大学英语实用阅读(上).ppt

1、大学英语实用阅读(上),College English Reading,Unit One,Text: How to Measure What You Learned in College Supplementary Reading: Passage 1 Six Ways to Be Happy with Your College Choice Passage 2 Funding in American Higher Education,Lead-in Questions,I. Directions: before reading the text, think about the follow

2、ing questions and discuss them with your partners: 1. What value do you see in university examinations for measuring a students comprehension of the course material that student has been exposed to? 2. If examinations are not the way to measure a students comprehension, what other methods of evaluat

3、ion would you suggest?,3. Do you think there are viable methods that can truly measure or assess ACCURATELY what a student has learned in college? If not, then what can a university do to ACCURATELY assess or measure a students performance before certifying or granting a degree?,II. Directions: go t

4、o a library or refer to the internet to search some information about the following topics.,U.S. News slight;,2. Peter Ewell, senior associate of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in Boulder, Colo., said that to most college professors, assessment of learning was at best a

5、dubious diversion to be ignored, and at worst a philistine intrusion to be resisted. dubious: uncertain in result; in doubt philistine: having no interest or understanding of the arts, or being hostile to them,3. Be sure to describe the data that support or refute the claim that the type of wing on

6、the SwiftAir 235 leads to more in-flight breakups, as well as the factors that may have contributed to the accident and should be taken into account. refute: prove (a statement, an opinion, etc or a person) to be wrong,4. For the initial trials, 14 unidentified colleges of various sizes supplied 1,3

7、65 student test takers, lured with payments of $20 to $25 an hour. lure: attract or tempt (a person or an animal),5. The test results showed a strong correlation, 0.78 out of a possible 1.00, between the grades assigned by computers and by humans. Benjamin said his wife, an art historian, cringes at

8、 the notion of electronic devices measuring intellectual depth. cringe at : informal dislike or hate,Vocabulary,II. Directions: match the words on the left column with the words or phrases with the same meaning on the right column: 1. address A. prove (a statement, an opinion or a person) to be wron

9、g 2. refute B. put forward or direct (esp. a written statement) 3. overall C. attract or tempt (a person or an animal) 4. lure D. taking everything into account; general 5. administer E. connected with (what is happening) 6. relevant F. control; manage 1. B. 2. A. 3. D. 4. C. 5. F. 6. E.,Comprehensi

10、on,I. Directions: choose the best answer to each of the following questions. 1. What does Hersh think of the U.S. News and World Reports ranked list of colleges? a. He thought they were all distortion. b. He thought the U.S News was measuring the best colleges. c. He thought it can not reveal how go

11、od an education it offered. d. He thought he should do something for the U.S. News.,2. According to the text, CLA is _. a. a kind of product produced by Hersh b. a kind of measurement about how selective a school is c. an ungainly but potentially explosive measuring or assessment device d. a three-h

12、our test,3. Why some colleges with similar SAT averages had significantly different CLA averages? a. Because the nature of education at each school is quite different. b. Because CLA is quite different from SAT in form. c. Because CLA is finished online. d. Because CLA results are scored by human gr

13、aders.,4 For most college professors, what kind of influence does assessment of learning have on them? a. no influence b. very little c. very important and positive d. the negative influence,5. What is the authors attitude towards the future of CLA? a. positive b. negative c. ironic d. critical,II.

14、Directions: decide whether each of the following statement is true (T) or false (F) according to the information given in the passage. 1. Hershs idea to stop supplying American media with data has been carried out. F 2. U.S. news was measuring how good an education it offered. F 3. CLA is an ungainl

15、y but potentially explosive measuring device in the form of a three-hour test. T,4. Assessment of student academic progress had a great influence on college decision makers. F 5. Critical thinking tests were developed in the 1980s by the state of New Jersey. T 6. In this test, college seniors had th

16、e same CLA scores with freshmen. F 7. CLA shows how well a student learned and revealed some colleges do better than other colleges. T,III. Directions: explain the following sentences in your own words: 1. Data was important, he thought, but U.S. News was measuring, more or less, how selective a sch

17、ool was, rather than how good an education it offered. (Para. 2) He thought data was important, but to some extent, the U.S. News was only measuring how selective a school was, not how well they teach.,2. A 1999 study by the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement at Stanford University found

18、that only 10 percent of private institutions tried to link what they knew about how much their students were learning to relevant data on what they were trying to teach and who was doing the teaching. (Para. 4),A 1999 study by the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement at Stanford University

19、found that only 10 percent of private institutions tried to associate what they knew about how much their students were learning with relevant data on what they were trying to teach and who was doing the teaching.,3. And Stephen Klein, a senior researcher at Rand in Santa Monica, Calif., created two

