Wang Jiaming from Beijing Chenjinglun High School says he is a lucky boy. He’s happy that he’s sitting the senior high school entrance exam (中考) in 2014 instead of 2016.
On Oct 22, Beijing Municipal Commission of Education (北京市教委) announced that, from 2016, the English scores in the senior high school entrance exam will be reduced from 120 to 100. Of the 100 points, the listening ability scores will increase to 50. Meanwhile, the points for Chinese will increase from 120 to 150.
“The change won’t affect me. I feel so lucky because English is my strongest subject,” said Wang.
Why such a change? It places the importance on Chinese in our study, and reduces students’ stress, said Li Yi, spokesman of the commission.
“The change will also push us to pay attention to the practical usage (运用) of English,” said Li. “Students will be encouraged to learn to understand English menus and read English news on mobile phones.”
There isn’t news that other cities will have the same change. But several places are making changes to English tests in the college entrance exams. For example, Shandong is considering taking out the listening part of the English exam in its college entrance exams.
But, “being tested for less points doesn’t mean the subject can be taken lightly,” Bai Ping wrote in China Daily.
English has long been the world’s most commonly used language. Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji once said: “In a globalizing economy (全球经济), if you cannot communicate with foreigners, how can one be part of the world economy?”
Wang Jiaming said he understood the change.
“Chinese, not English, is our mother tongue (母语),” he said. “But still, I think English is both interesting and useful.”
In the Beijing senior high school entrance exam of 2016, _____.

A．the English scores will be cut down to 100

B．the English listening ability scores will be lowered

C．the points for Chinese will be reduced by 30 points

D．the points for chemistry will increase by 20 points

The underlined phrase “can be taken lightly” in this sentence “being tested for less points  doesn’t mean the subject can be taken lightly,” is closest in meaning to “_____________”.

A．can be taken out

B．can be paid less attention to

C．can be taken a close look at

D．can take the place of Chinese

What is the main purpose of the change?

A．To encourage students to learn how to order meals in English.

B．To make students learn to read English news on mobile phones.

C．To ask students to prepare for the college entrance exam.

D．To make students pay more attention to learning Chinese.

What does Bai Ping think of the reforms (改革)?

A．They make students spend less time on English.

B．They make it harder to get a high score.

C．Studying English is still important for the students.

D．English is both interesting and useful.

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