Chinese are very generous(慷慨的) when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States and Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes which will give them a head in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend an unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter. However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children are very skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children are short of self-respect and self-confidence.
The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills that they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework. Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking requires patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and finish his job successfully step by step. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and lots of self-confidence.
Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse(激发) his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.
小题1:. Most Chinese parents don’t realize __________.
| A．how much the best education is worth |
| B．when children should be educated |
| C．what children really need in later life |
| D．why school tests don’t satisfy children |
小题2:. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．Fixing old machines is very important. |
| B．Interest is necessary for everything. |
| C．Broken things are useful for children. |
| D．Using hands helps improve thinking ability. |
小题3:. The writer’s attitude(看法) to children’s education is that __________.
| A．the cheaper an education is, the better it is |
| B．children today should learn different skills |
| C．practical skills are useful to children's growth |
| D．school education can’t meet parents’ expectation |