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  3. (1)Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic was someone who knew the price of eve

(1)Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic was someone who knew the price of eve

游客2024-11-06  47
问题     (1)Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic was someone who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. His epigram applies to the way we talk about education nowadays, focusing on what it can do for the economy. That is indeed important, but it does not capture the real value of education. It is almost as if people are afraid of saying education is a good thing in itself. That comes from a loss of confidence in the importance of transmitting a body of knowledge, a culture, ways of thinking, from one generation to the next. It is a crucial obligation we have to the next generation and we are failing to discharge it.
    (2)The latest example of this loss of confidence in education is the titles of the departments created by splitting the Department for Education in two. We have the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and we have the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The key word that is missing in those two lists is education. It is almost as if the government has lost confidence in the value of education, as distinct from other worthwhile aims such as helping families or raising our levels of innovation.
    (3)For the government, science is no longer about evidence and reason, it is a lever for increasing productivity. Foreign languages are not a means of appreciating the culture of another people; they are a means of improving trade. Yet people do not become teachers because they aspire to raising the rate of growth; they wish to pass on a love of their subjects. There is a paradox here. If we see education as a way of imparting a body of knowledge, we will do better at the functionalist side of education as well. Like happiness, it can be achieved only as a byproduct of something else.
    (4)Real education means real subjects with a history, shape and rigour, together with the intellectual curiosity to challenge and renew them. Our body of knowledge must be rooted in a tradition, but must also be open to questioning. Indeed, what we know changes all the time—when Einstein was at Oxford in the 1930s, he set a physics paper with the same questions for two years running. When his colleagues challenged him, he replied that although the questions were the same the answers were different. That is part of the excitement of intellectual endeavour.
    (5)Of course, skills matter too. But often they are best mastered through learning stuff. Look at what has gone wrong with history. We expect school-children to compare different primary sources and learn the analytical tools of the historian, but we will not allow them the sheer excitement of learning what happens next in a narrative history of our own country.
    (6)Several subjects now face the vicious spiral of not enough people emerging from university who have studied the subject to provide the teachers to keep it going in schools. We cannot just solve this problem by passing a law or setting yet another target. We need a smarter policy than this that understands the role of a proud profession in living up to its own standards, and the power of choice by parents and students.
    (7)There are problems with the national curriculum but even more important is the intricate relationship between the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the examining boards. This is the source of the dumbing down and predictability of exams. [br] Einstein’s story is cited as an example to support the following statements EXCEPT _____.
选项 A、human beings have never given up exploring unknown areas
B、the ability of critical thinking is essential for me students
C、challenges are invisible motivation of scientific development
D、skill-training is me most important part in education
答案 D
解析 第4段爱因斯坦的故事中并没有提到技能培训问题，更没有说技术培训是教育最重要的一部分，这与本文的主旨相反，故选D。该段第3句提到，人们掌握的知识一直在不断变化，A符合文意；该段首句提到，学习者的好奇心与挑战意识的重要性，B与此一致；该段第2句提到，我们的知识体系必须经受公众的质疑。C符合此意。
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