Clive Roberts.a(chǎn) director at ELS Educational Services,says English tests are changing greatly in response to the global growth in the use of English as a lingua franca—the common language used among people with I different native languages.For that reason,a lot of new tests are being developed while old tests are being improved to meet the needs of universities and employers worldwide.

Changes in language testing

“A lot of tests are now delivered online,all four skills are being tested,in some cases,by computer,in particular speaking and writing skills,which are the most difficult to assess on a computer environment,”says Mr.Roberts.

Computer testing will reduce the length of time required for testing,because the tests adjust to the test-taker’s ability.These computer-adaptive tests also increase accuracy in scoring.Computer-a- daptive tests change depending on the test-taker’s responses.They can become more or less difficult during the testing session.For this reason,the set of correct answers will be different for each test-taker.

Cultural sensitivity

Another change to language testing relates to cultural sensitivity.The term refers to material on a test that is based on a certain culture or is hard for test-takers from different cultures to understand.

Mr.Roberts says test development companies are now hiring people with intercultural communication backgrounds to review test items.The companies want to make sure the test does not upset test-takers.

Proficiency(精通程度)in language

Changes to English proficiency tests make them better at measuring the learners’ability.However,Mr.Roberts says the changes may mean the tests are more difficult for some students.

“The tests have become more proficiency-oriented.The items are being designed in such a way that they test real-world proficiency and not simply sort of an artificial environment or a specific set of skills that are taught in a classroom.So a lot of authentic texts,a lot of authentic listening passages are being used.”

The changes mean students have to be able to understand English the way it is used in everyday life,not just in textbooks.

1.Which of the following can best replace the underlined words“a lingua franca”in Paragraph l?

A. a universal language B.a(chǎn) second language

C.a(chǎn) native language D.a(chǎn) mother tongue

2.Which of the following is true about online English tests?

A.Listening is more difficult to be tested online than speaking.

B.Online English tests need more time.

C.Online English tests make scoring more accurate.

D.Online English tests are more difficult.

3.Why is proficiency stressed in language testing?

A.To make the test more difficult.

B.To get learners to learn textbooks well.

C.To test learners’speaking ability.

D.To test learners’real ability to use the language.

4.which words can best describe the new English tests?

A. More accurate but easier.

B.Less practical but harder.

C. Better but harder.

D.Less popular but easier.

練習(xí)冊(cè)系列答案
相關(guān)習(xí)題

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2015-2016學(xué)年吉林扶余第一中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解

It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.

The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries(食品雜貨), saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.

I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.

People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity(人性)as a whole. And it has influenced(影響)us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting.

1.Why was the bike so important to the couple?

A.The man’s job was bike racing.

B.It was their only possession.

C.It was a nice Kona 18 speed.

D.They used it for work and daily life.

2.We can infer from the text that ____________.

A.the couple worked 60 hours a week.

B.people were busy before Christmas

C.the stranger brought over the bike

D.life was hard for the young family.

3.How did people get to know the couple’s problem?

A.From radio broadcasts.

B.From a newspaper.

C.From TV news.

D.From a stranger.

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2016屆湖北武漢武昌區(qū)高三元月調(diào)研考試英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:完形填空

完形填空。閱讀下面短文,從短文后所給各題的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)(A、B、C和D)中,選出可以填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng),并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。

That night we lay on the floor in the room and I listened to the silk-worms eating. The silk-worms .on shelves of mulberry (桑樹(shù))leaves and all night you could hear them eating and a dropping sound in the leaves. I myself didn’t want to because I had been living for a long time with the that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my would go out of my body. I had been that way for a long time, since I was sleepless at night and felt it go out of me and go off and then .I tried never to think about it, but it had started to go since, in the nights, just at the of going off to sleep, and I could only stop it by a very great . So while now I am fairly sure that it would not really have gone out, yet then, that summer, I was unwilling to make the .

