Goal of American Education

   Education is an enormous and expensive part of American life. Its size is matched by its variety. ¹

    Differences in American schools compared with those found in the majority of other countries lie in the fact that education here has long been intended for everyone — not just for a privileged elite. Schools are expected to meet the needs of every child, regardless of ability, and also the needs of society itself. This means that public schools offer more than academic subjects. It surprises many people when they come here to find high schools offering such courses as typing, sewing, radio repair, computer programming or driver training, along with traditional academic subjects such as mathematics, history, and languages. Students choose their curricula depending on their interests, future goals, and level of ability. The underlying goal of American education is to develop every child to the utmost ²  of his or her own possibilities, and to give each one a sense of civic and community consciousness. ³

    Schools have traditionally played an important role in creating national unity and “Americanizing” the millions of immigrants who have poured into this country from many different backgrounds and origins. Schools still play a large role in the community, especially in the small towns.

    The approach to teaching may seem unfamiliar to many, not only because it is informal, but also because there is not much emphasis on learning facts. Instead, Americans try to teach their children to think for themselves and to develop their own intellectual and creative abilities. Students spend much time, learning how to use resource materials, ⁴ libraries, statistics and computers. Americans believe that if children are taught to reason well and to research well, they will be able to find whatever facts they need throughout the rest of their lives. Knowing how to solve problems is considered more important than the accumulation of facts.

    This is America"s answer to the searching question that thoughtful parents all over the world are asking themselves in the fast-moving time: “How can one prepare today"s child for a tomorrow that one can neither predict nor understand?”

 

词汇：

privileged ["prɪvəlɪdʒd] adj.享有特权的

elite [eɪ"li:t] n.精英，精华

curricula [kə"rɪkjələ] n.课程

underlying [ˌʌndəˈlaɪɪŋ] adj.潜在的

reason["ri:zn]原因

 

注释：

1．Its size is matched by its variety.美国教育规模宏大、种类多样。match这里作动词用，意为“相配”。

2．develop to the utmost:充分发展，最大限度地发展

3．a sense of civic and community consciousness:公民和社区意识

4．resource materials:参考资料

Which of the following best states the goal of American education?

A:To teach every learner some practical skills. B:To provide every learner with rich knowledge. C:To give every student the opportunity to fully develop his/her ability. D:To train every student to be a responsible citizen.

If a child meets some difficulties in the process of reaching his goal, he may

A:face them bravely and try to overcome them. B:neglect them and come up with a new goal. C:be unwilling to admit there are some difficulties. D:worry about them and feel discouraged or frustrated.

Sporting activities are essentially modified forms of hunting behaviour. Viewed biologically, the modern footballer is in reality a member of a hunting group. His killing weapon has turned into a harmless football and his prey into a goal-mouth. If his aim is accurate and he scores a goal, he enjoys the hunter’s triumph of killing his prey.
To understand how this transformation has taken place we must briefly look back at our forefathers. They spent over a million years evolving as cooperative hunters. Their very survival depended on success in tie hunting-field. Under this pressure their whole way of life, even their bodies, became greatly changed. They became chasers, runners, jumpers, aimers, throwers and prey-killers. They cooperated as skillful male-group attackers.
Then about ten thousand years ago, after this immensely long period of hunting their food, they became farmers. Their improved intelligence, so vital to their old hunting life, was put to a new use—that of controlling and domesticating their prey. The hunting became suddenly out of date. The food was there on the farms, awaiting their needs. The risks and uncertainties of the hunting were no longer essential for survival.
The skills and thirst for hunting remained, however, and demanded new outlets. Hunting for sport replaced hunting for necessity. This new activity involved all the original hunting sequences but the aim of the operation was no longer to avoid starvation. Instead the sportsmen set off to test their skill against prey that were no longer essential to their survival. To be sure, the kill may have been eaten but there were other much simpler ways of obtaining a meaty meal.

In a football game what is equal to the prey in hunting is （　）

A:any member of the opposing team B:the goal-mouth C:the goal keeper D:the football

Sporting activities are essentially modified forms of hunting behaviour. Viewed biologically, the modern footballer is in reality a member of a hunting group. His killing weapon has turned into a harmless football and his prey into a goal-mouth. If his aim is accurate and he scores a goal, he enjoys the hunter’s triumph of killing his prey.
To understand how this transformation has taken place we must briefly look back at our forefathers. They spent over a million years evolving as cooperative hunters. Their very survival depended on success in tie hunting-field. Under this pressure their whole way of life, even their bodies, became greatly changed. They became chasers, runners, jumpers, aimers, throwers and prey-killers. They cooperated as skillful male-group attackers.
Then about ten thousand years ago, after this immensely long period of hunting their food, they became farmers. Their improved intelligence, so vital to their old hunting life, was put to a new use—that of controlling and domesticating their prey. The hunting became suddenly out of date. The food was there on the farms, awaiting their needs. The risks and uncertainties of the hunting were no longer essential for survival.
The skills and thirst for hunting remained, however, and demanded new outlets. Hunting for sport replaced hunting for necessity. This new activity involved all the original hunting sequences but the aim of the operation was no longer to avoid starvation. Instead the sportsmen set off to test their skill against prey that were no longer essential to their survival. To be sure, the kill may have been eaten but there were other much simpler ways of obtaining a meaty meal.
In a football game what is equal to the prey in hunting is ______.

A:any member of the opposing team B:the goal-mouth C:the goal keeper D:the football

Passage Two

In a football game what is equal to the prey in hunting is ______.

