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.
According to the text, which of the following statements is not true（）
A. Predictions do not always hold true
B. Some students "shine" unexpectedly
C. The supervisor of the test must be well trained
D. Personality tests often fall short of their purpose
参考答案：C
解析：
[注释] 细节辨认题。本题问：根据本文，下面哪一表述是错误的最后一段最后1句写道：“有时这些测试能鉴别出一些学生，这些学生的很高的潜力以前从来没有被承认。”[B]符合此意。第2段最后、1句写道：“任何仔细记录分数的人都知道，所得到的信息总是不全面的，预测总是会有误差的。”[A]符合此意。最后一段第1句的后半句写道：“……所测的效果最差是在所测内容无法清楚界定时(例如，性格或创造性)。”[D]“性格测试常常达不到目的”符合此意。可见，应排除[C]。