Testing has replaced teaching in most public schools. My own children's school week is framed by pretests, drills, tests, and retests. They know that the best way to read a textbook is to look at the questions at the end of the chapter and then skim the text for the answers. I believe that my daughter Erica, who gets excellent marks, has never read a chapter of any of her school textbooks all the way through. And teachers are often heard to state proudly and openly that they teach to the mandated (国家指定的) state test.
Teaching to the test is a curious phenomenon. Instead of deciding what skills students ought to learn, helping students learn them, and then using some reasonable methods of assessment to discover whether students have mastered the skills, teachers are encouraged to reverse the process. First, one looks at a commercially available test. Then, one distills (提取) the skills needed not to master reading, say, or math, but to do well on the test. Finally, the test skills are taught.
The ability to read or write or calculate might infer the ability to do reasonably well on standardized tests. However, neither reading nor writing develops simply through being taught to take tests. We must be careful to avoid mistaking preparation for a test of a skill with the acquisition of that skill. Too many discussions of the basics of skills make this fundamental confusion because people are test-centered rather than concerned with the nature and quality of what is taught.
Recently, many schools have faced what could be called the crisis of comprehension or, in simple terms, the phenomenon of students with phonic and grammar skills still being unable to understand what they read. These students are capable of taking tests and filling in workbooks. However, they have little or no experience reading or thinking, and talking about what they read. They know the details but can't see or understand the whole. They are taught to be so concerned with grade that they have' no time or ease of mind to think about meaning, and reread things if necessary.
As is indicated in the second paragraph, the author finds it strange that __.

A．tests are used to assess students' skills

B．skills are determined before tests are set

C．teaching is aimed to prepare students for tests

D．teachers use some reasonable methods of assessment

The crisis of comprehension most probably results from __.

A．students' poor phonic and grammar skills

B．teaching that takes up much of students' free time

C．teaching that emphasizes details rather than the whole

D．students' lack of ability to think about what they read

According to the author, we can infer that __.

A．the basics of skills have been discussed too much

B．the nature and quality of what is taught are fully concerned

C．skills in general are not only useless but often mislead students

D．doing well in a test does not necessarily mean acquiring the skill