1、专业英语八级（作文）-试卷66及答案解析 (总分：10.00，做题时间：90分钟)一、WRITING(总题数：5，分数：10.00)1.PART V WRITING（分数：2.00）_2.The following article is about the parent trigger laws in the US. The basic concept of the policy is that parents have the ability to intervene in their childs school if it is performing poorly. With enough
2、 signatures from parents, any number of actions can be taken against the low performing school. These can include converting it to a charter school, replacing some of the schools administration and faculty, and closing the school altogether. From the following article you may find there are both ass
3、ent and disapproval. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize the development of the parent trigger law, and then 2. express your opinion towards the law, especially whether this kind of law can really benefit students and schools. Parent-Trigger Efforts: At a Cr
4、ossroads? A Standstill? A Dead End? Seven U.S. states have passed parent trigger laws, which give parents the ability to petition for changes at their childrens low-performing public schools. If more than half of the parents at a school sign the petition, the school district must comply with the cha
5、nges. These can include hiring a new staff, hiring a public charter school operator to take over reforms, or closing the school altogether and sending students to better performing neighboring schools. Across the nation, the debate rages on among policymakers, teachers and education advocates: Do pa
6、rent-trigger-type laws have the potential to turn around underperforming schools when bureaucrats fail to act? Or should they be dismissed as a flawed tool that can do more harm than good in already struggling school communities? Parent Revolution claims that support is building for parent triggers
7、at local levels in several states, including Tennessee and New York. Memphis Council PTA Vice President Helen Collins said shes ramping up efforts to build support for a stronger parent-trigger law among 53 schools in Memphis and Shelby County. We really hope that the teachers and the administrators
8、 know that our goal is not to put them out of a job; if anything our goal is to make sure that they understand were there to help, she said. In New York, a loose coalition of Buffalo parents has been backing parent-trigger legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Tom Casey, cam
9、paign manager for We The Parents Buffalo, a group of parents, community members and faith-based leaders, said he does have some doubts about the parent trigger, including the difficulty of getting parents to reach consensus on the changes they want to see at a particular school. But he said he suppo
10、rts any tools that give parents more choices of schools, including charters, and believes too often teacher contracts get in the way of overhauling low-achieving ones. You cannot change a school when you have tenured teachers and tenured principals, Casey said. The only way to fix it is to totally r
11、estructure it. Critics argue the law is a corporate-backed privatization tool under the guise of parent empowerment; they are particularly concerned about using parent trigger to force charter school conversions, which could strip away from some schools the leadership of elected school boards. Oppon
12、ents have further charged that parents have been bullied into signing petitions, though trigger advocates have also accused teachers unions and other opponents of similarly aggressive tactics. Opponents insisted that there are mechanisms already in place to intervene in low performing schools. They
13、point to school accountability committees and local school boards as the existing means for parents to be involved in the operation of their childs school. They also worry that parents may not be aware of the changes low performing schools have already made such as hiring new administration and teac
14、hers.（分数：2.00）_3.Nearly every country in the developed world, and more and more in the developing world, provide free primary and secondary education. In the case of university education, however, there is a great deal of disparity between countries education policies. The following are excerpts of
15、opinions. Read them carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the opinions; 2. give your comment. Adam Swift, author of How to Reap the Benefits of College It is a fundamental right of individuals to experience university and to have access to th
16、e knowledge it affords. University serves as an extremely valuable forum for different views, which everyone has a right to experience should they wish. The state has a duty to facilitate this development. A state can only truly be considered legitimate when an educated electorate approves it. Witho
17、ut a proper education, individuals cannot be effective citizens. A university education in the modern world is essential to the development of such informed citizens. For this reason, free university is a great benefit to a citizen as an exploration for his own development on a personal level, and w
18、ith his relation to society as a whole. Thomas Kane, author of The Price of Admission: Rethinking How Americans Pay for College There is no right to the university experience. University life is a mess-up. Students rarely take their time in university as seriously as some would suggest. Self-knowled
19、ge and genuine wisdom come from study and reflection. This can be done anywhere, not just in a university. There is no fundamental right of individuals to be allowed to take four years free of charge to learn new skills that will benefit them or teach them how to be better citizens. The states duty
20、is to provide a baseline of care, which in the case of education secondary school more than provides. If individuals want more they should pay for it themselves. Christine Hill, author of Still Paying off that Student Loan A university-educated populace is of great value to any state, and provides t
21、wo main benefits. The first benefit is that it provides extensive economic boons to society. By facilitating higher education, through state funding of university study, countries increase the likelihood and quantity of investment in their economies by both domestic and foreign firms, as a highly ed
22、ucated and skilled workforce is a country trait many businesses consider highly desirable when making investment decisions. The second benefit is the development of leaders in society. States function best when the best and brightest have the opportunity to rise to the top. The barrier to entry crea
23、ted by fees and other costs of university will prevent some potentially high-worth individuals from ever reaching levels of success. Free university education allows all individuals to attend university, guaranteeing that the leaders of tomorrow have the chance to show their worth. Walter Allen, aut
24、hor of College in Black and White A highly educated populace does not provide the great economic bounties the supporters of free university education propound. Countries need educated people, including a certain amount of university graduates, but the idea that everyone having a degree would benefit
