2011年学位英语考试试题

2011年学位英语考试试题

Passage 2

Question 56 to 60 are based on the following passage:

A few weeks ago I was talking to a school inspector in one of the more fashionable districts of Paris. She astonished me by saying that if she had young children today, she'd probably send them to a private school. She had devoted 25 years of her life to the ideal of free public education, she said, but the truth was the state system was in a mess.

There are two main problems: State schools in France have to accept whatever teachers are assigned to them by the Ministry of Education. As my school inspector friend put it, "one year a school may be excellent; three or four years later, half the teachers may be incapable!" That is not very reassuring if you're a parent. Private schools can choose their own teachers.

The other problem is discipline or, rather, the lack of it. Not long ago a school in Birmingham made headlines in Britain because the teachers were being terrorized by their pupils. In the desolate suburbs of low-cost apartment blocks, thrown together in the 1960s on the outskirts of most big French cities, such stories are commonplace. Vandalism(破坏他人财产的行为), drug-taking and extortion aren't limited to schools in poor areas either. A recent poll found that 88 per cent of French children rate as the biggest problem of their school lives the prevalence (流行, 猖獗)of factions and gangs which spend all their time fighting one another. Small wonder, then, that the private schools, with their emphasis on traditional values, are undergoing a new surge of popularity (despite disapproval from France's new socialist leaders), and competition to get into the best of them has now become intense.

56．The French school inspector has long been a supporter of ____.

A) compulsory education B) free private education

C) private schools D) the state school system

57．The French state education system ____.

A) does not guarantee the competence of teachers

B) seems to have no serious difficulties

C) is running smoothly

D) promises to maintain high standards

58．Private schools in France today ____.

A) are generally undergoing changes for the worse

B) enjoy the prestige(声望) of becoming the place to send one's children to

C) have become victims of vandalism

D) never hire teachers who stress traditional values

59．Lack of discipline among students is rampant in state schools ____.

A) in the Paris slums, but not in other areas

B) noticeably and solely in the poorer areas in French cities

C) almost everywhere in France

D) rather restricted to Birmingham

60．France children who wish to go to the best private schools can do so by ____.

A) taking highly competitive examinations B) simply sending in applications

C) joining factions and gangs D) drawing lots