The weather in Texas may have cooled since the recent extreme heat, but the temperature will be high at the State Board of Educa

admin2023-03-14  38

问题     The weather in Texas may have cooled since the recent extreme heat, but the temperature will be high at the State Board of Education meeting in Austin this month as officials debate how climate change is taught in Texas schools.
    Pat Hardy, who sympathizes with views of the energy sector, is resisting the proposed changes to science standards for pre-teen pupils. These would emphasize the primacy of human activity in recent climate change and encourage discussion of mitigation measures.
    Most scientists and experts sharply dispute Hardy’s views. "They casually dismiss the career work of scholars and scientists as just another misguided opinion. " says Dan Quinn, senior communications strategist at the Texas Freedom Network, a non-profit group that monitors public education. " What millions of Texas kids learn in their public schools is determined too often by the political ideology of partisan board members, rather than facts and sound scholarship. "
    Such debates reflect fierce discussions across the US and around the world, as researchers, policymakers, teachers and students step up demands for a greater focus on teaching about the facts of climate change in schools.
    A study last year by the National Center for Science Education, a non-profit group of scientists and teachers, looking at how state public schools across the country address climate change in science classes, gave barely half of US states a grade B + or higher. Among the 10 worst performers were some of the most populous states, including Texas, which was given the lowest grade (F) and has a disproportionate influence because its textbooks are widely sold elsewhere.
    Glenn Branch, the centre’s deputy director, cautions that setting state-level science standards is only one limited benchmark in a country that decentralises decisions to local school boards. Even if a state is considered a high performer in its science standards, " that does not mean it will be taught" , he says.
    Another issue is that while climate change is well integrated into some subjects and at some ages—such as earth and space sciences in high schools—it is not as well represented in curricula for younger children and in subjects that are more widely taught, such as biology and chemistry.  It is also less prominent in many social studies courses.
    Branch points out that, even if a growing number of official guidelines and textbooks reflect scientific consensus on climate change, unofficial educational materials that convey more slanted perspectives are being distributed to teachers. They include materials sponsored by libertarian think-tanks and energy industry associations.
What does Quinn think of Hardy?

选项 A、She exaggerates the existing panic.
B、She denies the value of scientific work.
C、She shows no concern for pre-teens.
D、She expresses self-contradictory views.

答案B

解析 由题干中的Quinn和Hardy定位到第三段,其中关于Quinn对Hardy看法的内容为“她的观点随意地驳斥学者和科学家的研究成果,认为他们提出的观点误导人”,也就是说Quinn认为Handy否定了科学工作的价值,故正确答案为B。A选项中的existing panic(现存的恐慌)在文中并未提及,属于无中生有,故排除。C选项中的 pre-teens在文中涉及的内容为第二段第一句“她反对提出的对青春期前学生科学教育标准的改变",Hardy是对变化表示反对,并不是不concern(关心)青春期前学生,而且Quinn 对此也没发表观点,故排除。文中只是提到大多数科学家和专家对Hardy的观点提出了质疑,并没有说Hardy的观点本身有自相矛盾之处,故排除D选项。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/7Y1iFFFM
0

最新回复(0)