out of date by the time they are printed. A big gap separates the schools from the outside world.
For the past five years, the national conversation on education has focused on reading scores, math tests. This article is about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction（分数，部分） of our children get “left behind” but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English.
An assembly（议会，集会） of Education Secretaries and other education leaders releases a blueprint for rethinking American education to better prepare students to thrive（茁壮成长） in the global economy. They finally reach a
remarkable consensus（一致，共识） 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（竞争力） in reading and math is the minimum. Scientific and technical skills are, likewise（同样的）, utterly（十分） necessary but insufficient（不足的，不够的）. Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines（学科） 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”
Thinking outside the box. “Put an enormous premium on creative and innovative（创新的，革新的） skills, seeing patterns where other people see only chaos,” Traditionally that’s been an American strength, but schools have become less daring in the back-to-basics climate.
Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as important as IQ for success in today’s workplace. “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.”
Can our public schools, originally designed to educate workers for agriculture and industrial-age factories, make the necessary shifts? It’s possible only if we add new depth（深度） and rigor（严谨，精确） to our curriculum（课程） and standardized exams, redeploy (重新分配) the dollars we spend on education, reshape the teaching force and reorganize who runs the schools.
36. By “Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did”, the author means that ______.C
A) schools are now suffering throwbacks
B) the world outside school is developing much rapidly C) schools fail to keep pace with the modern society D) schools remain the same as one hundred years ago
37. Which one does the author stress concerning the global economic competition?D
A) Reading competency.B) Maths competency. C) Technical skills.D) 21st century skills.
38. About education in 21st century, the author argues that ______.C A) the competence of reading and maths should not be stressed B) scientific and technical skills should be the focus of education C) student should be encouraged to think creatively D) requirement on reading abilities should be heightened
39. What should the public schools do to fulfill their tasks of training 21st century skills?A
A) Restructuring the teaching force.B) Thinking outside the box. C) Developing good people skills.D) Knowing more about the world.
40. According to Education Secretaries, what kind of people should the public school nowadays turn the students to be?D A ) Workers for agriculture and industrial factories. B) People who have excellent reading and maths abilities. C) Employees who master several important languages. D) People who can do well in the global economy.