406
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 eleequar" can scarcely convey any meaning
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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 mentory. The neatness also of nearly every paper was remarkable, and with few exceptions the writing was
excellent.
In this subject the memories of boys seemed overburdened with details crammed Geography. 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 J. Few candidates gave satisfactory answers to the questions in Physical Geography,
Shakespeare.-Three Acts from "Henry V. were offered by Class 1. 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 grammnatical rules important; but we think it unwise that the study of this subject should be continued at present. Book-keeping.Classes I. and H. 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 st 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
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exceptions, did satisfactorily. Boy's seem to be pushed on too rapidly, and before they have thoroughly mastered, so as to be able to accurately apply, the simpler rules. What is required is the use of a very large number and variety of examples carefully graduated and illustrating each rule, as it comes under notice. Few, if any, books contain a sufficient number or variety, but the masters ought to be
If this be done there might be more thoroughness.
able to supply them.
Algebra--This subject has evidently been carefully and well taught in Classes I., II. and III. Very creditable papers were sent up by I. A., II. A., III. A. B., and the majority of the work was charac- terised by neatness and accuracy. Only a few bad answers were sent in by ignorant or careless boys. Thunevenness in the percentages of passes in different Classes is not due to difference in the difficulty of papers, for where the questions were, in the opinion of the examiners, thought to be unequal, due allowance was made in the marking. In contrast to the Arithmetic, there were here fer of the common blunders, and it is evident that the careful teaching has been appreciated. Without wishing to detract from the conspicuous merit of much of the work in this subject, we think that one of the causes of success is due to the fact that an accurate knowledge of English is not so essential here as in such subjects as Grammar, History, and Composition.
very
Euclid.-The Enclid offered by Classes I., II. and III. is very disappointing. Any boy could have passed by doing accurate work on the First Book only; and yet but 44 boys passed out of 160 examined. Only six boys out of 45 in Class I. could write the sixth proposition correctly. With the exception of Class I. A, the whole work is very weak. There is little
very at all, and much evidence of attempted learning by heart: such attempts when they led, as they grasp of the subject often did, to nonsense, were, as they deserved to be, severely marked; hence the low percentage of passes. Over and over again boys wrote, or attempted to write, a proposition which they were not asked to write; and very few could apply I. 4 and 8 properly. If boys cannot do better than they have done, we think it undesirable that any time whatever should be spent on this subject, except in a few special cases. But if it is taught, care must be taken to discourage in every way possible the rote-learning which destroys all the value and the beauty of geometry. Boys should not be pushed on, even to the middle of Book I., till they have mastered the carly propositions. Much more use ought to be made of the application of such propositions as 4 and 8 to the simplest kind of problems, of which a master should be able to supply a large store. In writing out a proposition scarcely any boys paid any attention to punctuation-this may seem a small point but it is very essential if boys are to make any use of the arguments of Euclid. The method, too, of writing continuously in one paragraph is bad, but care should be taken, if the method of writing each sentence on a separate line be adopted, that each line is not necessarily begun with a capital letter. It was impossible to tell, in some cases, whether the argument was right or not in the mind of the boy; it was certainly not correct ou paper. All the old confusion in the use of "but" and " and "therefore," and in the data and quærenda in the particular enunciations appeared again and
"and," again. There was a general lacking in neatness in writing and arrangement, and sometimes the figures were lettered differently from the arguments which referred to them. Euclid being such excellent and simple English Prose, it seems desirable that it should be taught, but at present the time spent upon it is, in the majority of
cases, wasted. English to Chinese. A number of boys showed both knowledge. of English and ability to write Chinese. In the middle and lower classes there was a good percentage of pusses. The difficulty Chinese boys have in understanding the meaning of English words was, however, manifest in all classes. The following may serve as illustrations:--In Class I. 15 boys out of 26 mistook the word what used relatively for the same word used interrogatively. In Class II.B. 13 boys out of 28 mis- classes much work was spoiled by boys, who could read English, being unable to write Chinese. Characters having a sound and tone like the Chinese equivalents of English words in the
""because
passages set,
able to do simple questions in vulgar fractions, decimals, practice. and reduction, where these come translated the word highroad, making it mean a road at a lofty elevation. In the lower and middle within the range of a Class's reading, but in Classes 1. 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. Ilore 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
but with totally different meanings, were used, often in such a way as to destroy all the sense of the passage. Thus in VIII.A. 17 out of 39 boys wrote in Chinese words meaning close or quiet instead of the word bees. In IV.a. 9 boys out of 39 wrote the word for yellow instead of another word of the ime sound and tone meaning locusts. In IV.B. boys were required to translate the phrase straight as an arrow; 4 wrote straight as fighting, 4 straight as scissors, and typical instances. In the paper of IIIB. the word creased occurred, and no boy attempted to translate straight as virtue. These are it. The practice of many boys is to use reading books in which above the English words Chinese equivalents have been written. It is, we think, a practice to be condemned; but if it is continued, the Master should see that the characters written in the books are such as really translate the English.
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