单选题 As the fall semester ended, my students had a chance to turn the tables on their teacher. They got to grade me anonymously, assessing the clarity of my thinking, my organizational skills and the depth of my knowledge. At their best, such evaluations keep me alert to what works and what does not. Students reflect my performance back to me, and I am glad to learn what they think of teaching, so that I might try to improve.
I am also aware that the students' comments become the primary evidence of my abilities, a paper trail following me throughout my career.
When I come up for review, the promotion committee will examine my evaluations to determine just what kind of teacher I am.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with accountability. But this system assumes that what students need is the same as what they want. Reading my evaluations every semester has taught me otherwise. Many students' expectation for their courses has changed, reflecting, in part, the business model more universities are following. Classes are considered services, and parents are eager to get their money's worth from their children's education. Students feel pressure from their parents to derive practical use from their courses.
This could make sense for an engineering course, but in my field, creative writing, which rarely churns out polished 21-year-old writers, it is trickery to provide the results that the career-minded student craves. Then I stumbled upon some dubious reaching techniques, reversed the criticisms of these chronically unhappy students and improved my student evaluations for the semester. My record would reflect a smart, attentive, encouraging teacher, but I would argue that I taught these students little. They loved me because ! agreed that writing should be easy.
I know other teachers who have done the same thing: teach your heart out to the teachable but be sure to please the unteachable, to keep your ratings high, like a politician trying to improve his poll results.
I believe in the struggle, and most students I have met do too. But I still can't help wincing when I read, "The instructor is mean." "Marcus is not committed to my work." "This class sucks." The business model has taught me that the customer is always right. But maybe a few more dissatisfied customers would mean a better learning experience.

单选题 In Paragraph 1, the phrase "tuna the tables on their teachers" may mean______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 通过上下文可知,“turn the tables on their teachers”的意思是“学生评估老师”。故选B。
单选题 The reason that the students' expectation of their courses changed is______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第三段讲到学生希望能改变课程设置的原因是来自父母的压力,父母希望他们能在课堂上学有实用价值的内容。由此可见,学生是为了满足家长。选项C表达此意。
单选题 Why does the author say "classes are considered service"?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 作者之所以说教学也是被看作服务,这是因为家长迫切想看到在孩子身上投资能有所回报。选项C与题意相符。故选C。
单选题 Which of the following does the author use in his writing class?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 第四段提到“improved my student evaluations for the semester”,可见C对。通过排除法也能选出C为正确答案。
单选题 What was achieved at the end of the writing class?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 最后一段指出:“I believe in the struggle, and most students I have met do too.”可见学生对作者的写作课是赞许的。故选A。