I had different ways of myself while I lay awake. I would think of a trout(鱒魚(yú)) stream I had fished along when I was a boy; and fish its whole length very in my mind; fishing under all the logs, all the turns of the , the deep holes and the clear shallow stretches, sometimes .trout and sometimes losing them. I would stop fishing at noon to eat my lunch; sometimes on a log the stream; sometimes on a high bank under a tree; and I always ate my lunch very slowly and the stream below me while I ate. Often I ran out of bait(誘餌) because I would take ten .with me in a tobacco tin when I started. When I had used them all I had to find worms and sometime it was very difficult digging in the bank of the stream the cedar trees kept out the sun and there was no grass but only the wet earth and often I could find no worms. Always I found some kind of bait, but one time in the swamp I could find no bait at all and had to one of the trout I had caught and used him for bait.

1.A. lived B. fed C. moved D. carried

2.A. eat B. sleep C. talk D. leave

3.A. purpose B. imagination C. knowledge D. excuse

4.A. soul B. idea C. sense D. temper

5.A. even B. yet C. still D. ever

6.A. come back B. come up C. get away D. get off

7.A. risk B. moment C. sight D. request

8.A. intention B. regret C. effort D. focus

9.A. achievement B. encouragement C. entertainment D. experiment

10.A. occupying B. devoting C. concerning D. equipping

11.A. casually B. aimlessly C. painfully D. carefully

12.A. root B. bank C. jungle D. coast

13.A. spotting B. approaching C. killing D. catching

14.A. beyond B. over C. through D. beneath

15.A. watched B. conducted C. crossed D. measured

16.A. weeds B. worms C. insects D. leaves

17.A. better B. larger C. more D. heavier

18.A. when B. how C. why D. where

19.A. bare B. pure C. holy D. vivid

20.A. cut up B. cut down C. cut off D. cut in

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2015-2016學(xué)年福建八縣一中高二上學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解

No poem should ever be discussed or “analyzed”, until it has been read aloud by someone, teacher or student. Better still, perhaps, is the practice of reading it twice, once at the beginning of the discussion and once at the end, so the sound of the poem is the last thing one hears of it.

All discussions of poetry are, in fact, preparations for reading it aloud, and the reading of the poem is, finally, the most telling “interpretation”(解讀) of it, suggesting tone, rhythm, and meaning all at once. Hearing a poet read the work in his or her own voice, on records or on film, is obviously a special reward. But even those aids to teaching can not replace the student and teacher reading it or, best of all, reciting it.

I have come to think, in fact, that time spent reading a poem aloud is much more important than “analyzing” it, if there isn’t time for both. I think one of our goals as teachers of English is to have students love poetry. Poetry is “ a criticism of life”, and “ a heightening(提升) of life”. It is “an approach to the truth of feeling”, and it “can save your life”. It also deserves a place in the teaching of language and literature more central than it presently occupies.

I am not saying that every English teacher must teach poetry. But those who do teach poetry must keep in mind a few things about its essential nature, about its sound as well as its sense, and they must make room in the classroom for hearing poetry as well as thinking about it.

1.To have a better understanding of a poem, one should________.

A. discuss it with others B. analyze it by oneself

C. copy it down in a notebook D. practise reading it aloud

2.According to the writer, one of the purposes of teaching English is to get students________.

A. to understand life. B. to enjoy poetry.

C. to become teachers. D. to become poets

3.What does the last sentence in the third paragraph imply?

A. More importance should be attached to the teaching of poetry.

B. Poetry is more important than any other subject.

C. One cannot enjoy life fully without an understanding of poetry

D. Poetry is the foundation of all language and literature courses

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2015-2016學(xué)年浙江溫州十校聯(lián)合體高二上學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:單項(xiàng)填空

This meeting room is a non-smoking area. I would like to warn you___________ that if you smoked here you would be fined.

A. in general B. in detail

C. in advance D. in total

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2016年河南鄭州高三上學(xué)期第一次質(zhì)量預(yù)測(cè)英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解

Social change is more likely to occur in societies where there is a mixture of different kinds of people than in societies where people are similar in many ways. The simple reason for this is that there are more different ways of looking at things present in the first kind of society. There are more ideas, more disagreements in interest, and more groups and organizations with different beliefs. In addition, there is usually a greater worldly interest and greater tolerance in mixed societies. All these factors (因素)tend to promote social change by opening more areas of life to decision. In a society where people are similar in many ways, there are fewer situations for people to see the need or the chance for change because everything seems to be the same. And although conditions may not be satisfactory, they are at least customary and clear.

