【今日英語】Calculator ban 計算器禁令

　　Vocabulary: maths 詞匯：數學

　　The UK government has said that from 2014, it will ban calculators in maths tests forprimary school children in England.

　　All 11-year-olds sit three maths tests. Pupils are allowed to use a calculator in the hardest of these.

 

A sample question is: "Tickets for a school play cost £2.75 each. Dev sold 23 tickets. How much ticket money did Dev collect?"

　　Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss says children are over-reliant on calculators and that this means they don't have a good grounding in mental arithmetic or written arithmetic. She wants all children to be confident with other methods of addition, subtraction, times tables anddivision before they start using calculators insecondary school.

　　Research shows that 98% of pupils in England use calculators in primary school classes, compared with an international average of just 46%. At the same time, different research shows that children have become worse at maths in the past 30 years. Ms Truss believes that children are dependent on calculators and that's making the problem worse.

　　Some teaching experts argue there's a plus side to using calculators. They say that they are an important tool for maths, which children need to learn to use. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, says the ban "will diminish the skills set for primary pupils" and cause problems when they need to use calculators in secondary school.

　　Russell Hobby of the National Association of Head Teachers, says theadvantage of using calculators is that children can focus on the maths problem itself, rather than the individual calculations needed to solveit.

　　Quiz 測驗

　　According to the article, who believes children are over-reliant on calculators?

　　Will calculators be banned in primary school or secondary school maths tests?

　　How many of the primary school maths tests allow calculators at the moment?

　　Is the following statement true, false or not given? More than twice as many English primary school children use calculators than in the rest of the world.

　　In the article, who disagrees with the calculator ban?

　　Glossary 辭匯表

　　· ban禁止

　　· calculators計算器

　　· maths tests數學測試

　　· primary school小學

　　· sit參減(攷試)

　　· over-reliant on過於依賴(某物/某人)

　　· grounding in有基礎

　　· mental arithmetic心算

　　· addition减法

　　· subtraction減法

　　· times tables乘法表

　　· division除法

　　· secondary school中學

　　· dependent on依賴

　　· a plus side to好的一裏

　　· tool東西

　　· skills set一套技能

　　· advantage優勢

　　· maths problem數學問題

　　· calculations計算