A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive the teacher of all freedom. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects; they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques which they despise. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the trained in the technique of working under duress (强迫).

The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiners. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark stacks of hastily scrawled scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge.s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner.s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person.s true abilities. Is it cynical to suggest that examinations are merely a profitable business for the institutions that run them? This is what it boils down to in the last analysis. The best comment on the system is this illiterate message recently scrawled on a wall: "I were a teenage dropout and now I am a teenage millionaire."





6.


It can be inferred from the passage that _________.




A) examination advocates regard examination as a simple and effective way of assessing a person.s true abilities

B) teachers and students want examinations

C) the examination system may not be perfect, but it.s the best we have

D) those who have succeeded in final examination are the best educated



7.


The disadvantages of examinations are that __________.




A) they restrict a student.s reading

B) they induce cramming

C) they lower the standards of teaching

D) all the above



8.


The assessment of candidates. work is subjective rather than objective because _______.




A) examiners are human and they may make mistakes

B) computers are widely used to mark specially devised tests

C) students are trained in the technique of working under pressure

D) institutions that run examinations aim at making money



9.


The author.s attitude toward examination is ________.




A) resentful

B) negative

C) praising

D) positive



10.


The last sentence of the passage expresses a tone of ________.




A) deep sympathy for the unsuccessful candidates

B) mild sarcasm about examination system

C) sincere approval for examinations

D) undisguised disappointment about some anonymous examiners

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