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Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In the age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. 90% of teachers say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. One study published this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting. Some teachers are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for 10 to 15 minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for 60 to 70 minutes a day—which really for handwriting is pretty much.
Many adults remember learning that way—by copying letters over and over again. Today’s thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.
Handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency—writing without having to think about it. Fluency continues to develop up until high school.
But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs.
But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years. American children traditionally first learn to print, and then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT college admission test. More than 75 percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive.
1. Which of the following is WRONG for traditional handwriting in the USA?
A. The students are taught by practicing a long period.
B. The letters are repeated many times.
C. Handwriting includes two skills.
D. To write in cursive is taught first.
2. The underlined word “legibility” in Paragraph 3 means _____.
A. easy to read
B. complex
C. unexpected
D. unreadable
3. The best title for the passage is _____.
A. How to improve handwriting in school
B. Right or wrong: the death of handwriting
C. Handwriting involves two skills
D. Handwriting lessons are on the way out
4. The author’s attitude towards whether still to learn handwriting in school is _____.
A. negative
B. objective
C. critical
D. optimistic
1. D
2. A
3. B
4. B
1. 细节理解题。根据第二段可知，传统的书法教学重复很多遍并且持续时间长，因此A、B两项内容正确;根据第三段第一句话可知C项内容正确;根据最后一段第二句话可知D项内容错误。
2. 词义猜测题。根据下文“which means forming the letters so they can be read”可推测画线词的意思是“清楚，易读”。
3. 主旨大意题。作者对美国书法教学的现状作了叙述，没有自己的主观评论，故选择B项。A项没有涉及;C项只是其中一部分内容;D项只是一部分人的观点。
4. 观点态度题。纵观全文，作者只将美国书法教学的现状和不同人的观点呈现出来，并没有发表自己的见解，因此作者持客观的态度。
