There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling .No school I have taught in has ever _____ spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however , vastly different ideas about how to teach it , or how much _____ it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is , how to encourage a child to express himself freely and _____ in writing with out holding him back with the complexities of spelling? If spelling become the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a __4__ child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid __5__ language. That’s why teachers often __6__ the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability. I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience ：“ This work is __7__ !There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible(难以辨认的).” It may have been a sharp __8__ of the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which __9__ some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings.
The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centred on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more __10__ to seek improvement.www.examw.com
A)priority B)criticism C)contained D)clearly
E)adventurous F) discourage G)motivation H)terrible
I)ignored J)difficult K)encourage L)expressed
M)confidently N)bright O)motive L)expressed
答案及解析:
1. 选 I)。 由该句中的 has 可知，此处应填动词过去式，且表达的含义应和后面的 consider…unimportant 相近，故应排除 contained 和 expressed而选择 ignored 。
2. 选 A)。 此处应填名词，但能与后面 over 构成固定搭配的名词只有 priority ，故排除 了 criticism 和 motivation 。
3. 选 M). 由空格前面的 and 可知，此处应填副词和 freely 并列。从句意来理解，在没有拼写困难的情况下，怎样鼓励学生自由且 …… 地表达自己，选项中只有 confidently “自信地“符合题意。
4. 选 N)。 很明显这里应填形容词，选项中 terrible ， difficult 后接事物名词 something ，只有 adventurous 和 bright 可用来形容 somebody ( child )，再由后面的play safe“不冒险”，可排除adventurous而选择bright。
5. 选 E)。 由前一句中的 be likely to “ play safe ”和空格前的 avoid 可以推知，此处所填词的意思应与play safe表达的意思相反，故选项中只有adventurous符合题意。
6. 选 K)。 很明显此处应填动词的一般现在时，可选项有 encourage 和 persuade 。由 That’s why 知本句与前一句构成因果关系，而前一句说的是学生往往会用他们拼写范围内的词写文章，从而选择避免用那些不会的词，故由此可推知此句应理解为老师鼓励学生用字典，因此排除 persuade 而选 encourage。
7. 选 H)。 此处应填形容词。由空格后面的 too many spelling errors 和illegible可知，这篇文章是写的很糟，而不是很难理解。故排除difficult而选terrible。
8. 选 B)。 此处应填名词。由后半句中 a sad reflection on the teacher 可知，前半句是在指责学生，故选项中只有criticism符合题意。
9. 选 C)。 此处填动词过去式，本句中由 which 引导的从句是对 essay 的解释，剩余选项中 contained 和 expressed ，根据句意，文章 …… 儿童内心感受的一些好的表达，故只有contained 符合题意。
10. 选 G)。 此处应填名词。根据句意，如果老师更注重学生思想的表达的话，会给学生更大的动力去寻求提高;故排除 motive “动机，原因”而选 motivation 。
导读：
There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has everI)ignored spelling or considered it unimportant (No school…ever…considered it unimportant… 其中 I have taught in 作定语修饰 school “我教书的学校” ，“it” 指代的即为 spelling ， 可以看出作者要说的是学校没有忽视 spelling) as a basic skill. There are, however (句意转折说明问题不在于学校是否重视拼写而是 how to teach it…) , vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much A)priority it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and M)confidently in writing with out holding him back with the complexities of spelling?
If spelling become the only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a N)bright childwill be likely to “play safe”(这里的关键是理解 “ play safe” 的意思，从后句“只写他会写的单词”可以看出他是怕拼错，故 play safe 即为“为了保险”) . He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid E)adventurous language. That’s why teachers often K)encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability (= spelling ability) .
I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience ：“ This work( 根据后面一句的解释，可知 this work 指的是 your writing 故第7 题填的词应和 illegible 感情色彩保持一致 ) is H)terrible !There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible(难以辨认的).” It may have been a sharp B) criticismof the pupil’s technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection (表明了作者不赞同的态度，他看到的是文章中包含的好的表达，并且说明只有这样才能激励学生不断进步) on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which C)contained some beautiful expressions of the child’s deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centred on the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more G)motivation to seek improvement.
