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
2014-12-12
29
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.
Nowadays poor whites are the representatives of Britain’s educational underachievers.
选项
答案
E
解析
根据信息词educational underachievers可定位到E段。该段描述英国贫穷白人学生的学习情况。首句的signal与题目中的representatives属于同义表达,两者意思一致,故本题出处在E段。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/rKv7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Forthisproblem,ourteacher’sideaisthat______(那个计划应该立即执行).
Anewreportclaimsthatthemakersofsugar-laden(含糖)drinkssuchassodas,sportsdrinks,energydrinksandfruitdrinkstaked
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayentitledIsCollegeEducationEssentialtoOne’sFutureSuccess
A、Walkthedog.B、Cleanthehouse.C、Gotothedoctor’s.D、Finishherassignment.B信息明示题。男士问女士星期六干什么,女士提到的第一件事就是早晨帮忙打扫房间。
A、Schoolviolencehasnothingtodowiththeeducationalsystem.B、Schoolsshouldstoptryingtoraisescores.C、Schoolsshould
A、Drinks.B、Food.C、Abathingsuit.D、ATent.C女士说:“所以你得自己带泳衣和睡袋。”C正确。表示具体物件的名词选项表明,此题问某个细节(而非全文主旨)。此类题的做题办法是:首先,看四个选项在原文是否提及。若原
A、Thechildseemssad.B、Hisorhersadnesslastsforaratherlongperiodoftime.C、Thechildoccasionallyfeelsblueordown.
Upto80percentoftimespentonlineatworkiswasted,accordingtoanewstudyfromKansasStateUniversity.Itsuggeststhat
Whenmedal-winningathletesreturnhomefromtheOlympicGames,theirfamemaybeshort-lived,buttheycanlookforwardtoalo
HowtoUseaLibraryA)You’redrivingyourcarhomefromworkorschool.Andsomethinggoeswrong.Theenginestallsoutatligh
随机试题
下列关于行政给付的理解,错误的是()
下肢深静脉血栓形成最主要而常见的后遗症是
自身免疫性疾病,常合并甲状腺功能降低肿物质硬,单发冷结节,表现不平,生长迅速
维生素是维持动物体正常生理代谢和机能所必需的一类低分子化合物,其作用是其他物质所无法替代的。能维持上皮组织如皮肤、结膜等正常机能,并参与视紫红质的合成,增强视网膜感光力的维生素为
烟气脱硫的主要途径有( )脱硫。
远华公司系上市公司,属于增值税一般纳税企业,适用的增值税税率为17%,适用的所得税税率为25%,所得税采用资产负债袁债务法核算。远华公司对于应收款项计提坏账准备的比例确定为10%。根据税法规定,企业计提的坏账准备在发生实质性损失前不允许税前扣除。不考虑除增
传说中“仰则观象于天,俯则观法于地”,最终创造八卦的是:
设f(x)在[-2,2]上具有连续的导数,且f(0)=0,F(x)=∫-xx(x+t)dt.证明:级数绝对收敛.
WhenFrankDaletookoveraspublisherofLosAngelesHerrald-Examiner,theorganizationhadjustendedaten-yearstrike.There
Overthepast30years,thechildhoodobesityrateintheUnitedStateshasdoubledforchildrenandtripledforadolescents.Si
最新回复
(
0
)