同等学力英语阅读专项练习(19)

　　Passage Nineteen

　　Twenty years ago, when the concept of IT(information technology) as a universal tool for more effective learning first started to appear as a real possibility, people began to extrapolate(推断) to form views of the future. Not an easy task was this extrapolation, for in those days there were negligible (though non-zero) provision and negligible (though non-zero) usage. One extrapolation was the vision of IT’s becoming the medium through which the Marxist dream of de-schooling could lake place. In this vision, schools would disappear as centres for more than social interaction; education would be delivered in the learners’ houses, or in very local sub-street-level resource centres, with a computer for each individual linked to large-scale, maybe very distant, centres of teaching excellence.

　　IT-based distance learning on this model would have a number of significant advantages. The list is much like that given for tele-working – various economies, as of fewer large inefficiently used buildings, mass transit systems and delivery workers (teachers and support staff in our case); less opportunity for people to gather and cause trouble for the establishment (for instance asking for better conditions); more freedom of choice for the learners (in our case) to decide when and how they learn.

　　Such nostalgia for past dreams of distant futures is triggered by hearing of a friend’s recently observing an A-level Electronics lesson delivered by a system much like this. There are two young men in the ‘class’ in a rural school in England; for an hour each week they are on-line to a tutor in Wales using a simple PC-based video-camera link. During this time, they receive an almost Oxford-style tutorial as they carry out complex experiments using a kit, discuss their ‘home’ work exercises (earlier sent to the tutor by email) and their reading, and develop their understanding of the subject in theory and in practice.

　　The two learners have no problems with this; they see it as far better than travelling for a couple of hours or more several days a week to the nearest place that offers face-to-face teaching. The school has no problem with it: the students remain on their roll yet make efficiently few demands on costly resources. The tutor and the tutor’s institutions are happy too: there’s more money for them without great resource demands, and possibly more higher education students later.

　　Our friend had two concerns, however. First, the tutor has a large number of such tiny groups of students: it would be more efficient and more effective to work with sets of tiny groups at the same time (the technology can cope). Second, the observation was during an Ofsted inspection of the school – and current inspection systems can’t readily deal with such situations.

　　Will that latter be the reason for such invaluable explorations to cease?

　　1. According to the writer of the passage, 20 years ago the idea of IT to enable effective learning ________.

　　A. was universal

　　B. became a reality

　　C. gave people too much expectations

　　D. was unimaginable

　　2. The word “de-schooling” in the first paragraph probably means ________.

　　A. there would be no schooling

　　B. conventional schools would no longer exist

　　C. people would have schools in the street

　　D. schools would begin to teach Maxism

　　3. IT-based distance learning has all the following advantages EXCEPT ________.

　　A. having no teachers and support staff

　　B. being more economical

　　C. saving a lot of trouble for the establishment

　　D. offering more freedom of choice to the learners

　　4. One of the disadvantages of IT-based distance learning lies in the fact that ________.

　　A. all schooling would be Oxford-style

　　B. students would lose the chances of travelling between home and school

　　C. schools would lose a lot of money

　　D. schools would have less control over schooling

　　5. From the passage we can infer that the writer’s attitude towards IT-based distance learning is ________.

　　A. indifferent B. positive

　　C. negative D. not mentioned

　　查看答案

　　C B A D B