新编六级听力练习 第273期

Section B
Passage One
[26]Americans who remember "the good old days" are not alone in complaining about the educational system in this country. Immigrants complain, too. Lately a German friend was filled with anger when he learned that the first mathematics test given to his son as a college freshman included multiplication and division. Japanese businessmen in Los Angeles send their children to private schools staffed by teachers imported from Japan who teach mathematics at more advanced level.
[27]But I wonder: If American education is so poor, why is it that this is still the country of innovation? When I was 12 in Indonesia, I had to memorize the name of all the world's major cities. At the same age, my son, who was brought up a Californian, thought that Buenos Aires was Spanish for good food. However, unlike children of his age in Asia and Europe, my son had studied creative geography. When he was only 6, he drew a map of the route that he traveled to get to school, including the streets, the traffic signs and the houses that he passed. Dissatisfied American parents forget that in this country their children are able to experiment freely with ideas; without this they will not be able to think or to believe in themselves. Critics of American education cannot grasp one thing: freedom. [28]America, I think, is the only country that extends even to children the license to freely speak, write and be creative. Our public education is not perfect, but it is better than any other.

Questions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you just heard.
26. Who is dissatisfied with the quality of American education?
正确答案：C
解析：细节题。录音提到，那些怀念过去美好时光的美国人并不是唯一抱怨美国教育体系的人，移民们也在抱怨。故C为正确答案。A、D在文中均有所提及，但并未提及其对美国教育体系的观点；B中包含speaker，而他对美国教育体系持支持态度，因此不能选B。
27. What does the speaker wonder?
正确答案：D
解析：细节兼推断题。短文中说话者提出了这样的质疑：“如果美国的教育真的那么差，那为什么美国仍然是一个以创新自居的国家？”然后说话者进一步以自己和儿子之间的比较说明了美国教育的优越性。由此不难推断D为正确答案。A、B、C均涉及美国教育体系的某些问题，但太片面。
28. What do we know about American children from this passage?
正确答案：C
解析：推断题。短文最后说话者表明了观点“我们的教育体系不是完美的，但却是最好的”。抓住短文大意后，不难判断只有C才与说话者的观点相符。