Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
The young applicant is described as confident and courageous. His resume, at 15 pages, is glittering, complete with performance reviews (“full of energy”), a map of his travels (trips to Tokyo and Bali) and a list of books he 【小题1】 (read) this year (408 in total). It includes discussion of his adversity quotient and his artistic talents. But the applicant is not a seasonal job seeker. He is a five-year-old boy from southern China 【小题2】 (apply) for a spot in first grade at a Shanghai private school.
The resume, 【小题3】 was leaked and shared widely online this week, has provoked a mix of fascination, indignation and debate about 【小题4】 children in China’s test-crazed education system are being raised as soulless strivers.
Some called for the parents of the boy 【小题5】 (arrest). Others wondered whether today’s children would know true happiness, 【小题6】 the intense pressure to perform well and land good jobs. Still, some defend the parents, 【小题7】 (say) they were trying to promote their child’s best interests in a flawed system.
Yong Zhao, a professor of education at the University of Kansas, said the debate reflected widespread anxiety 【小题8】 Chinese parents about getting their children into top schools. In China’s test-dominated system, exam scores determine where students go to college and what careers they 【小题9】 pursue.
Xiong Bingqi, deputy head of the 21 century Education Research Institute in Beijing, said China needed to distribute education resources 【小题10】 (evenly) and to begin evaluating students on more than just est scores.
“There is a competition to rank every student,” he said, “Under these circumstances, of course parents want their kids to rank in the top. Then it worsens this kind of anxious competition.”
