What was surprising about the students’ results after taking the 1950s-style exams?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Because farmers had been informed about the bad effects of chemical fertilizers, they started using them sparingly on their farms.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Well, Mrs Baker, you’ll be pleased to hear that George has made a dramatic improvement in geography.

I have never been understanding why such a lot of people want to study abroad.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 29 to 35.

Do you think education is better now than it was in your grandparents’ time? Many older people in the UK believe the opposite. “Schools were better in our day,” they complain. “There isn’t enough discipline these days. Kids don’t work as hard as we did, either. The syllabus isn’t as challenging, so clever students aren’t being stretched enough. They need to study things in greater depth. Exams are much, much easier now as well.”

Were schools better years ago? Some British teenagers travelled back in time to a 1950s boarding school. They got a big surprise! The first shock came when the teenagers met their new teachers. Dressed in traditional black gowns, they look so frosty and uncaring! They were really authoritarian, too, so anyone caught breaking the rules – talking in classes, mucking about in the playground or playing truant – was in big trouble! Punishments included writing ‘lines, or staying after class to do detention. The naughtiest kids were expelled.

Things were just as bad after class. At meal times the students had to endure a diet of plain, no-nonsense, healthy food. Homework was obligatory and it took ages! Copying essays off the Internet wasn’t an option, as personal computers didn’t exist in the 1950s!

At the end of ‘term’ everyone sat 1950s-style exams. The old exams were much longer than their twenty- first century equivalents and involved learning huge amounts of facts by heart. History papers were all dates and battles. Math’s papers were trickier, too; calculators weren’t around in the 1950s, so the students had to memorize multiplication tables and master long division. Our candidates found this really difficult.

The exam results surprised a lot of people. Students predicted to do well in their real-life, twenty-first century exams often got low grades in the 1950s exams. Does this prove modern exams are too easy? Do twenty-first century kids rely too much on modem technology, like calculators and computers? The TV series' That'll teach ‘me! focused on a 1960s vocational school. UK school-kids study a range of academic subjects these days. But in the 1960s, children judged to be less ‘able’ went to vocational schools. These helped them learn job skills. Boys studied subjects like metalwork, woodwork or gardening. In some classes, they even learned how to milk goats! The girls’ timetables included secretarial skills. They also learned to cook, clean and sew – probably not much fun for most girls.

What criticism is sometimes made about modern education in the first paragraph?

By cutting down trees, we share the responsibility of climate change, the ____of our forest, and the poisoning of our air and water.

Mary finished all her homework. Then, she played badminton with her sister.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Local people have cut down the forest to make way for farming

Children need to talk about their feelings, and learn how to____express those feelings to others.

In Australia, exchange programs and youth benefits____many opportunities for young people to broaden their minds through travel in a gap year.

Having watched TV programes about the farmer’s careless use of chemical fertilizers on they crops, many citizen dwellers decided to grow their own vegetables.

Mai had forgotten to turn off the light in her badroom before she left. Her mother blamed her for that.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Most of the students in our country are interested in pursuing higher education to get bachelor’s degrees.

Which of the following statements is TRUE about the food the students ate at school?