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 third paragraph is written mainly to state（）
A. the functions of educational tests
B. the dimensions of standardized tests
C. the bases for using standardized tests
D. the mixed results of standardized tests
参考答案：C
解析：
[注释] 段落主旨题。本题问：第3段写来主要是为了阐述什么第3段最后1句是段落结论句，它写道：“因此，在某一特定情况下，究竟是采用测试还是其他种类的信息，或是两者兼用，须凭有关相对效度的经验依据而定，也取决于诸如费用和有无来源等因素。”可见，阐述“使用标准化测试的依据”是本段写作的主要目的。故应选[C]。[A]“标准化考试的功能”是强干扰项，因为尽管本段第2句提到标准化考试的功能，但接着作者就指出，这种测试所获得的信息从性质上讲与其他种类的信息一样有长处又有短处，最后作者告诉我们采用标准化考试的依据，即由有关相对效度的经验依据而定，也取决于诸如费用和有无来源等因素。可见，前半段是铺垫，最后一句说明是否使用标准化考试的依据。
