第9章 教育

I. Identify the following in English:

1. The ‘eleven plus’

Key: (1)Under the old selective system of secondary education in Britain, the “eleven plus” is the examination taken by children in their last year at primary school.

(2)The results of this examination determine the kind of secondary schooling each child will receive.

(3)Those with the highest marks go to grammar schools; other children may go to technical schools and the rest go to secondary modern schools.

2. The selective

Key: (1)A system for secondary schooling in Britain. Under this system, children take an examination, the “eleven plus”, in their last year at primary school.

(2)The results of this examination determine the kind of secondary schooling each child will receive.

(3)Those with the highest marks go to grammar schools; others may go to technical schools, and the rest--by far majority—go to secondary modern schools.

(4)This division is now under attack on both educational and social grounds.

3. The comprehensive

Key: (1)A system for secondary schooling in Britain. Under this system, all children, regardless of ability, can mix together.

(2)In comprehensive schools, students study a wide variety of subjects at first, after two or three years they may study only those they like best.

(3)Many new ideas in education are being tried out at present, and comprehensive schools vary widely throughout Britain.

4. G.C.E.

Key: The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the former British colonies or Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka and Singapore, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level (O Level) and the Advanced Level (A Level). More recently examination boards also offer an intermediate third GCE level, the Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS Level) replacing the earlier Advanced Supplementary level.

5. C. S. E.

Key: The Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) was a school leaving qualification awarded between 1965 and 1987 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

It was introduced to provide a qualification available to all schoolchildren distinct from the GCE (O-Levels) that were aimed at the more able pupils, mostly those at grammar and independent school (rather than secondary modern schools) aiming for places at a university.[1] Before the introduction of the CSE, the majority of those schoolchildren at secondary modern schools did not take O-Level examinations and so left school without any qualifications at all.[1] However, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, counties frequently had introduced their own examinable qualifications for the bulk of Secondary Modern School pupils who left in ‘Form Four' (at 15 years of age). For example, the county of Monmouthshire in Wales awarded the Monmouthshire Certificate in Education.

There were five pass grades in its grading system ranging from grades 1 to 5, with grades 2 to 3 being recognized with equivalence to the three (later two: D and E) lowest O-Level pass grades (of which there were originally six, later five, A, B, C, D and E).

6. The independent schools

Key: (1)Independent schools refer to the great number of schools for all ages in Britain which are supported entirely by fees and private funds.

(2)The best known of these are the “public” boarding schools for boys aged thirteen to seventeen or eighteen.

(3)These schools are restricted to the students whose parents are comparatively rich.

7. Open University

Key: (1)Public schools are the secondary boarding schools that prepare students chiefly for universities.

(2)They are supported entirely by fees and private funds.

(3)The name “public school” is traditional one with little meaning today, since far from being public these schools are restricted to a comparatively small section of the population.

8. Public schools

Key: (1)Open University was founded in Britain in 1969 for people who may not get the opportunity for higher education for economic or social reasons.

(2)It is open to everybody, and does not demand the same formal qualifications as the other universities.

(3)It is non-residential. Lectures are broadcast on TV and radio. At the end of the course, successful students are awarded a university degree.

II. Fill in the blanks:

1. In Britain, every child must by law receive a full-time education from the age of _____ to _____.

Key: 5,15

2. In Britain, the school year is divided into three terms with holidays at _____, _____ and in the _____.

Key: Christmas, Easter, summer.

3. There are at this time two systems for secondary schooling, _____ and _____.

Key: the selective, the comprehensives

4. Three famous Public schools in England are _____, _____ and _____.,

Key: Eton, Harrow, Rugby

5. _____ from the control of the central government is a characteristic of British education.

Key: Universities

6. Two oldest universities in Britain are _____ and _____.

Key: Oxford University, Cambridge University

7. Name two of the four Scottish universities, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries: _____ and _____.