25、 society economically is unfounded. There is no economic benefit when people with degrees are doing jobs that do not require university education, and represents a substantial misallocation of resources on the part of the state. As to developing future leaders, those who are gifted or particularly d
26、riven can still rise to the top, even if university is not free, as scholarships tend to be mostly aimed at such individuals. Surely, society does not benefit at all from university being free.（分数：2.00）_4.Traditionally, teachers in kindergartens are dominantly female, but now male teachers are excep
27、tionally popular in China. The following two excerpts provide opinions on male teachers in kindergartens, in the US and China respectively. Read them carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly both excerpts, and then 2. give your comment on
28、 whether it is a good idea to hire more male teachers in a kindergarten.Excerpt 1 In recent years, education experts have converged on one big idea: Teachers matter. Studies show that years of good teaching can set a student on a good path, while years of bad teaching can do the opposite. Yet only a
29、 fraction of our teachers are the best and the brightest of their generation. Heres a simple idea that could dramatically improve the teaching quality: Hire a few good men. Teaching now remains a female-dominated profession. This is especially true for younger children. According to the Bureau of La
30、bor Statistics, only 2% of kindergarten teachers are men. Why should this concern us? First, men represent an underutilized talent pool. If we could attract more males to teaching, school districts would have an easier time hiring outstanding individuals. The point is not that men are better teacher
31、s, but that highly qualified men are far less likely to apply for teaching jobs. Second, boys in particular benefit from the presence of male role models in the classroom. If we want to do something about boys often sluggish classroom performance, more male teachers could be a useful step. Our child
32、ren deserve the very best teachers we can find, whether men or women. We need to be more creative in letting young men know that they should consider teaching as a profession.Excerpt 2 One year ago, Hai Jun was hogging media attention for being the first male kindergarten teacher in Shenyang, but he
33、 quit earlier this month. Many suspect that his departure was caused by traditional bias against male pre-school teachers, which has forced many of Hais male colleagues to leave. It seems that few of these young graduates can withstand the bias no matter how enthusiastic they were in the beginning,
34、says Wang Ying, deputy head of a Shenyang-based nursery school. But even as male teachers find the going tough, there is a clamour for them in many places, such as South Chinas Guangdong Province. Some kindergartens in the province, convinced that a male presence would be healthy, beg fathers to vol
35、unteer in their schools. According to statistics released by the Guangzhou education department, only 14 out of 28,422 kindergarten teachers in the city were men at the end of last year. It is generally agreed that having a male teacher is conducive to developing a childs character and balance women
36、-dominated kindergartens. Not a few parents complain that their boys behave like sissies since they imitate their teachers. A male kindergarten teacher surnamed Ma says that the kids love him and that he has won much acclaim from both parents and female colleagues. Male teachers play an important ro
37、le in cultivating childrens boldness and help develop a strong will, says Wang, referring to the growing demand for male teachers. However, that is one area where males fear to tread in China. Traditionally men were considered careless, clumsy and not suited to take care of children. Fundamentally,
38、its the traditional concept that has forced these men to give up, says Sun Hongyan, deputy director of the Beijing-based Research Institute for Children.（分数：2.00）_5.Some parents are sending their preschool age children to take foreign language courses, with a view to developing their kids foreign la
39、nguage skills the earlier the better. The following are excerpts about this trend. Read it carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly both articles; 2. give your comment.Excerpt 1 In the first week of school, Schools Superintendent Anthony
40、Bivona went back to kindergarten and first grade. And he learned a couple new wordsin Spanish. For the first year, Center Elementarys 500 or so kindergarten and first-graders are learning a foreign language. Brookfield is one of the few traditional public school districts in the Western Connecticut
41、region to expand world languages to the kindergarten level. It is one of 10 in the state. Sienna Katz, the youngest daughter of multilingual school board member Victor Katz, came home from her first day at Center able to speak seven different words, including her name. On the second day, she came ho
42、me singing a song in Spanish. At that age, they absorb it like a sponge, said Katz, who works as a software engineer for an international company, where he is called upon to speak a variety of languages. An outspoken advocate for expanding the districts foreign language program, Katz said the benefi
43、t is unquestionable, with many studies showing proof that academic performance of children is advanced by early language learning. The National Network of Early Language Learning says acquiring those early literacy and cognitive skills helps youngsters with standardized tests, teaches them positive
44、attitudes toward different cultures and makes it easier to acquire broader language skills later in life.Excerpt 2 Parents in South Korea who put their pre-school-age children into English language classes are wasting their money and could be slowing their educational development. This is the messag
45、e delivered by an education pressure group, World Without Worries About Private Education. It has distributed 200,000 copies of booklet, assessing 12 common misconceptions about the value of starting English learning early with contributions from education experts, commentators and parents. The main
46、 message in the booklet is that very young children make little progress in English when they are put into special English-medium kindergartens by their parents. Kim Seung-hyun, policy director of World Without Worries, says that children starting English classes at eight or nine years can learn in
47、six months what a child starting at five has learned in two years. World Without Worries recommends that children start learning English from age 10, by which time they are confident in their first language, have well-developed cognitive skills and are motivated to learn. Kim also claims that resear
48、ch comparing the development of children at English-medium kindergartens with their counterparts at pre-schools who eschew foreign languages supports this case. The results showed that children who go to normal kindergartens scored higher in language ability and creativeness. The amount of time and energy children devote to English is harmful to the development of essential skills.（分数：2.00）_
