Málfríður - 15.05.1993, Blaðsíða 14

16 ■ What is thc main point the writer makes about Wiesenthal’s book in paragraph 1?
It shows
a how justified Wiesenthal’s continued efforts to track down Nazi criminals have been.
B how many Nazi criminals have been caught through the perseverance of one man.
c why the special nature of Nazi crimes makes them impossible to forgive and forget.
17 ■ How can paragraph 2 be summarised?
a It has been very difficult for Wiesenthal not to become embittered by the loss of so many
during the war.
8 Wiesenthal feels that his own escape from death has given him a heavy responsibiiity to
the war’s victims.
c Wiesenthal’s life has been shaped by those who helped him survive the war.
d Wiesenthal’s war experiences gave him the determination to face life after the war.
18 ■ What picture of Wiesenthal is given in paragraph 3?
a A careful man, who at times has had trouble controiling his personal hatred of Nazi
criminals.
B A determined man, who will not give up a struggle once he has embarked on it.
c A prudent man, who does not use his own emotions as a guide to punishment.
d A sensible man, who looks at Nazi crime only from a historical perspective.
construction of the questions
that may be worth mentioning:
* only one answer is right
* the right answer does not de-
pend on the knowledge of
one particular word only
* all of the alternative answers
must be plausible
* the answers are always in
alphabetical order
* the answers do not echo
words from the text
* the questions do not overlap
* the questions are clear and
in simple language
* there are no double nega-
tions in the questions or ans-
wers
* no tricks or ambiguities are
employed.
How are the tests marked? All
the schools send the answer
sheets to CITO, where they are
checked by computer. A commit-
tee of educational experts then
convenes and decides on the
borderline between a sufficient
(5,5 and higher) and an insuffi-
cient mark (lower than 5,5). This
usually varies slightly from year
to year, since it depends on the
degree of difficulty, which inevi-
tably varies somewhat. The de-
gree of difficulty is determined
on the basis of the average score
of a random sample of a thou-
sand students. To get 6 for a
mark a student needs to have
about 32 answers right at MAVO
and VWO, and about 30 at
HAVO. It has long been a deba-
ted question whether or not too
much importance is attached to
reading comprehension by let-
ting it count as 50% of the final
mark. But this is still the way it
is.
It goes without saying that the
reading comprehension test has
invoked many heated discus-
sions, especially the first few
years after its introduction
around 1970. The two main obj-
ections raised were: 1) it seemed
to be an intelligence test rather
than a language test; 2) a stu-
dent could do quite well by me-
rely guessing.
Research has shown that nei-
ther is the case, and that the test
is valid, i.e. that the test does
what it is supposed to do: test
reading comprehension in Engl-
ish.
Gerda Cook-Bodegom
is a former testing specialist at
CITO and is currently teaching
English at Kennaraháskóli and
Háskóli Islands.
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