Testing has taken the place of teaching in most public schools. Pretests, drills, tests, and retests. They know that the best way to read a textbook is to look at the questions at the end of the chapter and then read the text quickly for the answers. I believe that my daughter Erica, who gets excellent marks, has never read a chapter of any of her school textbooks all the way through. And teachers are often heard to say proudly and openly that they teach to the test.
Teaching to the test is a curious phenomenon（现象）. Instead of deciding what skills students ought to learn, helping students learn them, and then using some methods of assessment（评价） to discover whether students have mastered the skills, teachers are encouraged to teach the students in the opposite way. First one looks at a test. Then one chooses the skills needed not to master reading, but to do well in the test. Finally, the test skills are taught.
The ability to read or write might suggest the ability to do reasonably well on standardized tests. However, neither reading nor writing develops simply through being taught to take tests. We must be careful to avoid mistaking preparations for a test of a skill with the acquisition（习得）of that skill. Too many discussions of basic skills make this misunderstanding because people are tested rather than concerned with the nature and quality of what is taught.
Recently, many schools have faced what could be called the crisis of comprehension or, in simple words, the phenomenon of students with grammar skills still being unable to understand what they read. These students are quite good at test taking and filling in workbooks. However, they have little or no experience reading or thinking, and talking about what they read. They know the details but can’t see or understand the whole. They are taught to be so concerned with grades that they have no time to think about meaning, and reread things if necessary.
小题1: The author mentions Erica’s performance in her study in order to show_________.
A．her cleverness in test taking
B．the good way to take tests
C．the improper way of teaching
D．the best way to read textbooks小题2:Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．The teachers are curious about teaching to the test.
B．Skills in general are not only useless but often mislead students.
C．Ability to read and write has nothing to do with ability to do well in tests.
D．Preparations for a test of a skill do not mean the acquisition of that skill.小题3: In the author’s opinion, __________.
A．some good methods of assessment should take the place of tests
B．more attention should be paid to the nature and quality of what is taught
C．students should not be concerned with grades but do more reading and thinking
D．students needn’t learn grammar skills because they are useless for understanding小题4:By “crisis of comprehension” (in Paragraph 4) the author means many students ______.
A．are too much concerned with grades
B．fail to understand the real goal of education
C．lack proper practice in grammar drills
D．do well on tests but can’t understand what they read
