frank, who lived nearby. Sharing wartime problems, we got to know each other very well. Frank interested me because he was not normal. He had never been normal, ever since he was born. His mother told me he was 37 then, but he had less of a mind than a baby has. Mrs West, then about 75, was a strong, able woman, as she had to be, of course, because Frank depended on her completely. He needed all the attention of a baby. One night a policeman came into our shelter and told Mrs West that her house had been all destroyed. That wasn't quite true, because the Wests went on living there for quite some time. But they certainly lost nearly everything they owned. When that kind of thing happened, the rest of us helped the unlucky ones. So before we separated that morning, I stood beside Frank and measured my right foot against his. They were about the same size. That night, then, I took a spare pair of shoes to the shelter for Frank. As soon as he saw me, he came running - and paced his right foot against mine. After that, he always greeted me in the same way. How did the writer know that the patient was Frank? A) He was told that Frank was in the hospital. B) He was invited to study Frank's illness. C) Frank's name was written on the door. D) Frank greeted him in a special way.
D