Ninth graders were asked to define “trolling” on this year’s standardized exam, reflecting efforts to make the test better reflect real-life situations.
Adjustments to this year’s Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students were revealed on Sunday, after the last cohort of students completed the test over the weekend.
The Ministry of Education solicited feedback about the test from teachers, who approved of the new question in the English portion.
Photo: CNA
Not only was question No. 20 “very much in line with real-life situations,” but it also used a new style in which students were asked to ascertain the correct dictionary definition based on a given passage, Sinjhuang Junior High teacher Lina Tseng (曾麗娜) said.
The passage quoted a man named Josh as saying: “Why are they trolling me like this?” while providing context clues suggesting he was criticized online for sharing his opinions about a television show.
The dictionary has many definitions for “troll,” although students who play video games are likely familiar with its usage as a mythological cave-dwelling creature, Tseng said.
Yet it can also refer to fishing, pulling or — as it is commonly used these days — as the verb for antagonizing others online, she said.
All four possible answers on the exam were real definitions for “troll,” making it necessary to read the passage, she said, adding that there were enough clues such as the word “screen” suggesting a computer to make it easy for students to answer.
Overall, teachers said the most difficult questions on this year’s English portion concerned an article on current events in Cameroon — with students being asked to ascertain the author’s attitude and select the definition of “resentful” — and a full-page infographic on sugar consumption.
However, they said they were still confident that “students’ hard work would pay off.”
Test designers responded to concerns that the test was too abstract and asked more basic questions that pertain to students’ lives, Tseng said.
The listening portion was also more grounded in daily life, giving context to conversations and public announcements through sound effects, she said.
For example, recordings included the sound of a customer entering a store, someone tapping a microphone before making an announcement, Christmas music and a motorbike, she said.
Actors also spoke slower than in previous editions and each recording was played twice, she added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS