Question

Whenever anyone measures educational success, East Asian countries are always top scorers. But in a recent league table, a European country, Finland, was top of the class.  South  Korea  was  still  in  second place, though. Britain was at number 6.

In Korea the school day is long­typically 7 or 8 hours, followed by hours of private tutoring in the evenings.  All_this_hothousing leaves Korean students so tired, they sometimes fall asleep in class next day. Worries about the effects of late night cramming (填鸭式) led the government to force cramming schools to close by 10 pm.Finnish children spend the least time in class in the developed world, often finishing just after lunch, with about one hour of homework a day. Private tuition is uncommon. The British and American school day is quite  long  in  comparison,  around  6 hours, and secondary school pupils do 2 or 3 hours of self­study a night.

The Korean education system,  like many in Asia,  is intensely competitive, with students even competing to get into the best cramming schools, to help them get ahead. Finnish education is far less cut­throat. Classes are all mixed ability, and there are no league tables.  British schools again occupy the middle ground, with quite high levels of competition for places at university, and schools and universities battling to come top of league tables for everything from exam results to student satisfaction. Korea and Finland both do well, yet their education systems are so different.

However, there are some similarities in Korea and Finland. In those countries, teachers have high status in society, and education is very highly valued. Those attitudes can't change quickly.  But it can be done. They might be the star pupils now, but until the 1970s, Finland's educational system was poor. Their thoroughly different approach to schooling has taken them to the top in just a generation.

1.The students spend the least time in school in ________.

A. the UK    B. Finland

C. the USA    D. Korea

2.The underlined phrase “all this hothousing” in Paragraph 2 probably  refers to ________.

A. private evening tutoring

B. self­study at home

C. long­hour study

D. school study

3.From  Paragraph  3,  we  can  know that ________.

A. Finnish students are less stressed in study

B. there're also many cramming schools in Britain

C. students in Korea are the most competitive in Asia

D. British schools are less competitive than universities

4.According to the author, the key to improving education is ________.

A. the attitude

B. the schooling time

C. star pupils

D. new teaching approach

Answer

1.B

2.C

3.A

4.A

【解析】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍成功的教育的问题。比较了芬兰、韩国和英国的教育体制。

1.B细节理解题。从第二段第四句可知芬兰的学生在校的时间最短。故选B。

2.C词义猜测题。从本句的后半部分“leaves Korean students so tired，they sometimes fall asleep in class next day”可知，长时间的学习使得韩国学生很疲劳。故选C。

3.A推理判断题。从第三段第二、三句可推出，在芬兰学生的学习压力小。故选A。

4.A细节理解题。从最后一段第二、三句可 知作者认为教育成功的关键是态度问题。故选A。

【名师点睛】

利用上下文提供的情景和线索，进行合乎逻辑的综合分析进而推测词义，特别要抓住所需推断词汇前后的含义。本文第2小题是词义猜测题，从本句的后半部分“leaves Korean students so tired，they sometimes fall asleep in class next day”可知，长时间的学习使得韩国学生很疲劳。故选C。