2020年PETS-3考试教材第十七单元：教育

Unit 17 Education

Conversations：

part 1

Wang Ming and Chang Hua are taling about English study.

What keeps you so busy lately?Studying English.

Why do you study English so hard?

You know we're going to have PETS Level 3 next month.

I'm afraid I can't pass it.

Your English is not so bad.

Thank you,but I'm afraid my writing is not good enough.

I often make mistakes in sentence structures.

The English sentence structure is quite different from that of Chinese.

And there are so many idiomatic ways of speaking.

Our teacher said we should drill as much as possible,and the more we use phrases,expressions and idioms,the more natural they will become.

But drill is tedious.

Speaking,listening,reading and writing are closely combined.

We need more practice."Practice makes perfect."

Good suggestion.We should practise all the skills together.

Only by doing so can we achieve great progress in the correct use of English.

2.Mike and Lisa are talking about the beginning of the college days.

How's your beginning of the college days,Lisa?

Oh,it's chaotic during the first week of the semester.

Why?We had to register for classes.

But I didn't know which building to go to.

Was there anybody who helped you?

Oh,yes.A sophomore told me,but I didn't know where it was.

Oh,I'm sorry to hear that.How was it then?

Finally,I found the place.

I realized that it is very important for me to be familiar with the teaching buildings first.

What did you do next?

I selected courses,paid fees and attended the school-opening ceremony for new students.

Where was the school-opening ceremony held?

In the hall.The president walked on to the platform.

He said that he was happy to see new intelligent-looking students.

He hoped that we would all manage to profit from our courses of study.

3.Xu Lin and Wei Fang are talking about using the library.

Excuse me.Can you tell me how to find some books on African Education?

Sure.You see all these little drawers here and all the way around the walls?Yes...

These drawers contain cards describing every book in our library.

Together they constitute the library's"card catalog".

You can see drawers run from one part of the alphabet to another.

So if I'm looking for a book called African Education,I'd just look under"A".

Yes.But if the book is called A History of Modern Dance,You'd look under"M".

The article"a"and"the"don't count in the alphabet,and the cardsa re generally omitted for very common words and phrases such as"History of","Introduction to"and so on.

What if I don't know the name of the book?

Then you can look under the writer's name.

For example,you want to find a book byn Theodore Dreiser.

You'd look under Theodore and then Dreiser.

And suppose I don't know either the title or the author,but simply want to look at some book on art?

Look under the subject heading.

In this case you can look under"Art".

The information on the card will help you determine whether or not you're interested in that particular book.

4.Malin and Rose are talking about changes in teh higher education in Britain.

As a college student,

I'd like to know something about changes in the higher education in Britain.

The expansion in education in recent years has led to many important changes in the higher education system.

What's the percentage of the high school graduates to colleges?

Well...In the year 2002,at least,one in three of the high school graduates entered higher education or training.

There must be changes in courses and teaching methods as well.

Sure.In addition to courses in the traditional disciplines and research,universities are placing more emphasis upon developing students'creative ability.In the US the colleges and universities are rated each year.

How is that in Britain?

There is a national review body to assess all university departments and give a rating for their research and teaching every four years.

Unitversity with the highest rating will get more government funding.

Passage Education for All

In 1944 Congress passed the Servicemen's Rdadjustment Act,soon popularly called the"Gi Bill of Rights".

("GI",at the time,was a nickname for the American soldier.

The nickname came from an abbreviation for"Governamet Issue"

---the uniforms and other articles"issued"to a soldier.)

The Act promised financial aid,including aid for higher education,to members fo the armed forces after the end of World War II.

The war ended in the following year.

The prediction was that about 600 000 war veterans would apply for aid for education.

By 1955,more than two million had used their GI Bill of Rights to go to college(and the total kept increasing).

Many of these veterans were from poor families.

Thirty percent were married when they applied for college aid;ten percent had children.

More than a few had to work part-time while they took courses.

It was difficult,but these veterans believed that a college degree(which they could not afford on their own)would improve their chances for a good job in the post-war economy.

Some went to liberal arts colleges;others to technical and professional institutions.