Key: St. Andrews. Glasgow

8. The largest university in Britain is _____.

Key: Oxford University

9. Name two of the “red-brick” universities: _____ and _____.

Key: Leeds; Lancaster

10. In British education there is a gradual progress away from _____.

Key: exclusiveness

III. Tick the correct answer in each of the following:

1. In Britain, children from the age of 5 to 15 can by law _____.

A. receive completely free education.

B. receive partly free education.

C. receive no free education if their families are rich.

D. receive no free education at all.

【答案】A

2. Public schools in England are usually attended by those whose parents _____.

A. are rich.

B. are politically conservative.

C. are both rich and conservative.

D. are liberal.

【答案】C

3. Which of the following is a feature of British education as a whole?

A. Education is chaotic.

B. Education is very expensive.

C. Education is highly centralized.

D. Education is rather independent and enjoys a great deal of freedom.

【答案】D

4. Three of the following reflect the characteristic of freedom in British education. Which is the exception?

A. No centralized control from the British government

B. The different types of schools

C. The diverse system of university degrees

D. The completely free education at universities

【答案】D

IV. Answer the questions:

1. On what grounds is the ‘eleven plus' attacked?

Key: This division is now under attack on both educational and social grounds. The supporters of comprehensive schools, in which all children, regardless of ability, can mix together, argue first that it is impossible to determine a child's ability by the results of a single examination taken at an early age, and secondly that the comprehensive system, by offering equality of opportunity, may help to overcome inequalities in home background.

2. If an English pupil from a state-run school wishes to go to university, what must he or she do?

Key: If a student wishes to go on to university, he will take the Advanced level of the G. C. E. at 18.

3. What is the greatest argument about public schools?

Key: There have been arguments both for and against public schools in Britain. The greatest argument for public schools, some people feel, is the strikingly high proportion of ex-public-schoolboys occupying senior posts in the government, the armed forces, the church, the universities, the professions, and even in business. This, they say, proves the superiority of a public school education. Others say that this is the greatest argument against public schools, since it simply proves the social exclusiveness and favoritism.

4. Why are the public schools today no longer as superior and as exclusive as they used to be?

Key: The public schools today are no longer as superior and as exclusive as they used to be.

Firstly, their prefect system, their house system and their tradition of sport have been widely adopted in state secondary schools, and many grammar schools have academic records which many a public school might envy.

Secondly, many so-called public schools are dependent on an annual grant from the central government, in return for which they award between a quarter and a half of their places to pupils paying reduced fees or none at all.

Thirdly, all public schools too, except a few of recognized standard, are liable to be inspected by the State.

There is thus a gradual progress away from exclusiveness in British education.

5. What are the major groups of universities and colleges in Britain?

Key: There are well over forty universities in Britain, as follows:

(a)Oxford, containing about thirty separate colleges, dating from the twelfth century.

(b)Cambridge, with about twenty separate colleges, dating from the thirteenth century.

(c)Four Scottish universities, dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: St. Andrews. Glasgow. Aberdeen. Edinburgh.

(d)Three other universities containing several colleges, dating from the nineteenth century: Durham. London, with many different colleges and schools, and far more students than any other British university. Wales, with colleges at Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Bangor and Swansea,

(e)A large group of nineteenth- and twentieth-century universities which all started as university colleges preparing students for London degrees, but which now award degrees of their own.

(f)A group of post-war universities, or university colleges, many of which are trying to break away from the traditional specialist courses, and to teach a more balanced mixture of subjects:

(g)A dozen universities of technology, promoted during the 1960s from older colleges.

6. What are the two features of Oxford and Cambridge that are widely admired and are being extended to other universities?

Key: The two widely admired features of Oxford and Cambridge are the college system and the tutorial system.

7. Discuss the freedom in British education and the values behind this characteristic.

Key: Freedom is a feature of British education as a whole. We notice it in the comparative independence of the local education authorities, in the absence of centralized time-tables and syllabuses, in the different types of schools -some fully dependent on the state, some fully independent, and others at various stages between the two -and finally we notice it in the diverse system of university degrees. It is a freedom which allows a valuable amount of experiment and adaptability, though it also permits the inefficiency which results from lack of direction. We may detect at the back of it a characteristically British reluctance to regard any one system as the best of all. But it is also inspired by a high ideal: the ideal which sets the individual mind above the control of the state. For it is individual minds that education is concerned with.