首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Schools outside cities A)With its sandy beaches, charming ruins and occasionally blue waters, the Isle of Wight is a perfect spo
Schools outside cities A)With its sandy beaches, charming ruins and occasionally blue waters, the Isle of Wight is a perfect spo
admin
2016-04-26
38
问题
Schools outside cities
A)With its sandy beaches, charming ruins and occasionally blue waters, the Isle of Wight is a perfect spot off England’s southern coast. Wealthy Londoners sail their boats there. It seems odd that such a place should contain some of the worst-performing schools in England. But it does; and in this, the Isle of Wight is not quite as strange as it seems.
B)Provisional figures show that last year just 49% of 16-year-olds on the island got at least five C grades, including in English and maths, in GCSE exams. That is fewer than in any of London’s 32 boroughs(行政区), or indeed anywhere in the southern half of England apart from nearby Portsmouth. In the previous year the Isle of Wight was second to bottom in the whole country. Just 23% of pupils entitled to free school meals(a representative of poverty)got five decent grades, compared with a national average of 36%. In September the island’s schools were deemed so bad that Hampshire County Council took them over.
C)Part of the explanation is distinctively local. Luring good teachers to an out-of-the-way spot is hard. In 2011 the island endured a confused transition from the sort of three-tier school system common in America, with primary, middle and secondary schools, to the two-tier one that is standard in England. But its results were bad even before that change. The Isle of Wight’s real problems are structural. It suffers from three things that might appear to be advantages but are actually the opposite. The island lacks a large city; it has some, but not many, poor children; and it is almost entirely white.
D)England’s worst schools used to be urban, poor and black—or sometimes Asian. But these days pupils, including poor ones, often fare better in inner cities than elsewhere. In Tower Hamlets, an east London borough that is the third most deprived place in England, children entitled to free school meals do better in GCSE exams than do all children in the country as a whole. Bangladeshis, who are concentrated in that borough, used to perform considerably worse than whites nationally; now they do better.
E)Poor whites are now the country’s signal educational underachievers. Just 31% of white British children entitled to free school meals got five good GCSEs two years ago, fewer than poor children from any other ethnic group. They fare especially badly in suburbs, small towns and on the coast—places like the Isle of Wight.
F)Although the island contains pockets of poverty, it is hardly poverty-stricken: overall it comes 106th out of 326 local authorities in England on the government’s deprivation index. A bigger problem is a pervasive lack of faith in education as a means of self-improvement. Steph Boyd, who runs a new free school on the island, says some parents doubt whether the education system can help their children—not altogether surprising given the island’s failings. A few are more anxious for their offspring to go out and get jobs. And nearby career options are limited, points out Pat Goodhead, the headmistress of Christ the King College, the island’s best secondary school. The jobs pages of the County Press, the local newspaper, are filled with advertisements for care workers, barmen and cleaners. The advantage of deep poverty
G)Oddly, the Isle of Wight might do better if it were poorer. Truly poor parts of England receive large amounts of government cash. Schools in Tower Hamlets get £7,014 a year for each child, compared with £4,489 in the Isle of Wight. In addition, secondary schools get £900 for each poor child thanks to the "pupil premium" introduced by the coalition government. Poverty-stricken spots also benefit from energetic, idealistic young teachers. Teach First, a programme that sends top graduates into poor schools for at least two years, started in London in 2002. Then it expanded to other big cities such as Manchester. Last year it started sending teachers to south coast towns, but in tiny numbers. Of the 1,261 graduates who joined the programme last year, just 25 were placed on the entire south coast, compared with 553 in London.
H)Poor children do best in schools where they are either scarce or very numerous. Where they are few, teachers can give them plenty of attention. Where they are numerous, as in the East End of London, schools have no choice but to focus on them. Most ill-served are those who fall in between, in schools where they are insufficiently numerous to merit attention but too many to succeed alone. The Isle of Wight’s six state secondary schools are all stuck in the unhappy middle: between 9% and 17% of the children in them are entitled to free school meals.
I)One woman, who moved to the island from east London with her young daughter, suspects that the Isle of Wight’s lack of diversity is itself a problem. She may be right about that. Illiteracy among white British children can be easier to overlook than illiteracy among immigrants. Where schools are forced to help the latter, natives often benefit too, says Matthew Coffey of Ofsted, the schools inspectorate. That seems to have happened in Lincolnshire, which has seen a surge in Portuguese and east European immigration.
