Passage 6（20040602传统学校教育）

Given the lack of fit between gifted students and their schools, it is not surprising that such students often have little good to say ‘about their school experience. In one study of 400 adults who had achieved distinction in all areas of life, researchers found that three-fifths of these individuals either did badly in school or were unhappy in school. Few MacArthur Prize fellows, winners of the MacArthur Award for creative accomplishment, had good things to say about their precollegiate schooling if they had not been placed in advanced programs. Anecdotal (名人轶事) reports support this. Pablo Picasso, Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Butler Yeats all disliked school. So did Winston Churchill, who almost failed out of Harrow, an elite British school. About Oliver Goldsmith, one of his teachers remarked, “Never was so dull a boy.” Often these children realize that they know more than their teachers, and their teachers often feel that these children are arrogant, inattentive, or unmotivated.

Some of these gifted people may have done poorly in school because their gifts were not scholastic. Maybe we can account for Picasso in this way. But most fared poorly in school not because they lacked ability but because they found school unchallenging and consequently lost interest. Yeats described the lack of fit between his mind and school: “Because I had found it difficult to attend to anything less interesting than my own thoughts, I was difficult to teach.” As noted earlier, gifted children of all kinds tend to be strong-willed nonconformists. Nonconformity and stubbornness (and Yeats’s level of arrogance and self-absorption) are likely to lead to Conflicts with teachers.

When highly gifted students in any domain talk about what was important to the development of their abilities, they are far more likely to mention their families than their schools or teachers. A writing prodigy (神童) studied by David Feldman and Lynn Goldsmith was taught far more about writing by his journalist father than his English teacher. High-IQ children, in Australia studied by Miraca Gross had much more positive feelings about their families than their schools. About half of the mathematicians studied by Benjamin Bloom had little good to say about school. They all did well in school and took honors classes when available, and some skipped grades.

21.  The main point the author is making about schools is that ________.

A) they should enroll as many gifted students as possible

B) they should organize their classes according to the students’ ability

C) they are often incapable of catering to the needs of talented students

D) they should satisfy the needs of students from different family backgrounds

22.  The author quotes the remarks of one of Oliver Goldsmith’s teachers ________.

A) to show how poor Oliver’s performance was at school

B) to illustrate the strong will of some gifted children

C) to explain how dull students can also be successful

D) to provide support for his argument

23.  Pablo Picasso is listed among the many gifted children who ________.

A) could not cope with their studies at school successfully

B) paid no attention to their teachers in class

C) contradicted their teachers much too often

D) behaved arrogantly and stubbornly in the presence of their teachers

24.  Many gifted people attributed their success ________.

A) less to their systematic education than to their talent

B) mainly to parental help and their education at home

C) both to school instruction and to their parents’ coaching

D) more to their parents’ encouragement than to school training

25.  The root cause of many gifted students having bad memories of their school years is that ________.

A) they were seldom praised by their teachers

B) school courses failed to inspire or motivate them

C) their nonconformity brought them a lot of trouble

D) teachers were usually far stricter than their parents

解析：

这篇文章探讨了传统教育中暴露的问题作了剖析。文章指出：许多天才儿童在学校读书时表现并不好，与学校老师经常产生冲突。在对各行各业中卓有建树的400个名人的调查表明，其中有3/5的人在校表现不是很差就是对学校不快。一些天分颇高的人可能在学校的表现并不尽人意，原因在于天分不只是体现在学业。大多数天才儿童认为在自己的成长过程中，家庭所起的作用比学校和老师所起的作用要重要得多。学校课程没能激发促进他们学习的积极性。三段文章首句分别为各段的主要内容（第一段）学校和天才学生之间并不匹配（第二段）天分颇高的人在学校的表现并不尽人意，原因在于天分不只是体现在学业。（第三段）天才儿童认为家庭比学校和老师所起的作用要重要得多。文章结构非常清楚。

26．B）

主旨题。

文章第一句就提到 “Given the lack of fit between gifted students and their schools, it is not surprising that such students often have little good to say 'about their school experience”。就是学校和天才学生之间并不匹配。接着，文章举了众多名人的例子对这一点进行说明和解释。在第一段末句Often these children realize that they know more than their teachers, and their teachers often feel that these children are arrogant, inattentive, or unmotivated.作者再次说明学生认为师不如自己，师认为学生傲慢、缺乏注意力和进取心。简言之，互相看对方不顺眼。至于A)满足不同家庭背景的学生C)因材施教 D)吸纳尽可能多的天才学生都是无中生有的选项，也和文章主旨不合。由此可知B)选项正确。

27．A）

关键词：Oliver Goldsmith

细节题。

文章第一段提到 “Anecdotal ( 名人轶事 ) reports support this”。这里的this就是指前文提到的作者的观点，即其中多数学生在校表现不是很差就是对学校不快。因此A)选项正确。D)说明Oliver Goldsmith的表现多么差，就是就事论事，没有理解文章主旨。

28．C）

关键词： Picasso

细节题。

文章第二段第一句和第二句说 “Some of these gifted people may have done poorly in school because their gifts were not scholastic. Maybe we can account for Picasso in this way”。由此可知毕加索应归于学校学习不好的天才儿童一类。而此处的B)D)都是叶芝的所作所为，是张冠李戴。

29．A）

推理题。

文章最后一段提到 “When highly gifted students in any domain talk about what was important to the development of their abilities, they are far more likely to mention their families than their schools or teachers”。接着，作者还对这一点进行举例说明。由此可以推出A选项为本题答案。B)的学校教育正是天才少年所反对的C)错在encouragement是文章未提及的，D)的talent和education的比较是没有的比较。可以看到，干扰项有两种构造，一个是无中生有的比较，一个是增加一新的概念。所谓差之毫厘，谬以千里。

30．C)

推理题。

没有非常明确的关键词增加了本题的难度。但题干root cause(根本原因)还是提供了线索。根据我们的主旨和每段的主题句，找到文章第二段的 “But most fared poorly in school not because they lacked ability but because they found school unchallenging and consequently lost interest”可知C)选项符合文中的原意。B) D)无中生有，A)以偏概全。