Question

To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades and tests. But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.
Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want. There are no teachers, only “staff members”. The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway. “You do not need to say to a three-year-old, ‘Go explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!”says Daniel Greenberg, a founder of the school. “But if you make children do what you want all day… they will lose all taste of learning.” At Sudbury Valley School, you will find children talking, reading, painting, cooking, working on computers, studying French, playing the piano, climbing trees, or just running around. Two boys spent three years just fishing!
The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules. Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote (投票)each—even the four-year-olds. They decide the school rules, how to spend the school money, and even which staff they want and do not want anymore.
When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work. But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all the time have successful careers today. One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.
【小題1】What's special about the school?

A．There is nobody but students there.

B．All the students are of the same age.

C．There are no classes for the students.

D．There are no rules in the school.

【小題2】What do the students do in the school?

A．They learn everything there from the staff members.

B．They grow up there without learning anything.

C．They spend all the time with their parents.

D．They do whatever they are interested in.

【小題3】The school seems to believe that children________.

A．learn best when they are doing what they want

B．are too young to learn anything by themselves

C．can look after themselves without any help

D．can't go to college without any hard work

【小題4】The last paragraph wants to tell us that_         .

A．the writer doesn't like the idea of the school

B．the school is quite successful in its work

C．most of the parents don't believe in the school

D．younger students learn better there than older ones

【小題5】The underlined word career in the last paragraph most probably means_.
A. family   B. money    C. lifestyle   d. job

Answer 1

【小題1】C
【小題2】D
【小題3】A
【小題4】B
【小題5】D解析:
本文主要講述了美國第一家提倡“自主學習”的學校，此類型學校基本理念為民主式管理和自由式教育，教學特點為弱化班級概念，混合年齡，以及學生、教員完全平等的民主式管理。學校認為學生學習無需定式，學習完全可以在任何的日常活動中進行，學生應自主決定學習方式和人生方向。
【小題1】主旨理解題。由于瑟谷學校教學特點為弱化班級概念，混合年齡，以及學生、教員完全平等的民主式管理。故選C。
【小題2】細節理解題。由第二段第一句“Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want”可知學生在學校做他們感興趣的事情。
【小題3】細節理解題。由第二段最后一句可知，學校倡導學生“自主學習”。故選A。
【小題4】細節推理題。由最后一段可知，80%的學生能上大學，甚至每天釣魚的兩個學生，一個成了音樂家，另一個科學家。說明了瑟谷學校的“自主學習”模式是成功的。故選B。
【小題5】細節理解題。由第四段最后一句“一個成了音樂家，另一個科學家”可知，career表示“職業”，在四外選項中，只有job具有職業的意思，故選D。