Question

 The speaker,a teacher from a community college,addressed a sympathetic audience. Heads nodded in agreement when he said, "High school English teachers are not doing their jobs. " He described the inadequacies of his students,all high school graduates who can use language only at a grade 9 level. I was unable to determine from his answers to my questions how this grade 9 level had been established.

  My topic is not standards nor its decline (降低) .What the speaker was really saying is that he is no longer young;he has been teaching for sixteen years,and is able to think and speak like a mature adult.

  My point is that the frequent complaint of one generation about the one immediately following it is inevitable. It is also human nature to look for the reasons for our dissatisfaction. Before English became a school subject in the late nineteenth century,it was difficult to find the target of the blame for language deficiencies (缺陷) .But since then,English teachers have been under constant attack.

  The complainers think they have hit upon an original idea. As their own command of the language improves,they notice that young people do not have this same ability. Unaware that their own ability has developed through the years,they assume the new generation of young people must be hopeless in this respect. To the eyes and ears of sensitive adults the language of the young always seems inadequate. .

  Since this concern about the decline and fall of the English language is not noticed as a generational phenomenon but rather as something new and peculiar to today's young people,it naturally follows that today's English teachers cannot be doing their jobs. Otherwise,young people would not commit offenses against the language.

(   ) 1. The speaker the author mentioned in the passage believed that        .

   A. the language of the younger generation is usually inferior to that of the older generation

   B. the students had a poor command of English because they didn't work hard enough

   C. he was an excellent language teacher because he had been teaching English for sixteen years

   D. English teachers should be held responsible for the students' poor command of English

(   ) 2. In the author's opinion,the speaker         .

   A. gave a correct judgment of the English level of the students

   B. had exaggerated the language problems of the students

   C. was right in saying that English teachers were not doing their jobs

   D. could think and speak intelligently

(   ) 3. The author's attitude towards the speaker's remarks is         .

   A. neutral   B. positive   C. critical   D. compromising

(   ) 4. In the passage the author argues that         .

   A. it is unfair to blame the English teachers for the language deficiencies of the students

   B. young people would not commit offences against the language if the teachers did their jobs properly

   C. to eliminate language deficiencies one must have sensitive eyes and ears

   D. to improve the standard of English requires the effort of several generations

Answer 1

1. D該題為細節(jié)題，由原文"High school English teachers are not doing their jobs."可得出答案。

2. B該題為觀點態(tài)度題。由第3段可以看出，把握關鍵詞"My point"，分清何為作者觀點，何為文章中提到的人物的觀點。

3. C該題為觀點態(tài)度題，本題可以在第2題的基礎上做進一步推理即可得出答案。

Critical 的詞義為該題的難點，意為：批評的，意見相反的。

4. A該題為推理判斷題。從作者行文及遣詞可以看出，作者認為：英語的衰退是個"generational phenomenon”，老師不應為此受到譴責。