Passage 1
Americans today don’t place a very high value on intellect. Our heroes are athletes, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, not scholars. Even our schools are where we send our children to get a practical education —— not to pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Symptoms of pervasive anti-intellectualism in our schools aren’t difficult to find.
“Schools have always been in a society where practical is more important than intellectual,” says education writer Diane Ravitch. “Schools could be a counterbalance.” Razitch’s latest bock, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms traces the roots of anti-intellectualism in our schools, concluding they are anything but a counterbalance to the American distaste for intellectual pursuits.
But they could and should be. Encouraging kids to reject the life of the mind leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and control. Without the ability to think critically, to defend their ideas and understand the ideas of others, they cannot fully participate in our democracy. Continuing along this path, says writer Earl Shorris, “We will become a second-rate country. We will have a less civil society.”
“Intellect is resented as a form of power or privilege,” writes historian and Professor Richard Hofstadter in Anti-Intellectualism in American life, a Pulitzer Prize winning book on the roots of anti-intellectualism in US politics, religion, and education. From the beginning of our history, says Hofstadter, our democratic and populist urges have driven us to reject anything that smells of elitism. Practicality, common sense, and native intelligence have been considered more noble qualities than anything you could learn from a book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalist philosophers thought schooling and rigorous book learning put unnatural restraints on children: “We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for 10 or 15 years and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.” Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn exemplified American anti-intellectualism. Its hero avoids being civilized —— going to school and learning to read —— so he can preserve his innate goodness.
Intellect, according to Hofstadter, is different from native intelligence, a quality we reluctantly admire. Intellect is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of the mind. Intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, and adjust, while intellect examines, ponders, wonders, theorizes, criticizes and imagines.
School remains a place where intellect is mistrusted. Hofstadter says our country’s educational system is in the grips of people who “joyfully and militantly proclaim their hostility to intellect and their eagerness to identify with children who show the least intellectual promise.”
1. What do American parents expect their children to acquire in school?
A. The habit of thinking independently. B. Profound knowledge of the world.
C. Practical abilities for future career. D. The confidence in intellectual pursuits.
2. We can learn from the text that Americans have a history of
A. undervaluing intellect. B. favoring intellectualism.
C. supporting school reform. D. suppressing native intelligence.
3. The views of Ravish and Emerson on schooling are
A. identical. B . similar. C. complementary. D. opposite.
4. Emerson, according to the text, is probably
A. a pioneer of education reform. B. an opponent of intellectualism.
C. a scholar in favor of intellect. D. an advocate of regular schooling.
5. What does the author think of intellect?
A. It is second to intelligence. B. It evolves from common sense.
C. It is to be pursued. D. It underlies power.
Passage 2
In a time of low academic achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. However, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents (答问卷者)listed "to give children a good start academically" as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The vast majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents.
In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondents chose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. Sixty-two percent of the more individually oriented (强调个性发展的) Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education.
Like in America, there is diversity in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools.
Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children's chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.
6. We learn from the first paragraph that many Americans believe
A. Japanese parents are more involved in preschool education than American parents
B. Japan's economic success is a result of its scientific achievements
C. Japanese preschool education emphasizes academic instruction
D. Japan's higher education is superior to theirs
7. Most Americans surveyed believe that preschools should also attach importance to
A. problem solving B. group experience
C. parental guidance D. individually-oriented development
8. In Japan's preschool education, the focus is on
A. preparing children academically B. developing children's artistic interests
C. tapping children's potential D. shaping children's character
9. Free play has been introduced in some Japanese kindergartens in order to
A. broaden children's horizon B. cultivate children's creativity
C. lighten children's study load D. enrich children's knowledge
10. Why do some Japanese parents send their children to university: based kindergartens?
A. They can do better in their future studies.
B. They can accumulate more group experience there.
C. They can be individually oriented when they grow up.
D. They can have better chances of getting a first-rate education.
