单选题 The pioneers of the teaching of science imagined that its introduction into education would remove the conventionality, artificiality, and backward-lookingness which were characteristic of classical studies, but they were gravely disappointed. So, too, in their time had the humanists thought that the study of the classical authors in the original would banish at once the dull pedantry and superstition of mediaeval scholasticism. The professional schoolmaster was a match for both of them, and has almost managed to make the understanding of chemical reactions as dull and as dogmatic an affair as the reading of Virgil"s Aeneid.
The chief claim for the use of science in education is that it teaches a child something about the actual universe in which he is living in making him acquainted with the results of scientific discovery, and at the same time teaches him how to think logically and inductively by studying scientific method. A certain limited success has been reached in the first of these aims, but practically none at all in the second. Those privileged members of the community who have been through a secondary or public school education may be expected to know something about the elementary physics and chemistry of a hundred years ago, but they probably know hardly more than any bright boy can pick up from an interest in wireless or scientific hobbies out of school hours. As to the learning of scientific method, the whole thing is probably a farce. Actually, for the convenience of teachers and the requirements of the examination system, it is necessary that the pupils not only do not learn scientific method but learn
precisely the reverse, that is, to believe exactly what they are told and to reproduce it when asked, whether it seems nonsense to them or not. The way in which educated people respond to such quackeries as spiritualism or astrology, not to say more dangerous ones such as racial theories or currency myths, shows that fifty years of education in the method of science in Britain or Germany has produced no visible effect whatever. The only way of learning the method of science is the long and bitter way of personal experience, and, until the educational or social systems are altered to make this possible, the best we can expect is the production of a minority of people who are able to acquire some of the techniques of science and a still smaller minority who are able to use and develop them.
单选题 The author implies that the "professional schoolmaster" (Line 5) has ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节推理题。根据题干信息定位原文首段尾句。原文首段第二句和尾句提到专业校长对经院哲学的学习dull pedantry and superstition,使学生们对化学反应的理解as dull and as dogmatic,这些内容与选项B(与活泼教育背道而驰)对应。故答案为B。
单选题 The author blames all of the following for the failure to impart scientific method through the education system except ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节事实题。根据原文尾段第五句“Actually, for the convenience of teachers and the requirements of the examination system...”和尾段尾句“...until the educational or social systems are altered to make this possible...”可知B,C和D项都是作者责备通过教育体系传递科学的方法失败的原因,而A项未提及。故答案为A。
单选题 If the author were to study current education in science to see how things have changed since he wrote the piece, he would probably be most interested in the answer to which of the following questions?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。原文尾段首句呼吁科学教育,使孩子们了解他们所生存的actual universe,首句中的think logically and inductively by studying scientific method(以科学的方法培养逻辑思维和进行归纳)与选项C对应。故答案为C。
单选题 All of the following can be inferred from the text except ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节判断题。文章讲述由于各种各样的原因导致科学方法实践的难度。根据尾段首句的前半部分可知C正确。根据尾段第三句的后半句可知A正确。根据尾段第二句中的A certain limited success与选项B中的relatively easy矛盾,可知B选项的表达不对。故答案为B。