The standardized educational or psychological tests, that are widely used to aid in selecting, assigning, or promoting students, employees, and military personnel have been the target of recent attacks in books, magazines, the daily press, and even in Congress. The target is wrong, for in attacking the tests, critics divert attention from the fault that lies with ill-informed or incompetent users. The tests themselves are merely tools, with characteristics that can be measured with reasonable precision under specified conditions. Whether the results will be valuable, meaningless, or even misleading depends partly upon the tool itself but largely upon the user.
All informed predictions of future performance are based upon some knowledge of relevant past performance. How well the predictions will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount, reliability, and appropriateness of the information used and on the skill and wisdom with which it is interpreted. Anyone who keeps careful score knows that the information available is always incomplete and that the predictions are always subject to error.
Standardized tests should be considered in this context. They provide a quick, objective method of getting some kinds of information about what a person has learned, the skills he has developed, or the kind of person he is. The information so obtained has, qualitatively, the same advantages and shortcomings as other kinds of information. Whether to use tests, other kinds of information, or both in a particular situation depends, therefore, upon the empirical evidence concerning comparative validity, and upon such factors as cost and availability.
In general, the tests work most effectively when the traits or qualities to be measured can be most precisely defined (for example, ability to do well in a particular course of training program) and least effectively when what is to be measured or predicted cannot be well defined (for example, personality or creativity). Properly used, they provide a rapid means of getting comparable information about many people. Sometimes they identify students whose high potential has not been previously recognized, but there are many things they do not do. For example, they don’t compensate for gross social inequality, and thus don’t tell how able an underprivileged younger might have been had he grown up under more favorable circumstances.
The selection implies that, more often, the value of an educational test rests with（）
A. the interpretation of test results
B. the analysis of the students tested
C. the skill and wisdom of the test itself
D. the accuracy of the information provided
参考答案：A
解析：
[注释] 细节理解题。本题问：本文暗示，教育测试的价值何在第2段第2句写道：“测试结果是否被后来的表现证明为有效要看所使用的信息(即考试成绩)的量、信度及针对性，也要看解释所得信息的技能。”由此看来，[A]符合以上表述。[B]“分析被考的学生”太笼统，不切题。
注意：解这类题的技巧是抓住信息信号词的相关性，如EA]选项中的信息信号词是interpretation，文章中的信息信号词是第2段第2句中的interpreted，注意它们之间的信息相关性并加以分析和判断。