From a real Chinese textbook.
I was doing copies near my house today and found this close exercise that someone had been Xeroxing. I swear to you, it’s real. I had the shop owner make a copy for me just so I could take it home. Here it is:
President George W. Bush is visiting an elementary school today and he a______ a discussion related to words and their meanings.
The president asks the class for an e______ of a “tragedy.”
One little boy stands up and offers, “If my best friend, who lives next door, is playing in the street and a car comes along and runs him o____, that would be a tragedy.”
“No,” says Bush, “that would be an accident.”
A little girl raises her hand: “If a school bus c_____ 50 children drove off a cliff, killing everyone involved, that would be a tragedy.”
“I’m afraid not,” explains the President, “That’s what we would c____ a Great Loss.”
The room goes silent. No other children are heard next. President Bush s_____ the room. “Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally a boy named Johnny h_____ up his hand. In a quiet voice he says, “If Air Force One, carrying you and Mrs. bysh, was struck by a missle, that would be a tragedy.”
“Correct,” e______ Bush, “that’s right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?”
“Well,” little Johnny says, “because, as you just told us, it wouldn’t be an accident, and it wouldn’t be a great loss, either.”
November 19th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Hmmm, interesting… What is a ” close exercise”? I like the deductions!
November 24th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
A cloze exercise is any exercise where there are blanks left in a text, and students have to fill them in. They’re really popular here in China. I guess they are okay for making sure students know the meaning of their vocabulary words, but what I don’t like about them is they make students think there is just one word that can be used in a given situation. Usually English is more flexible than that.