Question

Cloze test.

One topic is rarely mentioned in all the talk of improving standards in our schools: the almost complete failure of the foreign-language teaching. As a French graduate who has taught for more than twenty-five years, I believe I have some idea of why the failure is so total.   1   the faults already found out in the education system as a whole-such as child-centred learning. The "discovery" method, and the low expectations by teachers of pupils-there have been several serious   2   which have a direct effect on language teaching.      The first is the removal from the curriculum (课程) of the thorough teaching of English   3  . Pupils now do not know a verb from a noun, the subject of a sentence from its object, or the difference between the past, present, or future.      Another important error is mixed-ability teaching, or teaching in ability groups so   4   that the most able pupils are   5   and are bored while the least able are lost and   6   bored. Strangely enough, few head teachers seem to be in favour of mixed-ability school football teams.      Progress depends on memory, and pupils start to forget immediately they stop having   7   lessons. This is why many people who attended French lessons at school, even those who got good grades, have forgotten it a few years later.   8   they never need it, they do not practise it.      Most American schools have accepted what is inevitable and   9   modern languages, even Spanish, from the curriculum. Perhaps it is time for Britain to do the same, and stop  10   resources on a subject which few pupils want or need.

(     )1.A. Due to    (     )2.A. errors    (     )3.A. vocabulary  (     )4.A. wide     (     )5.A. kept out   (     )6.A. surprisingly  (     )7.A. extra     (     )8.A. Although   (     )9.A. restored  (     )10.A. wasting   B. In addition to  B. situations    B. culture     B. similar     B. turned down     B. individually  B. traditional   B. Because     B. absorbed     B. focusing     C. Instead of   C. systems    C. grammar    C. separate    C. held back   C. equally    C. basic    C. Until     C. prohibited      C. exploiting   D. In spite of  D. methods      D. literature   D. unique       D. left behind                D. hardly       D. regular      D. Unless       D. withdrawn    D. sharing

Answer 1

1-5: B A C A C   6-10: C D B D A