In Defence of Memorisation

C2 Proficiency · Word Formation · Cambridge Ready original exercise

For questions 1–8, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).

THINK

CAPABLE

OPPOSE

LEAD

DEPEND

INTERNAL

SOPHISTICATE

DISCRIMINATE

Rote learning has become deeply (0) ___ in educational circles, where it tends to be equated with (1) ___ repetition. Critics contend that it produces pupils who can recite facts by the hundred yet are (2) ___ of applying them to unfamiliar problems. Better, they argue, to teach children how to think than to fill their heads with information they could look up in seconds. Yet cognitive scientists increasingly argue that this supposed (3) ___ between knowledge and understanding is (4) ___ . Critical thinking, they point out, does not take place in a vacuum: it is (5) ___ on a substantial body of knowledge that has been thoroughly (6) ___ . A pupil who must constantly stop to look up basic facts has little working memory to spare for reasoning of any (7) ___ , whereas one who knows them by heart can devote full attention to the problem in hand. None of this, of course, justifies the (8) ___ memorisation of trivia; the challenge for teachers is to decide which knowledge is worth committing to memory.

In Defence of Memorisation

FASHION

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