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  3. When the island of Singapore became an independent country in 1965, it had few friends and even fewer natural resources. How did

When the island of Singapore became an independent country in 1965, it had few friends and even fewer natural resources. How did

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问题     When the island of Singapore became an independent country in 1965, it had few friends and even fewer natural resources. How did it become one of the world’s great trading and financial centres? The strategy, explained Lee Kuan Yew, its first prime minister, was "to develop Singapore’s only available natural resource; its people" .
    Today Singapore’s education system is considered the best in the world. The country consistently ranks at the top of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) , a triennial test of 15-year-olds in dozens of countries, in the main three categories of maths, reading and science. Singaporean pupils are roughly three years ahead of their American peers in maths. Singapore does similarly well in exams of younger children, and the graduates of its best schools can be found scattered around the world’s finest universities. Not content with its achievements, Singapore is now introducing reforms to improve creativity and reduce stress. This is not a sign of failure, but rather of a gradual, evidence-led approach to education reform—the first of three lessons that Singapore offers the rest of the world.
    Where other countries often enact uncoordinated reforms, Singapore tries to look at the system as a whole. It invests heavily in education research. All reforms are tested, with the outcomes diligently monitored, before being rolled out. The second lesson is to embrace Singapore’s distinctive approach to teaching, notably of mathematics—as America and England are already doing to some extent. It emphasizes a narrower but deeper curriculum, and seeks to ensure that a whole class progresses through the syllabus. The third and most important lesson is to focus on developing excellent teachers. In     Singapore, they get 100 hours of training a year to keep up to date with the latest techniques. The government pays them well, too. It accepts the need for larger classes (the average is 36 pupils, compared with 24 across the OECD). Better, so the thinking goes, to have big classes taught by excellent teachers than smaller ones taught by mediocre ones. Teachers who want more reputation but not the bureaucratic burden of running schools can become "master teachers" , with responsibility for training their peers. The best teachers get postings to the ministry of education and considerable bonuses: overall, teachers are paid about the same as their peers in private-sector professions.  Teachers are also subject to rigorous annual performance assessments.
    The system is hardly faultless. Other countries might wish to avoid Singapore’s dividing of high-and low-achievers into separate schools from the age of 12. The benefits of doing so are unproven, and it contributes to stress about exams.
How did Singapore become one of the world’s great trading and financial centres?
选项 A、By the assistance of its friends.
B、By its abundant natural resources.
C、By the joint efforts of the public.
D、By its first prime minister.
答案C
解析 推断题。根据题干关键词the world’s great trading and financial centres可定位至第一段第二句。根据第一段最后一句“新加坡第一任总理李光耀解释说，战略是‘开发新加坡唯一可用的自然资源，即人民’”可知，新加坡通过本国人民使其获得了当今的地位，与选项[C]“在公众的共同努力下”表述一致，其中joint efforts of the public是对原文people的同义改写。根据第一段第一句可知，新加坡独立之初几乎没有友国，故排除选项[A]；同时其自然资源也很少，排除选项[B]；虽然提及其第一任总理，但是并非凭其一己之力，故排除选项[D]。
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