2010年3月高级口译考试S2第四篇文章解析

History may soon become extinct in our secondary schools, less missed and less lamented than either. A major new study by the Historical Association and teacher training experts found that three out of 10 comprehensives no longer bother to teach the subject, which isn't part of the core curriculum after the age of 13. Only 30 per cent do GCSE history.

The researchers interviewed 700 history teachers from almost as many schools. Most British kids can name every contestant appearing in The X Factor, but as we have seen from other research, a substantial number don't know about the Battle of Trafalgar, 20 per cent believe the Germans, Spanish or Americans once occupied Britain and some think Winston Churchill was the first man to walk on the moon.

And who were the dunces who decided to make this subject optional? Why the Tories when last they ruled over us.

从整体上看，前三段属于一个大的叙述结构。用了数字，引文等方式证明论点：history may soon become extinct in our secondary schools. 对英国的中学历史教育提出批评。

That was then. Today's Tories are ardent History Boys, eager to return to the days when the past was hammered into the heads of the young, mostly in the form of dreary facts – dates, kings, wars and treaties– or embellished tales of glory to give indigenous British children an inheritance of innate superiority.

第四段稍作转折，讲述英国保守党试图将中学历史教育提起重视，但是仅仅是in the form of dreary facts。仍然是批评的口吻。