There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested inspelling .No school I have taught in has ever _____ spelling or considered it unimportantas a basic skill. There are, however , vastly different ideas about how to teach it , or howmuch _____ it must be given over general language development and writing ability. Theproblem is , how to encourage a child to express himself freely and _____ in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling?If spelling become th e only focal point of his teacher’s interest, clearly a __4__child will be likely to “play safe”. He will tend to write only words within his spelling range,choosing to avoid __5__ language. That’s why teachers often __6__ the early use ofdictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing abouta personal experience ：“ This work is __7__ !There are far too many spelling errors andyour writing is illegible( 难以辨认的).” It may have been a sharP__8__ of the pupil’stechnical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omittedto read the ess ay, which __9__ some beautiful expressions of the child’s deePfeelings.The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centredon the child’s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would havegiven the pupil more __10__ to seek improvement.
A)priority B)criticism C)contained D)clearlyE)adventurous F ）discourage G)motivation H)terribleI)ignored J)difficult K)encourage L)expressedM)confidently N)bright O)motive L)expressed
Answers:
1. 选I ）。由该句中的has 可知，此处应填动词过去式，且表达的含义应和后面的consider…unimportant 相近，故应排除contained 和expressed而选择ignored 。
2. 选A ）。此处应填名词，但能与后面over 构成固定搭配的名词只有priority ，故排除了criticism 和motivation 。
3. 选M). 由空格前面的and 可知，此处应填副词和freely 并列。从句意来理解，在没有拼写困难的情况下，怎样鼓励学生自由且…… 地表达自己，选项中只有confidently “自信地“符合题意。
4. 选N ）。很明显这里应填形容词，选项中terrible ，difficult 后接事物名词something ，只有adventurous 和bright 可用来形容somebody （child )，再由后面的play safe“不冒险”，可排除adventurous而选择bright。
5. 选E ）。由前一句中的be likely to “ play safe ”和空格前的avoid可以推知，此处所填词的意思应与play safe表达的意思相反，故选项中只有adventurous符合题意。
6. 选K ）。很明显此处应填动词的一般现在时，可选项有encourage和persuade 。由That’s why 知本句与前一句构成因果关系，而前一句说的是学生往往会用他们拼写范围内的词写文章，从而选择避免用那些不会的词，故由此可推知此句应理解为老师鼓励学生用字典，因此排除persuade 而选encourage。
7. 选H ）。此处应填形容词。由空格后面的too many spelling errors和illegible可知，这篇文章是写的很糟，而不是很难理解。故排除difficult而选terrible。
8. 选B ）。此处应填名词。由后半句中 a sad reflection on the teacher可知，前半句是在指责学生，故选项中只有criticism符合题意。
9. 选C ）。此处填动词过去式，本句中由which 引导的从句是对essay的解释，剩余选项中contained 和expressed ，根据句意，文章…… 儿童内心感受的一些好的表达，
