【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 16-18 Let's look back in history to an earlier way of life. At one time, children didn't have to learn any more than how to cope with their physical environment. They had to learn to be careful around moving objects, to draw back when they got too close to something dangerous. They didn't need a special school to learn these things other than the school of experience, nor was school is necessary for them to learn how to survive. Because their parents taught them all they needed to know about how to hunt and to till the soil. But as the society became more complex, people depended more on others who were living far away. So it became important for children to learn to read and write. When money was created, they needed to learn to count and calculate. Children had to know these things in order to survive in this new expanded environment. Because such skills could not be learned simply from first-hand experience, schools became necessary so that children could be taught what we now call the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic. 16. Why was formal education in schools not necessary for a long time? 问，为什么很长时间以来学校的正规教育都是不必要的?文章前半部分有一句话讲 到，“孩子们不需要到学校里去学习，只需要‘经验的学校’，对于学习如何生存来说，学校也是没有必要 的。”由此可见，在人类早期，孩子们通过直接经验来学习生存技能，而不需要去学校学习，所以正确答 案是C。

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] What changes in society first made it important to teach children the "three Rs"? 问，什么样的社会变化首先使得教孩子们3R的技能变得十分重要?短文中提到，“随着社会生活的复杂化，人们对于距离较远的他人有了更多的依赖，所以学习读和写就变得很重要。当货币被发明之后，学习计算又变得很重要。”由此可知，正确答案是C。

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] What is the topic the speaker will most likely discuss next? 问，演讲者下一步最可能会谈到什么话题?纵观全文，演讲者从学校教育没有必要讲到怎样的社会变化使得学校教育变得必要，最后讲到了学校教授给学生的3R技能——读、写和计算。由此推断，下文可能会讲到，随着社会生活变得更加复杂，学校要教授给孩子们的技能也就更为复杂 了，所以正确答案为B。