Their outstanding success in all these schools forced everyone connected with higher education to rething its purpose and goals.

Within just a few years,

American veterans had changed the image of who should go to college.

In post-war America,other groups sought their place on America's campuses,too.

The enrollment of women in higher education began to increase.

Black and Hispanic minorities demand and end to segregation in elementary and secondary education

--and thus an equal opportunity to get into college.

(In the United States the term"minority"has two meanings,offten related:

(1)A minority is any ethnic or racial group that makes up a small percentage of the total poputation;

(2)The term also suggests a group that has less political power than the majority.)

By the 1960s,college introduced special plans and programs to equalize educational opportunities--at every level,for all groups.

Some of these plans were called"affirmative action programs".

Their goal was to make up for past inequality by giving special preference to members of minorities seeking jobs or admission to college.

Some colleges,for example,sponsored programs to help minority students prepare for college while still in high school.

By the 1970s,the United States government stood firmly behind such goals.

It required coleges and universities receiving public funds to practise some form of affirmative action.

But when colleges began to set quotas (fixed numbers)of minority students to be admitted,many Americans(including minority citizens)protested.

They felt that this was another form of discrimination.

As with most(but not all)problems in American public life,the conflict was resolved by change and compromise.

Colleges continued to serve the goal of affirmative action--but in less controversial ways.

One large university,for example,announced a new policy:

It would seek to admit students who would add diverse talents to the student body.

It thus dealt with all applicants--minorities included--

On a basis that was not restricted to high schook performance and entrance tests,but which took into account the talents,voluntary activities and"life experience"of the student.

What success did these efforts have?

By the early 1980s,almost as many women as men were enrolled in some form of higher education.but only one out of every six students in American higher education came form a minority group.

Thus,minorities--who make up about 20 percent of the United States population--had not yet fully reached their education goals.

Nevertheless,the democratic revolution of American higher education had made remarkable advances.

Words and Expressions:

serviceman nickname abbreviation

n.军人n.绰号n.缩写

veteran work part-time on one's own

n.退役军人兼职凭自己的力量

be connected with rethink campus

与...相联系v.再想n.校园

enrollment minority segregation

n.登记，注册n.少数民族;少数派n.隔离

racial make up make up for

adj.种族的组成弥补

affirmative sponsor discrimination

adj.肯定v.主办n.歧视

resovle compromise restrict

v.消除n.和解v.限制

take into account voluntary enroll

考虑adj.自愿的v.登记;使入学

Exercises

Section I Listening Comprehension

Listen to the record.

Answer each question by choosing A,B,C or D from the four possible choices.

A Mary,why were you late for work this morning?

I overslept and missed the bus.

Did you see Bill in the Department office?

yes,he was applying for a student loan.

Aren't we supposed to have an English test this afternoon?

It si postponed because the teacher is ill.

How long ahs Jack been working on his paper,three weeks?

At least that long.

John thinks he has much trouble in learning maths and French,he wants to drop them.

I'm sorry to hear that.

You'd better prevent him form doing that.

I see that you are good at Physics and Chemistry.

Would you like to be a postgraduate at the unitversity or would you rather get a job?

I'd rather get a job,I think.

What did you do in class yesterday morning?

The teacher reviewed last Mondy's lesson.

How long have you studied Japanese?

I've never learned Japanese.

I started to learn French three year ago.

Have you read Jack's paper?

I thought it would be boring.

Did you pass your English exam?

Yes,but I have never had a more difficult one before.

B It seems that only half of the students passed the final examination.

Well,it doesn't surprise me at all,you know.

The exam was very difficult this time.

Well,I'm really surprised.

There are many students who definitely didn't fail.

According to Jack,there are eight boys in his class who failed,including Scott.

No!I don't believe it!

Scott is one of the top students in the college.

What about his sister?Did she pass?

Oh,yes.It seems she got good marks.

That's absolutely incredible!

Scott was a much better student than his sister,and has been working so ahrd for the last few months.

It seems unfair,doesn't it?

But,from what I've heard,perhaps he worked too hard.he was ill during the week of the exam.

