The familiar sounds of an early English summer are with us once again. Million of children sit down to SATs, GCSEs, AS-levels, A-levels and a host of lesser exams, and argument over educational standards. Depending on whom you listen to, we should either be letting up on over-examined pupils be abolishing SAT, and even GCSE, or else ,making exams far more rigorous. SAT，全称Scholastic Assessment Test，中文名称为学术能力评估测试 Lesser较小的,较少的,次要的 Rigorous严格的, 严厉的 2严密的; 缜密的 Let up放松; 减少〔弱〕 Pupil 学生, 小学生 Abolish废除, 废止 The chorus will reach a peak when GCSE and A-level results are published in August. If pass rates rise again, commentators will say that standards are failing because exams are getting easier. If pass rates drop, they will say that standards are falling because children are getting lower marks. Parents like myself try to ignore this base our judgment on what our children are learning. But it’s not easy given how much education has changed since we were at school. Peak山峰, 山顶; 有尖峰的高山 Chorus合唱曲 Some trends are encouraging-education has been made more relevant and enthuses many children that it would have previously bored. My son’ A-level French revision involved listening to radio debates on current affairs, whereas mine involved rereading Moliere. And among their peers, a far greater proportion stayed in education for longer. Relevant 有关的2有价值的；有意义的 Bored 无聊的, 无趣的, 烦人的，厌倦的，烦闷的 Enthuses 对…极为喜爱或极热心 Previously 事先;以前 Revision 复习，温习 Affair 大事; 事件 On the other hand, some aspects of schooling today are 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/991c0b360b4e767f5acfce74.html