Within a society, social change is also likely to occur more frequently and more readily in the material aspects of the culture than in the non-material aspects, for example, in technology rather than in values; in what has been learned later in life rather than what was learned early; in the simple elements(要素)rather than in the complex ones; and in elements that are acceptable to the culture rather than in strange ones.

Besides, social change is easier if it is gradual. For example, it comes more readily in human relations on a continuous scale rather than one with a sharp division. This is one reason why change has not come more quickly to Black Americans as compared to other American minorities, because of the sharp difference in appearance between them and their white fellows.

1.The underlined part “greater tolerance” in Paragraph 1 probably refers to “________”.

A. quicker adaptation to changing conditions

B. greater willingness to accept social change

C. more respect for different beliefs and behavior

D. greater readiness to agree to different conditions

2. Why is social change less likely to occur in a society where people are similar in many ways?

A. They are so conservative that they tend to slow down social change.

B. They can easily get what they want in the material aspect of society.

C. They are so used to their conditions that they seldom want to change.

D. They have similar needs that can be satisfied without much difficulty.

3. Which of the following factors probably tends to promote social change fast?

A. Different points of view.

B. Traditional values.

C. Sharp divisions in relations.

D. Similar appearances.

4.What is this passage mainly discussing?

A. Two different kinds of society.

B. Consequences of social change.

C. The importance of social change.

D. Certain factors affecting social change.

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2016屆遼寧錦州中學(xué)高三上學(xué)期期中考試英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:七選五

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容,從短文后的選項(xiàng)中,選出能填入空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。選項(xiàng)中有兩項(xiàng)為多余選項(xiàng)。

Red envelops have related to the Chinese Lunar New Year for long. I myself have had plenty of experiences both receiving and giving our red envelops in the past and 1.I mean, who doesn’t love free money?

I’m truly surprised by the degree of people’s obsession(迷戀) with red envelops this year. In fact, everyone I know spent at least a day or two crazily shaking their smart phones2.Thanks to messaging app WeChat’s new feature that allows users to send money electronically, grabbing red envelopes has never seemed so easy.

Just in case you are one of the very few people who still can’t be involved in the game,3.Givers link their WeChat(微信) to their bank accounts, and then they can send specified amounts of money to their WeChat contacts through a personal message. They can also put the cash up for grabs in chat group full of friends, and anyone who acts fast enough will get a share. Later, receivers can transfer the funds from their WeChat back into their own bank accounts.

4.I’m always for some harmless fun in life, so my natural response would be: why not? Moreover, I’ve always believed that it’s human nature to want free stuff, regardless of whether you actually need it or not. This may not be a good quality, but it’s not against the law, so I won’t get all judgmental here.5.I really can’t blame anyone for their enthusiasm in grabbing red envelops. I would have done it too, had I not thought linking WeChat to my bank accounts was too much trouble.

A. Considering these reasons,

B. here’s how it works.

C. generally speaking, it’s been fun.

D. In theory, this sounds like a fun game.

E. In terms of all the advantages above,

F. mostly trying to get as much as lucky money as possible.

G. In fact, it does harm to our life.

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2016屆黑龍江哈爾濱第六中學(xué)高三上期末英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:單項(xiàng)填空

It is ________ world of wonders, ________ world where anything can happen.

A. a; a B. a; the C. the; the D. the; a

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源:2015-2016學(xué)年甘肅天水第一中學(xué)高二上學(xué)期期中英語(yǔ)試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解

1.The card above is .

A. a ticket B. a postcard

C. an invitation D. an advertisement

2.The party is for .

A. a birthday B. a queen

C. bee watching D. the national day

3.According to the card, if you are unable to go, you can .

A. return the card

B. visit the Museum

C. ignore the message

D. contact Alice’s mother

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習(xí)冊(cè)答案