V. In this section, make a reading test. First, condense the material provided into a passage of300-350 words. Then, based on the rewritten passage, make up 4 reading comprehensionquestions. Each question should have four choices,
(A),
(B),
(C), and
(D), with one of them beingthe best answer. Remember to provide the answer key. (20%)Can twenty flunking students of varying intelligence raise their math and English a full year’s level in only thirtyworking days?Dr. Lloyd Homme, chief of a special educational “fix-it” laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said yes and putteams of behavioral scientist together with the flunking students to work on the problem. Any available technologycould be used—teaching machines, programmed instruction, computer-assisted methods—to cram a year’s knowledgeinto the boys.Were the experiments a success? The scientists said yes but the students said no. When grades were measured usingstandardized tests under strict laboratory conditions, marks went up more than one year on the average. Meanwhile, backat the school, the students were still barely passing, at best. “The experiment was fine for the scientists. They provedtheir theory on paper and made a name for themselves, but most of us were still flunking in class,” remarked oneseventeen-year-old.The only clue to the mystery was this common remark: “The teachers ignore us—they’ve got it in for us.”At first the scientists on the team thought the complaint was just sour grapes and told the boys to work harder.When grades still failed to rise, the scientists felt there might be some truth in what the young team members weresaying. Not that teachers were to blame, necessarily, but there still might be some negative bias. “You should see whatgoes on in class!” said the boys.“The only thing to do was to take them up on it, go into the classroom with them and see what was holding backtheir grades,” said Dr. Homme.Hence, bearded behavioral scientists ended up in the back row of math and English classes and made observationsabout the behavior of students and teachers. Homme was surprised to discover that two simple actions made thedifference.“With few exceptions, our students acted like dummies,” said Dr. Homme, “even though we knew they were aheadof the rest in knowledge. They were so used to playing the class idiot that they didn’t know how to show what they knew.Their eyes wandered, they appeared absent-minded or even belligerent. One or two read magazines hidden under theirdesks, thinking, most likely, that they already knew the classwork. They rarely volunteered and often had to havequestions repeated because they weren’t listening. Teachers, on the other hand, did not trust our laboratory results.Nobody was going to tell them that ‘miracles’ could work on Sammy and Jose.In the eyes of teachers, students seemed to fall into three groups. We’ll call them: bright-eyes, scaredy-cats anddummies.Bright-eyes had perfected the trick of:1. “eyeballing” the instructor at all times, even from the minute he entered the room.2. never ducking their eyes away when the instructor glanced at them.3. getting the instructor to call on them when they wanted without raising their hands.4. even making the instructor go out of his way to call on someone else to “give others a chance” (especially usefulwhen bright-eyes themselves are uncertain of the answer).5. readily admitting ignorance so as not to bluff—but in such a way that it sounds as though ignorance is rare.6. asking many questions.Scaredy-cats [the middle group]:1. looked toward the instructor but were afraid to let him “catch their eyes.”2. asked few questions and gave the impression of being “underachievers.”3. appeared uninvolved and had to be “drawn out,” so they were likely to be criticized for “inadequateparticipation.”Dummies (no matter how much they really knew):1. never looked at the instructor.2. never asked questions.3. were stubborn about volunteering information in class.To make matters worse, the tests in school were not standardized and not given nearly as frequently as those givenin the laboratory. School test-scores were open to teacher bias. Classroom behavior of students counted a lot toward theirclass grades. There was no doubt that teachers were biased against the dummies. The scientists concluded that no matterhow much knowledge a dummy gained on his own, his grades in school were unlikely to improve unless he couldsomehow change his image into a bright-eyes. This would mean . . .1. Look the teacher in the eye.2. Ask questions and volunteer answers (even if uncertain).“Teachers get teacher-training in how to play their roles. Why shouldn’t students get student-training in how to playbright-eyes?” asked Homme. Special training sessions were held at the laboratory. Dummies were drilled in eyeballingand hand-raising, which, simple as they sound, weren’t easy to do. “I felt so square I could hardly stand it,” complainedone of the dummies. “That was at first. Later, when I saw others eyeballing and hand-raising and really learning more, Ieven moved my seat to the front. It flipped the teacher out of her skull. She couldn’t get over it.”Those who found eyeballing especially difficult were taught to look at the instructor’s mouth or the bridge of hisnose. “Less threatening to the student,” explained Homme. “It seems less aggressive to them.”Unfortunately, not all of the dummies were able to pick up new habits during the limited training period. Somelearned in the laboratory but couldn’t do it in the classroom. These became scaredy-cats—at least a step up. But for themajority, grades improved steadily once they got the hang of their new techniques. The students encouraged and helpedeach other to hand-raise and eyeball.Teachers’ comments reflected the improvement. “There is no doubt that student involvement was increased by theprogram and as a result grades went up.”By way of advice to others wishing to improve their own eyeballing and hand-raising, student Jose Martinezsuggests: “Don’t try to do it all at once. You’ll shock the teacher and make it tough for yourself. Begin slowly. Workwith a friend and help each other. Do it like a game. Like exercising with weights—it takes practice but it’s worth it.”Homme agrees. “In fact, results are guaranteed for life,” he says. [!--empirenews.page--]