英语听力精选进阶版 6387
时间：2019-02-21 作者：英语课 分类：英语听力精选进阶版
The UK government has said that from 2014, it will ban calculators in maths tests for primary school children in England.
All 11-year-olds sit three maths tests. Pupils are allowed to use a calculator in the hardest of these. A sample question is: "Tickets for a school play cost ￡2.75 each. Dev sold 23 tickets. How much ticket money did Dev collect?"
Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss says children are over-reliant on calculators and that this means they don't have a good grounding in mental arithmetic or written arithmetic. She wants all children to be confident with other methods of addition, subtraction 1, times tables and division before they start using calculators in secondary school.
Research shows that 98% of pupils in England use calculators in primary school classes, compared with an international average of just 46%. At the same time, different research shows that children have become worse at maths in the past 30 years. Ms Truss believes that children are dependent on calculators and that's making the problem worse.
Some teaching experts argue there's a plus side to using calculators. They say that they are an important tool for maths, which children need to learn to use. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, says the ban "will diminish the skills set for primary pupils" and cause problems when they need to use calculators in secondary school.
Russell Hobby of the National Association of Head Teachers, says the advantage of using calculators is that children can focus on the maths problem itself, rather than the individual calculations needed to solve it.
Quiz 测验
According to the article, who believes children are over-reliant on calculators?
Elizabeth Truss
Will calculators be banned in primary school or secondary school maths tests?
In primary school
How many of the primary school maths tests allow calculators at the moment?
One
Is the following statement true, false or not given? More than twice as many English primary school children use calculators than in the rest of the world.
True
In the article, who disagrees with the calculator ban?
Christine Blower and Russell Hobby
Glossary 词汇表
ban 禁止
calculators 计算器
maths tests 数学测试
primary school 小学
sit 参加（考试）
over-reliant on 过于依赖（某物/某人）
grounding in 有基础
mental arithmetic 心算
addition 加法
subtraction 减法
times tables 乘法表
division 除法
secondary school 中学
dependent on 依赖
a plus side to 好的一面
tool 工具
skills set 一套技能
advantage 优势
maths problem 数学问题
calculations 计算
- We do addition and subtraction in arithmetic.在算术里,我们作加减运算。
- They made a subtraction of 50 dollars from my salary.他们从我的薪水里扣除了五十美元。