Passage 7

     We find that bright children are not often held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are improved. We feel that there are many dis advantages in streaming pupils, a way to teach pupils in groupsaccording to their ability. It does not pay attention to the fact that children develop at different speed. It can have a bad effect on bloth the bright and not-so-bright children. After all it can be quite discouraging to be at the hottom of the top grade !

     Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual (智力的) ability. This is only one aspect (方面) of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic (学术理论的) ability. We also value personal qua[ides (品质)and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching helps improve all these aspects of learning.

     In our classroom, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups, this gives them the chances to learn to cc-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They al- sci learn how to deal with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyze and evaluate (分析和评价), and to comunicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher.

     Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual (个人的) tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is right and suitable. We encourage our pu- pils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this effectively. An advanced pupil can do advanced work; it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every encouragement to achieve this goal.

1. What's the author's attitude towards "mixed-ability teaching"?
   A. He agrees to it.
   B. He doubts the truth of it.
   C. He is very discontent about it.
   D. He tries to be objective at)out it.
答案：A 指导：由第一段第二句“On the contrary，both their knowledSe and experience are improved”可知作者赞同mixed-abilityteaching．
2. By "held back", the author means
   A. forced to study in the lower class
   B. made to remain in the same class
   C. prevented from advancing
   D. made to fall behind other students
答案：C 指导：由第一段第二句中的improved可知。