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  3. I became a teacher under bizarre circumstances, but in retrospect it was one

I became a teacher under bizarre circumstances, but in retrospect it was one

游客2024-10-05  9
问题     I became a teacher under bizarre circumstances, but in retrospect it was one of my better career moves. I was 25 and had been living for a year in Botswana with my geologist husband.
    Botswana in the late 1970s was remote and undeveloped. There was just one tarred road, running between the capital and our little town, and most of the rest of that vast country was interlaced by dirt roads and rough tracks. There was little water, but gold and diamonds glittered underground, a promise of wealth to come. Our town had a large secondary school, and pupils came from distant settlements to board. As the year began, a new English teacher was expected from India. He seemed to have got lost on the way. Would I look after his classes for a fortnight?
    He never did show up. I settled down to teach two first-year classes with students aged 12 to 15, whose knowledge of English was basic, and a fourth-year literature class studying George Eliot and Shakespeare for international exams. One of the fourth-year pupils was older than me, a fact I prudently concealed. As in most classrooms, the standard of behavior varied from angelic to satanic. One first-year class had 38 pupils, too many to keep a hand on. Small riots erupted frequently in comers. The other first-year class had only 28, and they visibly relaxed, smiling, when I appeared, with my pile of marked exercise books carried proudly by a keen lad with a shining face whose given name was Slumber.
    But there were pockets of joy. Your classroom could become a place of safety. My fourth-year—who had never seen theater or TV—lapped up Shakespeare because no one told them it was difficult and passed their end-of-year exams with flamboyant high marks. Through their school careers they had been taught to keep silent and learn by rote.- So they were safe exam-passers, but a delight when 1 persuaded them to talk, debate and act. Despite all the tensions in the school, I remember a room rocking with laughter, the disapproving stares of the "real" teachers who passed by.
    And yet I quit after a year, demoralized by the school’s atmosphere. I found teaching hard work, the hardest job I’ve done, and I would be wrung out at the end of each day. I learned a lot about myself. On the plus side, I was patient with the slow but willing. On the minus side, I had no aptitude for motivating the demotivated. But today, my pupils from 1978 are never out of my thoughts: a boy called Justice, a girl called Tears.
    So now I say, "If you can, teach." I am not sure how people find the personal resources for a lifetime of teaching; but to do it for a while, when you’re young, flexible and full of energy, can be an abrasive experience but a rich one.
                                            From The New York Times, June 2, 2012 [br] What is the hidden meaning of the sentence "the standard of behavior varied from angelic to satanic" in Paragraph 2?
选项 A、The students in the classroom behave too differently to extremes.
B、Students can behave whatever they like in the classroom.
C、The teacher usually encourages students to behave accordingly.
D、The classroom has a variety of all kinds of students.
答案 A
解析 本题为细节题旬意题。第二段中“the standard of behavior varied…a shining face whose given name was Slumber”分别举例给出了两个班级天壤地别的课堂表现。其中angelic和satanic分别表示“天使般的”和“魔鬼般的”。所以答案A正确。
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