2. 外语
  3. The following are two excerpts about a new grading policy in the US. Read the two excerpts carefully and write an article of NO

The following are two excerpts about a new grading policy in the US. Read the two excerpts carefully and write an article of NO

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问题    The following are two excerpts about a new grading policy in the US. Read the two excerpts carefully and write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should:
   1. summarize the main ideas in the two excerpts, and then
   2. express your opinion on the new grading policy.
   You can support yourself with information from the excerpts.
   Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
   Excerpt 1
                     Schools Get Rid of "F"s
   For more students nationwide, the grading alphabet ends at "D" as school districts eliminate policies that allow children to be given failing marks.
   At public schools in Grand Rapids, Mich., high school students will no longer receive "F"s but instead will earn the letter "H" when their work falls woefully short.
   Superintendent Bernard Taylor told ABCNews. com that the "H" stands for "held" and is a system designed to give students a second chance on work that was not up to par.
   "I never see anyone doing anything but punishing kids," said Taylor. "If the choice is between letting kids fail and giving them another opportunity to succeed, I’m going to err on the side of opportunity. "
   Students in Taylor’s district can choose to retake the course, do extra work online or decide on a different remedial action with their teacher.
   But if the work has not been rectified within 12 weeks, Taylor said the student will still receive a failing grade.
   At one Boston area middle school, a policy known as "Zeros Aren’t Permitted" gives students who do not complete their homework on time an opportunity during school hours to finish so that they do not fail the assignment.
   The school principal explained that the policy was implemented in hopes of preventing " students from failing homework assignments and slipping through the cracks of the education system. "
   Excerpt 2
                  Teachers want to flunk new grading policy
   Teachers and parents in Dallas, Texas, are angry about new grading policies that they say are dumbing down the district and pushing students through the system who haven’t earned it.
   One of the most contentious of the policies allows a student who fails a test to retake it, with the lower score being tossed out.
   "Instead of setting high expectations and high standards and holding them to that, we seem to be wanting to lower the bar and give them an excuse not to succeed," said Dale Kaiser, president of the National Education Association, the teachers union.
   The policy allowing failed test scores to be thrown out is just one of several changes to the grading policy that went into effect at the start of this school year.
   Other grading policies include:
   - For elementary and middle school students, only homework grades "that raise a student’s average" will be recorded.
   - Students must be given one opportunity to turn in homework assignments that weren’t finished on time.
   - Parents must be contacted before a teacher records a zero in the grade book.
   "I think it’s ridiculous," said parent Bobbie Wilhite. "It’s tough out there once you get out of high school. We’re already namby-pamby enough for our kids. "
   The new policies were put in place because Dallas has one of the highest dropout rates in the state of Texas.
   A small committee of administrators and teachers wrote the new grading policy. The goal, they say, is to keep kids in school and prevent them from getting discouraged and dropping out.
   "What we’re really interested in is ’ Are the children learning?’ and if they’re not, we need intervention immediately. This system does that," said Jerome Garza, a district school board trustee.
   But teachers and parents say students who fail to perform or turn homework in on time need to learn there are consequences for such behavior. They worry this new system will create an atmosphere of mediocrity.
选项
答案 Are Schools Coddling Children? Recently, the new grading policy adopted in some school districts in the US has aroused bitter controversy. Proponents claim that the goal of the grading system is to emphasize learning, not failure, and to give students a second chance to be successful. However, to those who disapprove of the policy, the system where there are no zeros or "F"s is coddling students and sending them the wrong message, which will only confuse them further and make them more mediocre. Taking the views from both sides into account, I am inclined to agree with the latter. Firstly, as for me, children will eventually realize they aren’t doing well in school whether teachers give them "F"s or not, and hiding their true level of achievement will not do any good for them. Secondly, if we lower our expectations of students and let them slide, we will give them an excuse for not striving, and then they will be more likely to fail. Schools should not be afraid of setting the educational bar high. Furthermore, a little disappointment may not be so bad for a generation who has become accustomed to the social environment that " everyone is a winner". It makes sense for students to know that there are consequences for failure and they need to be responsible for not working hard. It is undeniable that schools should do whatever they can to prevent students from getting so depressed that they have to give up their education. However, I still insist that children aren’t going to gain from ambiguous information regarding their grades. We need to figure out that our task is to make efforts to improve their grades, not to label them, and what children need is to recognize the reality and then strive to improve themselves.
解析    本题讨论的是美国一些学区实行的一项新的评分政策。选段1中提到这项新的评分政策取消了F这一等级，取而代之的是H，目的在于再给那些表现差的学生一次机会；选段2则提到很多老师和父母并不认可这项评分政策，他们认为这样做只会惯坏学生，造成一种平庸的氛围。本题的写作重点在于首先概括上述选段的观点；然后发表自己的看法，并给予足够的论据支撑；最后总结全文，重述论点。
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