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by heart, which are very evidently not understood, should be strongly discouraged. On the whole this very important subject is very feeble and disappointing in a school which aims at giving an English education to Chinese boys. "Some adverbs are elecquar" can scarcely convey any meaning to the boy who wrote it, and requires some ingenuity for its elucidation.
History. The English History papers exhibit a considerable acquaintance with the phraseology of the text-books, but when this is coupled with a very slight ability to explain its meaning it may be doubted whether the system of learning passages by heart is altogether conducive to a satisfactory knowledge of History. It is evident, however, that considerable trouble has been taken by the boys themselves or by their teachers, whereby a large number of facts have been committed to memory. The neatness also of nearly every paper was remarkable, and with few exceptions the writing was excellent.
Geography. In this subject the memories of boys seemed overburdened with details crammed from books. They could repeat what they had learned, and when a question could be answered by doing so, they reproduced exactly paragraphs from their text-books. The general impression produced on reading the papers is that the teaching of geography might be greatly improved by the more frequent use of blank maps. In a number of instances sketch-maps of more than ordinary merit were drawn by boys in Class I. Few candidates gave satisfactory answers to the questions in Physical Geography.
Shakespeare. Three Acts from "Henry V." were offered by Class I. The papers exhibit painstaking and careful work both on the part of Masters and boys. The best average was obtained in section I. C,A,; in this section every boy passed; one received 90 and another 82 per cent. marks. It is worthy of note that a question requiring candidates to summarise in their own words the argument of a long speech was answered by the majority with marked success.
Latin.-Of the Latin papers the less said the better. In the divisions I. C,A. and I. C,B. one boy, and one only, came any where near the standard offered for examination. All the others failed in the very elements of grammar, where also, with two exceptions, the third divisions failed also. For boys who cannot recognise the parts of speech-far less parse the simplest words-for these to offer several sections of "Cæsar" is absurd. In no language more than in Latin are the early grammatical rules important; but we think it unwise that the study of this subject should be continued at present. Book-keeping.-Classes I. and II. were examined in this subject. Papers from Class I. were very good indeed, and those from Class II. fair. The style throughout was satisfactory.
General Information.-A paper was set to Classes I and II. only, affording scope for a variety of information upon current, local, and general topics. Though in accordance with the custom of previous years the marks awarded are used in calculating the total number of passes and failures we do not think it necessary to comment on the relative numbers. The questions at least gave an opportunity to boys of showing how far they understood the meaning of them, and how far they could express themselves when they had anything to answer. Some of the papers were fairly well done, but the majority of boys in Class II. produced many absolutely unintelligible answers. Some answers afforded the examiners considerable diversion amidst a mass of monotonous work.
Arithmetic.-Classes I.A., I. C,A., and II. C,A. on the whole did very creditably. We think that II. C,A. should be grouped with a higher Class than V. In several Classes there was a deplorable exhibition of careless and inaccurate working. An examiner expects to find the majority of boys. able to do simple questions in vulgar fractions, decimals, practice, and reduction, where these come within the range of a Class's reading, but in Classes I. to V., except those mentioned above, there was a conspicuous failure in the work in these elementary rules. A few boys did very well indeed, showing that the subject has been successfully taught to them, but we expected to see greater average proficiency shown by a whole class. The papers were carefully set on the pages offered. Every question was correctly answered by one boy or another, but many papers were disappointing. The methods employed do not always seem to be the best. One noticed the old stumbling blocks-the place of the decimal point in division, the order of operation of various signs in compound fractions, cancelling in l.c.m., and the order of terms in proportion-causing boys to offend, as well as very long methods where shorter ones are available. The unitary method" in proportion might be advantageously employed. Here and there a boy successfully grappled with a comparatively difficult problem, but on the whole the work was poor. The lower Classes, VI. VII., and VIII, with few
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