Passage 1
The standardized educational or psychological tests, which are widely used to aid in selecting, assigning or promoting students, employees and military personnel, have been the target of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press, and even in Congress. The target is wrong, for, in attacking the tests, critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-informed or incompetent users. The tests themselves are merely tools, with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified condition. Whether the results will be valuable, meaningless, or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself but largely upon the user.
All informed predictions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance. How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount, reliability and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted. Anyone who keeps careful score knows that the information available is always incomplete and that the predictions are always subject to error.
Standardized tests should be considered in this context: they provide a quick, objective method of getting some kind of information about what a person has learned, the skills he has developed, or the kind of person he is. The information so obtained has, qualitatively, the same advantages and shortcomings as other kinds of information. Whether to use tests, other kinds of information, or both in a particular situation depends, therefore, upon the empirical evidence concerning comparative validity and upon such factors as cost and availability.
In general, the tests work most effectively when the traits or qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined (for example, ability to do well in a particular course of training program) and least effectively when what is to be measured or predicted cannot be well defined, for example, personality or creativity. Properly used, they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information about many people. Sometimes they identify students whose high potential has not been previously recognized.
In this passage, the author is primarily concerned with ________.
第一段是给出“标准化测试”这个话题，第二、三段都是对标准化测试的理论基础的介绍，第四段是对标准化测试使用条件的介绍。因此本文的主题为标准化测试的理论基础。
The author's attitude toward standardized tests is ________.
文章第一段中作者就提出“The target is wrong for, in attacking the tests”，不应该抨击标准化考试，弊病不在测试本身，而在使用者。最后一段提出如果使用得当，“they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information”。综上所述，可知作者对标准化测试是持肯定态度的。
What can be inferred from the passage?
第二段提到，要进行准确预测必须有两个条件，一个是“the amount, reliability and appropriateness of the information used”，另一个是“the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted”。所以对于标准化测试所获得的信息，也必须使用特殊的方法进行分析。
According to the passage, an informed prediction ________.
由第二段最后“the predictions are always subject to error”可知，预测很有可能是错误的。
According to the passage, standardized tests work most effectively when ________.
文章最后一段提到，当“the traits or qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined”时，测试最为有效。