20、 90-minute performance task questions inspired by his work in the early 1980s enhancing the California Bar Examination. (Para. 5) And Stephen Klein who is a senior researcher at Rand in Santa Monica, Calif., inspired by his work in the early 1980s which were enhancing the California Bar Examination,

21、 created two 90-minute performance task questions.,4. Sally Evans, a member of DynaTechs sale force, recommended that DynaTech buy a small private plane (a SwiftAir 235) that she and other members of the sales force could use to visit customers. (Para. 6) Sally Evans, who is a member of DynaTechs sa

22、le force, made a recommendation that DynaTech buy a small private plane (a SwiftAir 235), and she and other members of the sales force could use it to visit customers.,5. Be sure to describe the data that support or refute the claim that the type of wing on the SwiftAir 235 leads to more in-flight b

23、reakups, as well as the factors that may have contributed to the accident and should be taken into account. (Para. 7) Be sure to describe the data, which support or refute the claim that the type of wing on the SwiftAir 235 leads to more in-flight breakups, and explain the factors that may have led

24、to the accident and should be taken into consideration.,6. Human graders scored the results, with computers also used to see if the e-rater program designed by the Educational Testing Service agreed with the grades assigned by the flesh-and-blood assessors. (Para. 8) Human graders scored the results

25、, with computers also used to see if the e-rater program designed by the Educational Testing Service agreed with the grades given by the flesh-and-blood assessors (human graders).,7. College seniors had significantly better CLA scores than freshmen with comparable SAT scores, suggesting that somethi

26、ng that improved with college teaching had been measured. (Para. 9) College seniors had much better CLA scores than freshmen with comparable SAT scores, which suggests that something that improved with college teaching had been measured.,8. The fact that the new test reveals some colleges doing bett

27、er than others is both encouraging, educators say, and dangerous. (Para. 10) To some educators, the fact that the new test reveals some colleges doing better than others is both encouraging and dangerous.,Post-reading Discussions:,1. Do you think the CLA is effective and accurate in measuring what t

28、he collegiate learned in university? 2. Why do you think instructors and professors have an innate resentment toward examinations as an instrument for evaluating a students performance and assessing what the student may have learned in their class? Can you name at least two factors? 3. In your opini

29、on, how would you liked to be measured or evaluated for what you have learned in college?,Supplementary Reading Passage 1,Six Ways to Be Happy With Your College Choice,Exercises,I. Directions: translate the following sentences into Chinese 1. One insight in particular threw my congenially upbeat, ev

30、erything-is-getting-better world view seriously off-balance. 尤其是这个观点使我一直很乐观的，认为一切都会越来越好的世界观发生了严重倾斜。,2. The wisdom of their choice of college or major or career has less to do with the objective results than with their subjective experiences. 对于大学、专业及（未来的）事业，他们是如何明智的选择，主要与他们的主观经验有关，而与客观结果关系不大。,3. Lis

31、ten to your viscera - Feelings matter more than facts, and an unexamined emotional response is often a better guide to our long-term needs than careful analysis of our thoughts. 随心所欲感觉比事实更重要，而且那种不假思索的情感上的反应通常对我们长久的需要起到指引的作用，而不要过多仔细分析我们的思想情感。,4. “To satisfice,” Schwartz says, “is to settle for someth

32、ing that is good enough and not worry about the possibility that there might be something better.” “知足”，史沃兹说，“就是认为事情已经很好了，并且不要总想着可能还有更好的”。,5. Maximizers are people who obsess over every decision, who dont know how to satisfice. 贪得无厌的人就是那些对每一个决定都患得患失，而从不知足的人。,II. Directions: Decide whether the follow

33、ing sentences taken from the article are facts (F) or the writers opinions (O). 1. Many of us and our children worried about getting into college and that the seats might not be close enough to the 50-yard line. 2. The nature of choices in modern life is poisonous. 3. Feelings of helplessness among

34、Americans should be declining. 4. Feelings of helplessness among Americans are increasing.,F,O,O,F,5. Once a country reached a certain level of per capital wealth, the level of happiness of its residents was not affected by increased affluence and added choices in life. 6. Good marriages and friends

35、hips reduce choice. 7. Feelings matter more than facts, and an unexamined emotional response is often a better guide to our long-term needs than careful analysis of our thoughts. 8. Gratitude has been proven scientifically so powerful in enhancing happiness.,O,O,F,F,Supplementary Reading,Passage 2,F

36、unding In American Higher Education,Directions: choose the best answer to each of the following questions. 1. The passage is mainly concerned with _. a. the low-income students in American colleges b. high-income students and low-income students c. students from all economic backgrounds in American colleges d. American Higher Education Act,a,2. The word “lousy” in the fifth paragraph probably me