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
For one brief moment, after years of fear and loathing, America seemed ready to make peace with the SAT. When the University of
For one brief moment, after years of fear and loathing, America seemed ready to make peace with the SAT. When the University of
admin
2009-08-13
96
问题
For one brief moment, after years of fear and loathing, America seemed ready to make peace with the SAT. When the University of California several years ago threatened to treat the test like a bad batch of cafeteria food and tell applicants not to buy it, the College Board junked the bewildering analogy questions (Warthogs are to pigs as politicians are to what?), created a writing section (including producing an essay), added tougher math questions and more reading analysis—and had everybody talking about the new-and-improved SAT.
Then the first students to take SAT: The Sequel were seen stumbling out of the testing centers as if they had just run a marathon, and all the happy talks ended. With the three hours and 45 minutes stretching to five hours with breaks and instructions, it got worse. Nobody is sure how, but moisture in some SAT answer sheets caused pencil marks to bleed or fade, producing more than 5,000 tests with the wrong scores. Even after that was fixed, several universities reported a sharp drop in their applicants’ average scores, which many attributed to exhaustion, and more colleges told applicants they would no longer have to take the SAT.
All of which stoked interest in the ACT, the SAT’s less famous and less feared rival based in Iowa City, Iowa. The shorter test is now becoming a welcome alternative for many high schoolers who no longer see a need to endure the usual SAT trauma. "I think the ACT is a true player in the college-admissions game these days, "says Robyn Lady, until recently a college counselor at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Although most Jefferson students still take the SAT, the number of ACTs there has tripled in the last two years. It’s a shift that, if it continues, could change the balance of entrance-test power, since the Fairfax County, Va., magnet sends more kids to the Ivy League than almost any other U. S. school.
The SAT, with a maximum 2,400 points, and the ACT, with a maximum 36 points, are scored differently, but otherwise are no more different from each other than American football differs from the Canadian version. Students usually do equally well on each. The SAT’s new 25-minute essay is required, while the ACT’s essay is optional. The SAT is three hours and 45 minutes long. The comparable ACT is three hours and 25 minutes. The SAT has three sections: critical reading, math and writing. The ACT has math, science, reading and English sections, plus optional writing. The ACT with the writing test costs $43, more than the SAT’s $ 41.50, hut the ACT is only $29 without the writing section.
Several high-school guidance counselors say they assume the ACT, with 1.2 million test takers in the class of 2005 compared with 1.5 million for the SAT, will eventually catch up, in part because so many educators are advising their students to try both. Wendy Andreen, counselor at Memorial Senior High School in Houston—where the SAT has been supreme—says she tells students every year they should take both tests to be safe, and many are beginning to listen, with ACTs up 18 percent since 2002. Deb Shaver, director of admissions at Smith College, says counselors are steering students to the ACT "because there is less hysteria surrounding the ACTs, and students feel less stressed about taking the test."
The mistakes made in the scoring of the October 2005 SAT by Pearson Educational Measurement, the College Board’s subcontractor, have not been forgotten, counselors say. The SAT suffered from damaging news stories as details of the errors came out bit by bit. In the end, 4,411 students had scores reported to colleges that were lower than they actually earned and had to be corrected; 17 percent of the corrections were for more than 40 points. College Board president Gaston Caperton apologized, saying the mishap "brings humility, and humility makes us more aware, empathetic and respectful of others."
But many counselors, who often complain about the New York City-based nonprofit’s influence over their students futures, say they have their doubts. "I think the College Board sees this as a purely technical problem that they can solve through purely technical means," says Scott White, a counselor at Montclair (N. J. ) High School. "I don’t think they appreciate the damage that was done to their already shaky credibility."
选项
A、the SAT is undesirable.
B、the SAT should be replaced.
C、the SAT’s keepers are blamed.
D、the SAT’s critics are praised.
答案
A
解析
本题是推断题。由题干中的cafeteria food定位至首段。第二句提到加州大学几年前威胁说要将SAT当作变了质的食物一样扔掉,让申请者们不要参加该考试。可见该考试受到质疑,不再受到欢迎,[A]符合文意,故为答案。此处没有提到用新的考试取代SAT考试,排除[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ZBvO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
WhichofthefollowingstatementsisNOTtrueaboutHarbinaccordingtothespeaker?
WhichofthefollowingstatementsisNOTtrueaboutHarbinaccordingtothespeaker?
ArecentstudybytheCenterforEconomicPolicyResearchsaysthat,inordertoeaseimbalances,theEuropeanUnionneedstoma
Whichofthefollowingisconsideredalandmarkrulingininterracialmarriages?
WhatistheattitudeofBritishtowardsthefinancial-transactionstax?
U.S.andEurope’sapproachtoforeignstudentsistowesternizetheminawayofeducatingfutureleaders.
A、Therounded,mediumsizeoftheletters.B、Thesmallopena’sando’s.C、Thewidespacesbetweenthewords.D、Theuprightslan
A、Whatkindoffoodisthemostdelicious.B、Whichhotelisthebesthotel.C、Wheretohavedinner.D、WheretocelebrateJohn’s
随机试题
在社会主义建设初期,毛泽东提出了以苏为鉴,独立自主地探索适合中国情况的社会主义建设道路。标志着党探索中国社会主义建设道路良好开端的是()
以下表述中不符合资产评估科学性原则的是
腹部闭合性损伤导致腹膜炎症状出现最晚的是
人民法院接到起诉状,经审查,应当在()日内立案或者作出裁定不予受理。
火电厂的选址要点是()。①电厂尽量靠近负荷中心;②厂址靠近原料产地或有良好的原料运输条件;③厂址接近水源,水源要有充足的水量;④厂址有足够容量的储灰场或灰渣回收利用能力;⑤厂址有足够的㈩线走廊;⑥厂址与周边其他城市用地要有一定的
关于保温工程质量的说法,正确的是()。
进口设备装运港交货价包括()。
诉前财产保全是指债权银行因情况紧急,不立即申请财产保全将会使其合法权益受到难以弥补的损失,因而在起诉前向()申请采取财产保全措施。
WWW页面访问的大致过程如下:用户在浏览器中输入要访问的WWW页面的(48)地址(http://hostnane/dirctory/file):浏览器通过(49)查询上述输入信息所指的Web服务器的IP地址;浏览器通过网络与该IP地址处的Web服务器的(5
ManyAmericansfindsilenceuncomfortableduringabuffetoraformaldinner.【C1】______intheStatesthereisthe【C2】______
最新回复
(
0
)