An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of students’ career prospects and those a

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问题     An invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of students’ career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. Very few writers on the subject have explored this distinction—indeed, contradiction—which goes to the heart of what is wrong with the campaign to put computers in the classroom.
    An education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, justified for reasons radically different from why education is universally required by law. It is not simply to raise everyone’s job prospects that all children are legally required to attend school into their teens. Rather, we have a certain conception of the American citizen, a character who is incomplete if he cannot competently assess how his livelihood and happiness are affected by things outside of himself. But this was not always the case; before it was legally required for all children to attend school until a certain age, it was widely accepted that some were just not equipped by nature to pursue this kind of education. With optimism characteristic of all industrialized countries, we came to accept that everyone is fit to be educated. Computer-education advocates forsake this optimistic notion for a pessimism that betrays their otherwise cheery outlook. Banking on the confusion between educational and vocational reasons for bringing computers into schools, computer-education advocates often emphasize the job prospects of graduates over their educational achievement.
    There are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student. Many European schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join. It is, however, presumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists, so many businessmen, so many accountants. Besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations.
    But, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well-developed skills, all other factors being equal, can be the difference between having a job and not of course, the basics of using any computer these days are very simple. It does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. If one wanted to become a computer engineer, that is, of course, an entirely different story. Basic computer skills take—at the very longest—a couple of months to learn. In any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. It should be observed, of course, that no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its purpose.
The author thinks the present rush to put computers in the classroom is______.

选项 A、far-reaching
B、dubiously oriented
C、self-contradictory
D、radically reformatory

答案B

解析 从文章第1段的内容可知,有关计算机在课堂上的应用存在一条无形的界线——有人争论说,在课堂上应用计算机是出于对学生就业前途的考虑;另一些人则争论说,在课堂上应用计算机更为明显的原因是出于实行彻底的教育改革的考虑。从第2段的内容可知,工业化国家的乐观主义特性使我们开始接受这样的观念——每个人都适合接受教育;计算机教育的倡导者为了悲观主义观念而放弃了这种乐观的观念;由于对计算机被引进学校是出于教育目的还是出于职业目的的含混不清,计算机教育倡导者常常强调毕业生的工作前景而不是他们在教育方面的成就。从文章第3段的内容可知,对适合的学生进行技术教育有一些恰当的理由。不过,坚持认为只有那么多的工作给予那么多的科学家、商人和会计就太自以为是了。从文章最后一段的内容可知,对于少部分学生来说,职业培训可能是可行的方法;目前使用任何计算机的基本技能都非常简单,不用花一生的时间去学会各种各样的软件程序。无论如何,计算机基本技能只不过是对许多真正技能的一种补充。我们应当看到,如果混淆了学校的目的,任何学校,无论是不是职业学校,都不会有好结果。据此可知,作者认为将计算机引入课堂到底出于什么目的还不得而知,这种做法令人迷惑不解。B项与文章的意思相符,因此B项为正确答案。
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