2016年英语专四真题word版
Read carefully the following excerpt on term-time holiday arguments in the UK, and then write your response in NO LESS THAN 200 words, in which you should:
·summarize the main message of the excerpt, and then
·comment on whether parents should take ch ildren out of school for holiday during term
time in order to save money.
You should support yourself with information from the excerpt.
Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Term-time holidays will be banned
Parents are to be banned by Michael Gove, UK’s Education Secretary, from taking their children out of school to save money on holidays.
He is to abolish the right of head teacher to “authorise absence” from the classroom, which has been used to let families take term-time breaks, and will warn them they face fines for their children not being at school.
“Any time out of school has the potential to damage a child’s educ ation,” a senior source at the Department for Education said this weekend. “That is why the government will end the distinction between authorised and unauthorised absence.”
“This is part of the government’s wider commitment to bring down truancy levels in our schools. There will also be stricter penalties for parents and schools.”
The tough measures on truancy are part of a wider attempt by Mr. Gove to make education more academically rigorous and to tackle a culture in the educational establishment which he believes has accepted “excuses for failure”.
Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the measure would discourage parents from trying to put pressure on heads to sanction term time holiday. “ The high cost of holidays outside of term time is still an issue but ultimately a child’s education is more important than a holiday,” he said.
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