Oh,I see.These things happen,sometimes.

I suppose the dean will take his illness into account and give hime a pass.

Well,there's a rumour going around that the head of the Department is leaving."

Because of the bad result,you mean?

Well,I suppose so.I'm not sure.

Maybe,Mr.Smith is going to be the new Department Head.

C The college had a very good basketball team,and its best player was a student who always had trouble in school.

Then one year the dean of the college said that the player would have to leave because he had cheated on an exam.

The basketball coach immediately went to the dean to try to persuade hime to let the student stay in school.

The dean showed him two answer papers.

"This one is Rose's paper.

She is the top student in the class,"he said.

"And this one's your basketball player's.

They're almost the same.

The basketball player sat at the next desk,and just copied from her."

"But maybe she copied from him,"the coach said.

"You can't prove it was the other way.""Look at this,"the dean said.

"Rose didn't know the answer to this question,so she wrote,'I don't know!'

And You basketball player wrote,'Neither do!'"

Supplementary Reading

Get a Jump on Learning

you've been involved in early education for....For years.

At what age should public school start?

At kindergarten.I think Head Start is very important,and parents'picking really good day-care centers for their children,if their children go to day care,is important.

It's crucial,really,to child's success later.

It's no surprise that research proves that how much a child has been read to before they start school determines how successful they'll be,especially in the first year.

Should there be curriculum for these early childhood centers?

Yes.One of the things that the president wats in his education plan is for Head Start to have an academic goal along with social and nutritional and health-related goals.

There is a Head Start center in Dallas called the Margaret Cone Center that the Texas Instruments Foundation adopted about 15 years ago.

This is a neighborhood with the highest poverty,they lowest deucation rate,the most single-parent households.

For two years Texas Instruments provided every health and nutrition benifit they could.year-round day care.Three meals a day.

Even after that,when the children started kindergarten they were still tested in the bottom one percentile on the Lower test of basic skills.

The T.I.Foundation knew they had to add something else.

A reading professor at Smu,Nell Carvell,developed what she called LEAP,Language Enrichment Activities Program.

It's not a curriculum that asks little three and four-year-olds to sit at a desk.

They play all day.

But she added pre-reading skills--story telling,story listening,talking about letters,talking about sounds.

The children starting kindergarten tested in the 74th to 75th percentile on the Lower test.

They now have 10 or 11 years of reserch.

Let's follow up on the English as a second language idea and the controversy over bilingual education.

I think bilingual education is great if we know it helps children learn to speak and read in English.

The goal for children in America is to learn to read and speak English.

For children who are lucky enough to be bilingual the goal is to become bilateral,to learn to read and speak well in English,but also to take advantage of their heritage.

It's a huge advantage.

There are so few Americans who are actually bilateral,especially compared to Europeans.

More than one million students are being schooled at home.

Do you think home-schooling is a good idea?

I do.Parents are willing and disciplined enough to make sure their child gets a great education.

And in most cases the parents are very,very disciplined.

I think it's a fine idea if people want to do it.

All the way through?

Sure,if they want to.

Aside from your family,can you name someone who influenced you most?

My second-grade teacher,Charlene Gnagy.

I wanted to be so much like her that I decided in the second grade I wanted to teach.

I saw an article about how women are choosing teaching again.

The daughter of a longtime friend of mine has decided she wants to teach and she's gone back to school.

And amazingly enough,six of her friends have done the same thing.

And one reason,my friend thinks,is because of the television show"Boston Public".

I think that's great.

Because teaching went very out of fashion for a while.

A lot of older people want to teach,and some are shut out because of degree and certification policies.well,in New York there's a program called the New Teacher Project,and her it's called the D.C.Teaching Fellows.both of those help midcareer people who don't have education degrees to get their teaching certificate.

There's also a federally-funded program that encourages retiring military to choose teaching.

They still have a lot of productive years.

They have already worked with young people,and they bring a lot of discipline and maturity to the classroom.

When I was in Kosovo,the NCO whispered to me,

"When I retire,I'm going to teach in Memphis.

I want to teach at-risk kids."So that's good.

Because there's no other more important profession than teaching.