Education is not an end , but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In many modern countries it has for some time been fashionable（流行的）to think that by free education for all whether rich or poor, clever or stupid --- one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough: we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees（学位）they refuse to do what they think "low" work; and in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor: we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability, and secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be unwilling to do one's work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.
小题1:In the writer’s opinion,_________
A．free education for all probably leads to a perfect world
B．all the social problems can’t be solved by education
C．education can solve most of the world’s problems
D．free education will help to solve all the problems of society小题2:The writer wants to prove that _______
A．a farmer is more important than a professor
B．our society needs free education for all
C．our society needs all kinds of jobs
D．work with hands is the most important小题3:The purpose of education is to ________
A．build a perfect world
B．let everyone receive education
C．choose officials for the country
D．prepare children mainly for their future work小题4:What is mainly discussed in the text?
A．The type of education
B．The value of education
C．The means of education
D．The system of education小题5:What can we learn from the text?
A．Work with hands is thought to be shameful in some modern countries.
B．In all modern countries, free education has been fashionable.
C．A perfect nation can solve all the problems of society.
D．A professor is far more important than a farmer.
