3.

We might marvel at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to device anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. 我们可能对学科的每个领域所取得的进步感到大为惊异，然而测试一个人的知识和能力的方法依然原始如初。确实是令人吃惊，这么多年以后，教育家们还没有找到比考试更为有效和可靠的手段。

For all the pious claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and aptitude.考试就是测验你知道什么，对于所有这些虔诚的说法，普遍认为往往适得其反。考试可能是检验记忆力，或者在极度紧张的情况下发现快速工作窍门的好方法。但是它不能告诉你一个人的真正能力和智能究竟怎样。

       As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the mark of success of failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. 作为制造焦虑者，考试是最好的手段。这是因为它决定着很多事。它是一个人在社会中成功或失败的标志。在事关命运的一天里你的整个前途就被决定下来了。它不管你当时的心情很糟糕，或者你的母亲已去世。像那样的小事不足挂齿：考试依然进行。当身陷致命的恐惧中或经过一个无眠之夜后，没人能发挥出他的最佳水平，不过这正是考试制度期望他这样做的。

The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of vicious competition where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of “drop-outs”: young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked on a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?从孩子开始上学的那一刻起，他就走进了一个成功和失败界限分明和可以衡量的恶毒竞争之中。我们会对数目不断增加的“辍学者”——甚至在年轻人开始事业之前认为他已完全失败——感到诧异吗？面对学生的自杀率我们能感到吃惊吗？

       A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. 一种好的教育应当包括培养你独立的能力。而考试制度绝对没有这样的作用。必须学的东西被强硬地用课程大纲给制定出来，鼓励学生去死记。考试不能激励学生去广泛阅读，而是限制他阅读；考试不能使学生探索越来越多的知识，而是起到填鸭式的作用。