BBC随身英语:Calculator ban 计算器禁令

Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss says children are over-reliant on calculators and that this means they don't have a good grounding in mental arithmetic or written arithmetic. She wants all children to be confident with other methods of addition, subtraction, times tables and division before they start using calculators in secondary school.

Research shows that 98% of pupils in England use calculators in primary school classes, compared with an international average of just 46%. At the same time, different research shows that children have become worse at maths in the past 30 years. Ms Truss believes that children are dependent on calculators and that's making the problem worse.

Some teaching experts argue there's a plus side to using calculators. They say that they are an important tool for maths, which children need to learn to use. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, says the ban "will diminish the skills set for primary pupils" and cause problems when they need to use calculators in secondary school.

Russell Hobby of the National Association of Head Teachers, says the advantage of using calculators is that children can focus on the maths problem itself, rather than the individual calculations needed to solve it.

Quiz 测验 According to the article, who believes children are over-reliant on calculators?

Elizabeth Truss

Will calculators be banned in primary school or secondary school maths tests?

In primary school

How many of the primary school maths tests allow calculators at the moment?

One

Is the following statement true, false or not given? More than twice as many English primary school children use calculators than in the rest of the world.

True

In the article, who disagrees with the calculator ban?

Christine Blower and Russell Hobby

Glossary 词汇表 ban禁止 calculators计算器 maths tests数学测试 primary school小学 sit参加（考试） over-reliant on过于依赖（某物/某人） grounding in有基础 mental arithmetic心算 addition加法 subtraction减法 times tables乘法表 division除法 secondary school中学 dependent on依赖 a plus side to好的一面 tool工具 skills set一套技能 advantage优势 maths problem数学问题 calculations计算