J)The government and Ofsted are increasingly worried about the gap in attainment between poor white Britons and the rest. The Department for Education reckons changing the way schools’ success is measured could help. The current emphasis on grades of C and above encourages teachers to focus on children on the edge of attaining that grade, at the expense of those who do really badly. Beginning in 2016 schools will have to track more closely the progress of each child, no matter what grades they are predicted to get. That should raise attentions of schools that have been able to coast along, ignoring the neediest, to give them more attention. But such reforms may not make much difference on the Isle of Wight. Schools there have struggled even against the current benchmark.
K)They might look to east London for inspiration. The dramatic improvement in Tower Hamlets resulted partly from efforts to change local culture. Schools ran programmes through mosques to tackle absenteeism(旷课). Parents were encouraged to become governors. But change will be harder outside the capital. Tower Hamlets benefits from nearby Canary Wharf, the capital’s second financial district, which supplies good jobs and middle-class advisers. The levers of change are less obvious where poor children are scattered thin. And there are fewer obvious institutions through which to try and improve the lot of the godless white majority.
Changing the way schools’ success is measured may of little help to improve the education of the Isle of Wight.
选项
答案
J
解析
根据题目的主语Changing…is measured可以定位到J段。该段第2句提到教育部认为改变衡量学校成功的方法可能帮助减少白人小孩与其余孩子间的学识差距。而该段最后一句用But一词表转折,表示这样的改革对怀特岛可能没有多大作用,其中的not make much difference on…与题目中的of little help同义,故J段为本题出处。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/4we7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Adegreefromacollegeoruniversityisoftenakeythatopensdoorsof【B1】______—doorstoabetterjobandabetterlife.With
A、Emily.B、Charlotte.C、Anne.D、Jane.A男士说Emily和Anne分别写了《呼啸山庄》和《艾格妮丝·格雷》。可见《呼啸山庄》是Emily写的,选A。
A、Drivecars.B、Flyplanes.C、Paywages.D、Repairmachines.B短文开头就提到,目前机器人能制造汽车、开飞机、结算工资,故B正确。
Papermoneyisusedeverydaybutpeopledonotoftenthinkofmoneyasjustpaper.Thisisbecausepeopleagreethatithasval
UsingtheMindtoFightDiseasesA)Psychologyhasanewapplicationinthefieldofmedicine.Manydoctors,togetherwiththeir
Teachingchildrentoreadwellfromthestartisthemostimportanttaskofelementaryschools.Butrelyingoneducatorstoappr
Abooklesslifeisa/an【C1】______life.Booksinfluencethedepthand【C2】______oflife.Theymeetthenaturaldesireforfreedo
京剧(BeijingOpera)是中国的国粹。作为一门古老的艺术,京剧的服装(costume)、脸谱(facialmask)更易被人喜爱。不同的服装类型反映不同的人物身份特征。富贵者的服装缀满精美的刺绣;穷困者的服装则简单朴素,少有装饰(element
A、Enjoyfamilyhappiness.B、Switchtoanotherfield.C、Starthisownbusiness.D、Buildahouseofhisown.A细节题。短文开头提到,thecarpe
A、Hewillpostponethetrip.B、Hewillmarrythewoman.C、Hewillcookdinnerforthewoman.D、Hewilltaketennislessons.D细节题
随机试题
一名家属带外地患者来医院就诊,为省钱要求用自己的医保卡为外地患者开药,作为接诊医生,下列与患者及家属沟通最为妥当的是()。
规定的任何适用生产的试验都可以在已固化的涂层上进行,以达到()的目的。
大面积烧伤休克的补液,通常按()
暴发性流脑起病急骤,病势凶险,会引起患者和家属的焦虑和恐惧。护士进行护理时不合适的做法是
工程监理单位的主要责任有( )。
凡是具备相对独立完成会计数据输入、处理和输出功能模块的软件,如()等均可视为会计核算软件。
根据无因管理之债的构成要件,下列事实中构成无因管理之债的事项是( )。
习近平同志在谈论依法治国问题时,曾引用英国哲学家培根的一段话:“一次不公正的审判,其恶果甚至超过十次犯罪。因为犯罪虽是无视法律——好比污染了水流,而不公正的审判则毁坏法律——好比污染了水源。”这句话强调了()的重要性。
关于百度搜索技术的描述错误的是______。
Thereisastoryofaverywickedmanwhodies.Beforehedied,hewas【C1】______theworstbecausetherewere【C2】______sinsheha
最新回复
(
0
)