725
60. Class III. Composition in this Class was decidedly better. Unfortunately no records of compositions are kept in this or any other Class. Handwriting was neater than in the Lower Classes. Dictation is not apparently a regular Class subject. The boys well understood the portion of their text book that they had read. Their comprehension of an unseen passage was fair.
61. Class IV. Compositions were set on foot-binding and on ancient Chinese rites used in the worship of God. Dictation was fair. Handwriting was not so good. The boys in this Class were still unable to explain some simple unseen passages from a newspaper. They have been studying from 4 to 6 years.
62. Class V. The compositions were mostly good, though some were poor. Most of the boys had ideas, and could express them in fair Chinese. Very few of them seemed to know that Confucius was a famous man in the Chau dynasty. Their ideas of the times of the Chinese dynasties were altogether vague. Dictation was very well written. Reading was good, but a fairly simple newspaper article was not thoroughly understood."
63. No translation work is done in the Lower School, where the knowledge of English is insufficient to allow of the subject being studied to advantage. It is true that in some Divisions English and Chinese versions of Esop's Fables are committed to memory and written out, sometimes in one language and sometimes in the other.
64. In the Upper School the knowledge of English and of Chinese is assumed to be sufficient to enable the boys to begin the study of translation from one lan- guage into the other. Unfortunately, however, many of the boys in the Upper School still have not had a sufficient grounding in either language.
65. In Class III the translation (English to Chinese) was fair to poor. In the piece given for translation from Chinese to English about one-third of the boys grasped the ideas contained in the Chinese.
66. Class II. English to Chinese. The knowledge of English was still insuffi- cient for good translation work. The work on the whole was fair. Chinese into English. The meaning of the Chinese was fairly well grasped. The work done shewed a marked improvement compared with that of Class III.
67. Class I. English to Chinese. The majority did very fair work. Chinese to English. The boys understood much of the Chinese, though many points were still missed. They need much practice in English composition, and also in the art -of translation.
GENERAL.
68. We have avoided, so far as possible, expressing opinions on subjects which have been fully commented on in recent reports.
69. As a whole the work of the School shews a considerable improvement compared with last year. English and Colloquial shewed a great improvement in some Classes. Geography was also better done on the whole. The mathematical papers set were probably harder than usual.
70. The weak places in the School appear to us to be situated in Classes Vand IV and again in IÌ B and I B. IB is again an extremely weak Class. It is specially desirable that Classes V and IV should be strengthened, or we fear that the good results obtained in Classes VII and VI are likely to be lost.
We have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient Servants,
The Hon. Secretary,
THE GOVERNING EODY, QUEEN'S COLLEGE.
EDWARD A. IRVING, G. N. ORME.
H. R. WELLS.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.