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  3. Gaokao is China’s national university admission test, which places heavy emphasis on foreign language study. However, the gaokao

Gaokao is China’s national university admission test, which places heavy emphasis on foreign language study. However, the gaokao

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问题     Gaokao is China’s national university admission test, which places heavy emphasis on foreign language study. However, the gaokao reform targeting at foreign language has commenced to change step by step. In the following excerpt, the author states the change and the concerns. Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in about 300 words, in which you should:
    1. summarize briefly the different opinions about the issue;
    2. give your comment.
    Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
    As to gaokao, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has proposed fundamentally changing the foreign language requirement altogether by 2017. The MOE proposal would phase out English testing altogether and shift it over to other testing authorities who are not confined to the gaokao’s usual, one-and-done approach. This would give students more opportunities to take the exam, including the option of taking it more than once, and further, allow for greater regional variation to better meet local needs and abilities.
    Unsurprisingly, these proposed reforms have generated a hot debate among various stakeholders. Many Chinese have a love-hate attitude toward gaokao, particularly its English component. On the one hand, while imperfect, gaokao has provided most people with a meritocratic means for determining who gets access to specific advantages. On the other hand, gaokao, even with regional variation, takes a one-size-fits-all approach and thus, is too reductive, too standardized, and in turn has fostered rote-based pedagogies. Further, the make-or-break consequences frequently associated with the exam mean that students, their families and their schools face intense and often harmful pressure to over-achieve. For many, this pressure is most acutely felt when faced with the foreign language requirement.
    Policymakers have other concerns as well. De-emphasizing the foreign language component will likely support expanding enrollments, therefore confronting the fact that most Chinese do not actually become bilingual, despite the tremendous amount of time and resources lavished on foreign language studies. Indeed, it is practically impossible to teach a foreign language the same way other subjects are taught, and further impossible to test it the same way as well without resulting in what is sometimes called "dumb English"—the ability to engage a standardized test but not to actually speak or comprehend it when they hear it. Indeed, what’s the point of spending so much if the actual return is so little? Wouldn’t funds be better spent on areas where higher returns might be realized, particularly if slowing economic growth rates require increasing thriftiness?
    Some are worried that such reforms might limit China’s access and connection to international information and studies. This includes both Chinese people and foreign universities who have benefited from the fact that most overseas students in the world today are Chinese. Conversely, some worry that overemphasizing English diminishes Chinese studies and subjects to linguistic imperialism while providing direct conduits for foreign soft power operations. Others are concerned that overstretched primary and secondary school budgets will respond by sharply curtailing foreign language study, particularly in the provinces, while the major municipalities like Shanghai and Beijing—where China’s top universities are located—will continue to teach English and require it for university admission. Also, while China’s meteoric rise amid reform and opening up has resulted in less pressure to be "international", and while more foreigners than ever before are studying Chinese, English remains the global language and will likely remain so for a long time to come.
    Write your response on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
选项
答案 My Views on Gaokao Reform Targeting at Foreign Language Gaokao reform targeting at foreign language makes shifts from one-and-done approach by MOE to more than one tests in order to offer candidates more opportunities and thus makes the results more reasonable and impartial. Moreover, the reform may relieve the burdens of both students and parents, and may be conducive to educational capital and resources distribution. However, concerns like unbalanced development among different regions, fragile bilingual education, weak soft power are heard everywhere at the same time. Although many people welcome the reform, as far as I am concerned, globalization demands an education system aiming at fostering talents with an international field of view, therefore English language study should not be weakened. Take Singapore as an example. The small developed country is now a world-famous financial centre with most of its citizens bilingual as it began its bilingual education disregarding protests here and there. The influence of bilingual there is far-reaching, which can also set an example for China’s educational development. Today, the rush to get enrolled in China-foreign co-running universities also espouses the significance of English learning. Besides, the defects of Chinese education and the emphasis on foreign language have no so-called causality. Some students are good at language learning while others may be adept at science learning. That is determined by IQ and many other factors and it is not fair to blame the foreign language. In addition, it is indisputable that Chinese society is full of excessive competition, and even if we reform the gaokao, the pressures from social competition will not wane. Therefore, the gaokao reform is supposed to reform the area of admissions, such as introducing a multi-evaluation system that doesn’t enroll students based solely on their test performances, rather than completely eliminate one subject, simply change the point proportion, or the like.
解析 本题围绕高考外语改革展开，要求简要概括材料中的观点，并发表评论。实际上材料中主要提到两个方面：一为政策制定者的初衷，二为大众的争议。在具体行文方面，考生首先需要全面概括材料的观点，之后提出个人观点。在阐述过程中，可以利用举例、统计等方法以增强说服力，同时使用列举等方式，使结构清晰，层次清楚。
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