This week the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce releases a blueprint for rethinking American education to b

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问题     This week the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce releases a blueprint for rethinking American education to better prepare students to thrive in the global economy. While that report includes some controversial proposals, there is nonetheless a remarkable consensus among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 2lst century. Right now we’re aiming too low. Competency in reading and math is the meager minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, likewise, utterly necessary but insufficient. Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st century skills. Here’s what they are:
    Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now, whether they know it or not, and they need to behave that way. Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS, talks about needing workers who are "global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages"—not exactly strong points in the U. S., where fewer than half of high school students are enrolled in a foreign—language class and where the social-studies curriculum tends to fixate on U.S. history.
    Thinking outside the box. Jobs in the new economy—the ones that won’t get outsourced or automated—"put an enormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos," says Marc Tucker, a lead author of the skills-commission report. That’s a problem for U.S. schools. Kids also must learn to think across disciplines, since that’s where most new breakthroughs are made. It’s interdisciplinary combinations—design and technology, mathematics and art—"that produce YouTube and Google," says Thomas Friedman, the best-selling author of The World Is Flat.
    Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what’s coming at them and distinguish between what’s reliable and what isn’t. "It’s important that students know how to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act on it," says Dell executive Karen Bruett.
    Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as important as IQ for success in today’s workplace. "Most innovations today involve large teams of people," says former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. "We have to emphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures."
    Can our public schools, originally designed to educate workers for agrarian life and industrial-age factories, make the necessary shifts? The Skills commission will argue that it’s possible only if we add new depth and rigor to our curriculum and standardized exams, redeploy the dollars we spend on education, reshape the teaching force and reorganize who runs the schools. But without waiting for such a revolution, enterprising administrators around the country have begun to update their schools, often with ideas and support from local businesses. Organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are pouring money and expertise into model programs to show the way.
   

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答案E

解析 Norman Augustine出现在倒数第二段。在该段末句的引语中,他强调了“沟通技巧”、“与团体及来自不同文化背景的人合作的能力”,而E中的team spirit与正好与文中的the ability to work in teams对应,故为正确答案。
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