Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Testing has taken the place of teaching in most public schools. Pretests, drills, tests, and retests. They know that the best way to read a textbook is to look at the questions at the end of the chapter and then read the text quickly for the answers. I believe that my daughter Erica, who gets excellent marks, has never read a chapter of any of her school textbooks all the way through. And teachers are often heard to say proudly and openly that they teach to the test. Teaching to the test is a curious phenomenon . Instead of deciding what skills students ought to learn, helping students learn them, and then using some methods of assessment to discover whether students have mastered the skills, teachers are encouraged to teach the students in the opposite way. First one looks at a test. Then one chooses the skills needed not to master reading, but to do well in the test. Finally, the test skills are taught. The ability to read or write might suggest the ability to do reasonably well on standardized tests. However, neither reading nor writing develops simply through being taught to take tests. We must be careful to avoid mistaking preparations for a test of a skill with the acquisition of that skill. Too many discussions of basic skills make this misunderstanding because people are tested rather than concerned with the nature and quality of what is taught. Recently, many schools have faced what could be called the crisis of comprehension or, in simple words, the phenomenon of students with grammar skills still being unable to understand what they read. These students are quite good at test taking and filling in workbooks. However, they have little or no experience reading or thinking, and talking about what they read. They know the details but can't see or understand the whole. They are taught to be so concerned with grades that they have no time to think about meaning, and reread things if necessary. Question: In the author's opinion, _ . - some good methods of assessment should take the place of tests - more attention should be paid to the nature and quality of what is taught - students should not be concerned with grades but do more reading and thinking - students needn't learn grammar skills because they are useless for understanding
more attention should be paid to the nature and quality of what is taught

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: My son Gilbert was eight years old and had been in the Cub Scouts only a short time. Once he was handed a sheet of paper, a block of wood and four tires and told to return home and give them all to his father. That was not an easy task for Gilbert to do. The piece of paper was a set of instructions about how to build a wooden racing car. Gilbert's father laughed when he read the instructions. The block of wood remained untouched as the weeks passed. Finally, I stepped in to see if I could figure it all out. Having no skills, I decided it would be best if I simply read the instructions and let Gilbert do the work. And he did. Within days, his block of wood was turning into a pinewood racing car. Then the big night came. With his pinewood racing car in his hand and pride in his heart we headed to the big race. As the race was done in elimination fashion , you could keep racing as long as you were the winner. Finally, it was between Gilbert and the fastestlooking car there. As the race was about to begin, Gilbert asked if they could stop for a minute, because he wanted to pray. Then the race stopped. Gilbert prayed in earnest for a very long minute. The Master came up to Gilbert and asked the obvious question, "So you prayed to win, Gilbert?" My young son answered, "Oh, no Sir. It wouldn't be fair to ask God to help you beat someone else. I just asked him to make it so I don't cry when I lose." Children seem to have wisdom far beyond us. Perhaps we spend too much of our prayer time asking God to control the race, make us the champion, or remove us from the struggle, when we should be seeking God's strength to get through what lies in our way. Question: Gilbert's father thought the task given by the Cub Scouts could _ . - be no trouble at all - be too easy for Gilbert - be beyond Gilbert's ability - require no skills
be beyond Gilbert's ability

Q: Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Over the past 20 years, AIDS and war have claimed the parents of 2.4 million Ugandan children.When Alexis Hefley first visited the country,, in 1993, she saw the children's sorrow, but the former Texas banker also spotted "a world of possibility".She watched as they danced for tourists to earn money, and she had a thought: If people in America could see them perform, they'd support them too. The children's passion and talent inspired Hefley to work with the kids at an orphanage in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, to organize a traveling dance troupe .The goals: to give the problems in Uganda a human face, to raise awareness and to raise money. The first tour touched down at six American cities in 1994.Today, the 22-member troupe, known as the Spirit of Uganda, travels across America every two years.The young performers bring their energy and joy to audiences across the U.S.and help support hundreds of Ugandan orphans back home.Among the young dancers, some earn scholarships to attend the U.S.colleges, and then return to their country to help rebuild it. Photojournalist Douglas Menuez first photographed the troupe in 2006 -?a project that led to his new book, Transcendent Spirit, from which these images are drawn.At each performance, the dancers' faces show pure joy, quite an achievement given the hardships they've faced."They look to the future, not the past," explains Menuez."They embrace beauty and good in the world." As one dancer puts it, "People think we have lost our parents.We've had so many problems.But then they see us perform.They see our smiles.And they learn that life goes on." Question: What do we learn about the Spirit of Uganda? - It was started by a journalist. - It travels across the U.S.annually. - It consists of two dozen performers. - Its dancers have chances to study in the U.S.
A: Its dancers have chances to study in the U.S.

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Students who work during term time to support themselves at university are far more likely to graduate with a poor degree, according to a government-funded study published yesterday. Undergraduates with part-time jobs are a third less likely to get a first or upper second-class degree than other students, harming their career chances. Students from the poorest backgrounds were most likely to take jobs during term because they could not depend on help from their parents. The report, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, also found a clear relation between fear of debt and employment in non-graduate jobs. Students from poorer backgrounds are known to be more unwilling to be in debt than those from middle class families. The study of 8,600 people who graduated in 1999 was made by Peter Elias, of Warwick University, and Kate Purcell, from Bristol Business School. They found that twice as many first-class degrees were awarded to students who did not work during term compared with those who did. Between 35 and 38 percent who worked during term achieved a lower second, compared with about 28 percent of those who did not. Professor Elias said that the increase in school fees next year to PS3,000 would have to be monitored carefully for its effect on poorer students. "Higher education is going to be a harder struggle for those who do not come with all the advantages," he said. He suggested that universities could get in touch with employers to provide work experience on good salaries to choose students during holidays, so that they did not have to work during term. Question: Students who took term-jobs at university _ . - had no possibility to study better than those who didn't - couldn't graduate from school normally in the future - might have trouble in finding a job in the future - were more independent than those who didn't in the future
**Answer**
might have trouble in finding a job in the future