There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority（优先）it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities（复杂）of spelling.
If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That’s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.
I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: “ This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible（难以辨认的）.” It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation（动力）to seek improvement.
【小题1】Teachers are different in their opinions about ___________.

Generations of children who sat through endless lessons of “chalk and talk” in front of a bossy teacher can take some relief. But the “chalk and talk” method helped them achieve better exam results. Modern classroom techniques may make school days a good deal happier, but contentment(满足) is not the road to success in examinations, according to university researchers.?

Their three-year study, monitoring the progress of 2000 teenagers, tried to measure the influence of the “boredom factor” in 17 selected schools in the north of England. The researchers also found that the old-fashioned approach(方法) of teachers ordering pupils about is still alive and producing results. Their conclusions were welcomed yesterday by educationists who were worried by the shift to less formal lessons.

The pupils in the latest study were asked to award teachers marks to measure how frequently they followed or ignored today's fashion for “child-centred” education. A five-point scale was given to spot the teachers who always told them what they should know and what to write down. “It was significant and not anything you would get by chance or accident. Certainly, when you compare the pupil's interest and attitude to school, there is a quite definite and highly significant difference,” one of the researchers said. But the rankings were turned upside down when the team of four researchers looked at how the children did in examination. The sort of methods now frowned upon(不赞同) actually improve the final grades.?

The researchers said,“There is nothing wrong with old-fashioned, didactic(说教性的) teaching in the fight place, even if it isn't the flavor at the moment.” However, he insisted the best teachers had always mixed the two techniques to match the needs of pupils, although certain examinations forced some to concentrate more on dictation and learning by rote(死记硬背).?

University researchers have discovered that _______.

A. modern teaching methods provide students with entertainment?

B. students taught by modern techniques are happy and successful?

C. traditional teaching methods help students score higher?

D. students like old teaching better than modern teaching at school?

We can infer from Paragraph 3 that _______.?

A. child-centred education promotes friendship among children?

B. the research findings are not significant enough for a conclusion?

C. those who show greater interest in school did better in exams?

D. those who don't show much interest in school may turn out to score higher in tests

The researchers suggest that _______.

A. more old methods be used in teaching?

B. students be taught how to score high in exams?

C. dictation be used as one of the best teaching methods?

D. old and new methods be used together?

The best title for this text would be _______.

A. The Examination?based Teaching

B. Rote Learning Was the Winner

C. The Problem of Child-centred Education

D. The Problem of the Traditional Method

We find that bright children are rarely held back by mix-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade!
Besides, it is rather unusual to grade pupils just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning.
In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to deal with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.
Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is proper. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this efficiently. And advanced pupil can do advanced work. It doesn’t matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement to obtain this goal.
【小题1】By “held back” (the underlined part of the first sentence) the author means “______”.

_____ the child to bed, she began to correct the pupil’s exercise.

There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority（优先）it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities（复杂）of spelling.

If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That’s why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.

I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: “ This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible（难以辨认的）.” It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation（动力）to seek improvement.

1.Teachers are different in their opinions about ___________.

2. The expression “play safe” probably means ____________.

3. Teachers encourage the use of dictionaries so that___________.

4. The writer seems to think that the teacher’s judgment on that sensitive piece of writing is____________.

5.The major point discussed in the passage is_____________.