A:any member of the opposing team B:the goal-mouth C:the goal keeper D:the football

Most people believe they don’t have much imagination. They are wrong. Everyone has imagination, but most of us, once we become adults, forget how to access it. Creativity isn’t always connected with great works of art or ideas. People at work and in their free time routinely think of creative ways to solve problems. Maybe you have a goal to achieve, a tricky question to answer or you just want to expand your mind! Here are three techniques to help you.
This technique involves taking unrelated ideas and trying to find links between them. First, think about the problem you have to solve or the job you need to do. Then find an image, word, idea or object ,for example, a candle. Write down all the ideas/words associated with candles: light, fire, matches, wax, night, silence, etc. Think of as many as you can. The next stage is to relate the ideas to the job you have to do. So imagine you want to buy a friend an original present; you could buy him tickets to a match or take him out for the night.
Imagine that normal limitations don’t exist. You have as much time/space/money, etc. as you want. Think about your goal and the new possibilities. If, for example, your goal is to learn to ski(滑 雪),you can now practice skiing every day of your life(because you have the time and the money). Now adapt this to reality. Maybe you can practice skiing every day in December, or every Monday in January.
Look at the situation from a different point of view. Good negotiators(谈判者)use this technique in business, and so do writers. Fiction writers often imagine they are the characters in their books. They ask questions: what does this character want Why can’t she get it What changes must she make to get what she wants What does she dream about If your goal involves other people, put yourself "in their shoes". The best fishermen think like fish!
The second technique suggests that you just imagine

A:setting a goal is as simple as skiing. B:you have every resource to achieve your goal. C:new possibilities will soon appear. D:December and January are the best months for skiing.

Adult education is the practice of (51) and educating adults. This is often done in the workplace, or (52) "continuing education" courses at secondary schools, or at a college or university.
Educating adults differs from educating (53) in several ways. One of the most important (54) is that adults have gained knowledge and experience which can (55) add value to a learning experience or interfere 56 it.
Another important difference is that adults frequently must apply their knowledge in some (57) fashion in order to learn effectively; there must be a (58) and a reasonable expectation that the new knowledge will help them further that goal. One example, (59) in the 1990s,was the spread of computer training courses in (60) adults, most of them office workers, could enroll. These courses would (61) basic use of the operating system or specific application (62) . Because the skills (63) to interact with a PC were so new, many people (64) had been working white - collar jobs (65) ten years or more eventually took such training courses, either of their own will( to gain computer skills and thus can get higher pay) or at the request of their managers.

A:plan B:prospect C:goal D:possibility

Most people believe they don’t have much imagination. They are wrong. Everyone has imagination, but most of us, once we become adults, forget how to access it. Creativity isn’t always connected with great works of art or ideas. People at work and in their free time routinely think of creative ways to solve problems. Maybe you have a goal to achieve, a tricky question to answer or you just want to expand your mind! Here are three techniques to help you.
This technique involves taking unrelated ideas and trying to find links between them. First, think about the problem you have to solve or the job you need to do. Then find an image, word, idea or object ,for example, a candle. Write down all the ideas/words associated with candles: light, fire, matches, wax, night, silence, etc. Think of as many as you can. The next stage is to relate the ideas to the job you have to do. So imagine you want to buy a friend an original present; you could buy him tickets to a match or take him out for the night.
Imagine that normal limitations don’t exist. You have as much time/space/money, etc. as you want. Think about your goal and the new possibilities. If, for example, your goal is to learn to ski(滑 雪),you can now practice skiing every day of your life(because you have the time and the money). Now adapt this to reality. Maybe you can practice skiing every day in December, or every Monday in January.
Look at the situation from a different point of view. Good negotiators(谈判者)use this technique in business, and so do writers. Fiction writers often imagine they are the characters in their books. They ask questions: what does this character want Why can’t she get it What changes must she make to get what she wants What does she dream about If your goal involves other people, put yourself "in their shoes". The best fishermen think like fish!
The second technique suggests that you just imagine

A:setting a goal is as simple as skiing. B:you have every resource to achieve your goal. C:new possibilities will soon appear. D:December and January are the best months for skiin

Most people believe they don’t have much imagination. They are wrong. Everyone has imagination, but most of us, once we become adults, forget how to access it. Creativity isn’t always connected with great works of art or ideas. People at work and in their free time routinely think of creative ways to solve problems. Maybe you have a goal to achieve, a tricky question to answer or you just want to expand your mind! Here are three techniques to help you.
This technique involves taking unrelated ideas and trying to find links between them. First, think about the problem you have to solve or the job you need to do. Then find an image, word, idea or object, for example, a candle. Write down all the ideas/words associated with candles: light, fire, matches, wax, night, silence, etc. Think of as many as you can. The next stage is to relate the ideas to the job you have to do. So imagine you want to buy a friend an original present; you could buy him tickets to a match or take him out for the night.
Imagine that normal limitations don’t exist. You have as much time/space/money, etc. as you want. Think about your goal and the new possibilities. If, for example, your goal is to learn to ski(滑雪),you can now practice skiing every day of your life(because you have the time and the money). Now adapt this to reality. Maybe you can practice skiing every day in December, or every Monday in January.
Look at the situation from a different point of view. Good negotiators(谈判者)use this technique in business, and so do writers. Fiction writers often imagine they are the characters in their books. They ask questions: what does this character want Why can’t she get it What changes must she make to get what she wants What does she dream about If your goal involves other people, put yourself "in their shoes". The best fishermen think like fish!
The second technique suggests that you just imagine

A:setting a goal is as simple as skiing. B:you have every resource to achieve your goal. C:new possibilities will soon appear. D:December and January are the best months for skiin