Grade 9 Test 14
Grade 9 Test 14
Grade 9 Test 14
6. I’d love to have lived in the old days, when people .............. to market by horse and
carriage.
Question 7: I’ll give you the phone number of my hotel so that you can reach me if anything
happens…….anything happen. I want you lo look after my children.
Question 8: We’ve been together through……in our friendship, and we won’t desert each
other now.
Question 9: ……a scholarship, I entered the frightening and unknown territory of private
education.
Question 12: ……I’d like to help you out, I’m afraid I just haven’t got any spare money at the
moment.
Question 13: She was very badly depressed after the car accident. Now she is beginning to
think that there could be light at the end of the…….
A. tunnel B. subway C. passage D. journey
Question 15: Although she would have preferred to carry on working, my mum……..her
career in order to have children.
Question 16: A number of landslides have ……. Nepal since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake
on 25th April which killed more than 8,000 people and injured many more.
Choose the word whose primary stress is placed differently from that of the others.
There is a strange paradox to the success of the Asian education model. On the one
hand, class sizes are huge by western standards with on average between 30 and 40
students per class in countries like Japan and Korea. On the other hand, school children in
developed Asian economies rank among the highest in the, world, for academic
achievement in the areas of science and mathematics, especially on tests. Meanwhile,
British secondary school students fail to shine in conditions most educational researchers
would say are far more likely to help them succeed.
Why do Asian students seem to perform so well then? Is it their legend discipline.?
Certainly, classroom management seems to be a whole lot easier in places like Korea, and
perhaps lessons are more effective as a direct consequence. After all we are only too aware
of the decline in discipline standards in our own schools; belligerent and disrespectful
students appear to be the norm these days. Teachers in Britain seem powerless to control
what happens any more. Surely this situation cannot create a very effective learning
environment, so perhaps the number of students is far less relevant than is the manner in
which they conduct themselves.
But there are other factors to consider, too. Korean students spend a lot more time
with their teachers. It seems logical to suggest, therefore, that they might form stronger
bonds and greater trust, and that Korean teachers, in understanding their pupils better, might
be able to offer them a more effective learning programme. Of course, trust and
understanding leads to greater respect as well, so Korean students are probably less likely
to ignore their teachers’ advice.
Then there is the home environment. The traditional family unit still remains relatively
intact in Korea. Few children come from broken homes, so there is a sense of security,
safety and trust both at home and at school. In Britain meanwhile, one in every two
marriages fails and divorce rates are sky-high. Perhaps children struggle to cope with
unstable family conditions and their only way to express their frustration is by misbehaving at
school. Maybe all this delinquent behaviour we are complaining about is just a cry for help
and a plea for attention.
But while the Japanese, Korean and Asian models generally do seem to produce
excellent results, the statistics don’t tell the truth. Asian sludents tend to put their education
before literally everything else. They do very few extracurricular activities and devote far
more time to their studies than their British peers. And this begs the question: is all that extra
effort justified for a few extra percentage points in some meaningless international student
performance survey? So Asian students are on average 3-5% better at maths than Britons –
big deal! What is their qualily of life like? Remember, school days are supposed to be the
best, are they not?
There has been a lot of attention and praise given to these Asian models and their
impressive statistics of late. And without question, some of this praise is justified, but it
seems to be a case of two extremes in operation here. At one end, there is the discipline and
unbelievably hard work ethic of the Asian students success in education before all else. At
the other end, Brilish students at times appear careless and extremely undisciplined by
comparison, but at least they DO have the free time to enjoy their youth and explore their
interests. Is either system better outright? Or is it perhaps about time we stopped comparing
and started trying to combine the best bits of both, so that we can finally offer our students a
balanced, worthwhile education? We are not just dealing with statistics; never forget that
every statistic is a little human being somewhere who desperately needs our help and
guidance - who deserves it.
Question 22: What does the writer mean when he says there is a paradox in the Asian
education model?
B. Larger classes are expected to lead to poorer results but they do not.
D. Class sizes in Asia are much smaller in other parts of the world.
C. fail at school more than they succeed D. enjoy better classroom conditions
Question 24: What does the writer suggest might make lessons in Korean schools more
successful than in Britain?
Question 25: What can be inferred from the utterance perhaps the number of students is far
less relevant than is the manner in which they conduct themselves?
Question 27: Look at the following sentence. You see, behind those great maths and science
scores, there is a quite remarkable work ethic. Where does the sentence best fit in the
paragraph?
But while the Japanese, Korean and Asian models generally do seem to produce excellent
results, the statistics don’t tell the truth. [1] Asian sludents tend to put their education before
literally everything else. They do very few extracurricular activities and devote far effort more
time to their studies than their British peers. [2] And this begs the question: is all that extra
effort justified for a few extra percentage points in some meaningless international student
performance survey? So Asian students are on average 3-5% better at maths than Britons –
big deal! [3] What is their qualily of life like? Remember, school days are supposed to be the
best, are they not?
Question 29: What are the 'too exlremes’ mentioned in the last paragraph?
A. good discipline and a hard work ethic B. success and failure
C. The Asian system is obviously better. D. The British system is too strict.
Read the text below and decide which answer best fits each gap. The first one has been
done as an example (0).
VOLUNTEERING
When Pamela Janett left university to become a (0).....school teacher, it was by no (31)......
easy to find a job. She therefore decided to go abroad as a volunteer teacher for a year.
When she realized she would be teaching deaf and blind children, she was a (32)...... taken
aback. But after a month's training she felt more confident that she would be able to cope
with the situation. The basic living conditions also (33)......as something of a shock. Pamela's
school was situated in a remote Ethiopian village, where her accommodation (34) ......of one
room and a shared bathroom. Not only was the space cramped, but there was no electricity,
Internet or telephone access, so she felt totally cut (35)...... from the outside world. Now back
home in Britain, Pamela has used her (36) ...... experience to set up a similar school for the
deaf and blind which has made a huge (37)......to dozens of children who would (38)......find
themselves struggling to learn. She is now concentrating her efforts on (39)......her school to
cater for children with other learning difficulties, too. It seems as if the more people get to
know her, the (40).....the demand is for her skills.
VI. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in the space.
MODERN CULTURE?
When people talk about contemporary culture, they are just as likely to be talking
about fast cars, trainers or high heels as they are to be talking about Shostakovich or
Shakespeare.Goods have become as (41) / (MEAN) a measure and marker of culture as the
Great and the Good. The word “culture” can now cover just about anything. Culture is no
longer merely the beautiful and (42) / (SINGLE) until the late twentieth century that a (43) /
(SCHOLAR) interest in objects began to (44) / (PLACE) the traditional interest with
historians, (45) / (LITERATE) critics and philosophers all suddenly becoming fascinated by
the meaning of objects, large and small. Is this a sign, perhaps, of a society cracking under
the strain of too many things?
Our current(46) / (OBSESSIVE) with material culture, one might argue, is simply a
(47) / (RESPOND) to the Western crisis of abundance. There are obvious problems with this
(48) / (MATERIAL) conception of culture. If our experience of everyday life is so (49) /
(SATISFY), then how much more so is the (50) / (SPECTATOR) of our everyday things
under scrutiny.