Passage Two
Nowadays there is a remarkable consensus among educators and business and policy leaders on one key conclusion: we need to bring what we teach and how we teach into the 21st century. Right now we’re aiming too low. Competency in reading and math — the focus of so much No Child Left Behind (NCLB) testing – is the meager minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, likewise: utterly necessary but insufficient. Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called 21st century skills. Here’s what they are:
Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now, even in small-town America, and they must learn to act that way. Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS, talks about needing workers who are“global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages” — not exactly strong points in the U.S., where fewer than half of high school students are enrolled in a foreign-language class and where the social-studies curriculum tends to fixate on U.S. history.
Thinking outside the box. Jobs in the new economy — the ones that won’t get outsourced or automated – “put an enormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos,” says Marc Tucker, an author of the skills-commission report and president of the National Center on Education and the Economy. Traditionally that’s been an American strength, but schools have become less daring in the back-to-basics climate of NCLB. Kids also must learn to think across disciplines, since that’s where most new breakthroughs are made. It’s interdisciplinary combinations — design and technology, mathematics and art – “that produce YouTube and Google,” says Thomas Friedman, the best-selling author of The World Is Flat.
Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what’s coming at them and distinguish between what’s reliable and what isn’t. “It’s important that students know how to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act on it,” says Dell executive Karen Bruett, who serves on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a group of corporate and education leaders focused on upgrading American education.
Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as important as IQ for success in today’s work place.‘‘Most innovations today involve large teams of people,” says former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. “We have to emphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures.”
Questions 6-10 are based on Passage Two.
6. The passage is mainly concerned with______.
A. the No Child Left Behind program as a minimum requirement
B. interdisciplinary combination for 21st century school education
C. the overall competence required of a student in the 21st century
D. emotional intelligence as a means to career success in the 21st century
7. If the workers are global trade literate, they should be______.
A. global citizens even when they are kids
B. armed with foreign cultures and languages
C. living in big cities rather than in small towns
D. good at doing business with peoples over the world
8. It can be inferred from the passage that American kids used to be strong at______.
A. making interdisciplinary combinations
B. social-studies courses and U.S. history
C. producing YouTube and Google
D. creative and innovative thinking
9. What should a student in an age of exploding information do with new sources of information?
A. They should guard against the wrong information.
B. They should be able to tell the difference between them.
C. They should know how to interpret and organize them.
D. They should be able to process them and identify the reliable ones.
10. According to the passage, emotional intelligence involves______.
A. teamwork, cooperation skills and communication skills
B. ability to deal with people from different backgrounds
C. ability to make innovations as well as high intelligence
D. success in today’s workplace with people from many cultures
