Careful reading helps avoid errors

NOW let's analyze the possible errors students may commit when reading the passage from the June, 2000 CET-4 paper, which was published on Page 18 of 21st Century's May 1st issue.

Question 1 is a general question that tests the ability to generalize. After reading an article, students are asked to describe the author's viewpoint. How can we get at that viewpoint? We must be able to read between the lines. The first sentence of the passage says "welfare reform has already been judged a great success in many states." Moreover, this view is echoed by another sentence later, "the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well ... is in itself a huge victory." Thus, the correct answer to Question 1 is D) "[the author] considers welfare reform to be fundamentally successful." However, more than 45 per cent of the students selected answer B). They are either strongly influenced by their subjective idea that America is big businessmen's America and it seldom cares about the poor, or confused by the information given from Paragraph 2 to Paragraph 5.

Question 2 is a specific question. Once we find clues such as "70 per cent of the people ... took jobs that paid less than US$6 an hour", and "average income ... went down" from the passage, we can certainly choose the correct answer "C) Because their wages are low."

Question 3 asks students to understand one of the author's main points. The author gives AthensCounty as an example in order to indicate that "much more needs to be done" as far as welfare reform is concerned. And that idea is reinforced by the ending sentence of the passage, "then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards." Now it is quite clear that the correct answer is A) "greater efforts should be made to improve people's living standards." But, nearly 33 per cent of the students chose D) "the living standards of most people are going down." These students had trouble understanding the passage at discourse level. Their thoughts are confined to the second paragraph only.

Question 4 tests the ability to make accurate inferences. The passage says "welfare reform has already been judged a great success," yet, "much more needs to be done." "The reform ... is beginning to rebuild the work ethic, which is much more important." Thus we can see that welfare reform is intended to rebuild the work ethic. B) is the correct answer. What is worth mentioning is that more than 27 per cent of the students chose the wrong answer, C) "providing more jobs." The problem is that their decision is based on assumption rather than on what is stated in the passage.

Question 5 also tests the ability to make inferences. The only source for making our inference is in the sentence "as well ... as they did with it." To make the sentence concise, the author uses "did" and "it" to substitute for "supported themselves" and "government aid" respectively. This may result in difficulties for careless students. That's why about 39 per cent of them failed to get the correct answer.

Coming up: Another CET-4 reading passage and answers to questions.

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The author is a professor at PekingUniversity.