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.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS