Abstract

TEM, Test for English Majors, is a particular EFL (English as a foreign language) test in China. It was instituted by the State Education Commission in 1991, and has been organized by the Higher Education Institution Foreign Language Major Teaching Supervisory Committee. TEM-8 has been operating for nearly 20 years.
The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States, in other English-speaking countries, and for English-taught graduate and business programs world-wide. Created and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1949, the exam aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study. By comparing the writing pools in GRE(Graduate Record Examination) and TEM8(Tests for English Major, Band 8) in several aspects, e.g. contents, scoring criteria, scoring system, relevant education system , aims to figure out the differences that lie between these two examinations and analyze the problems that exist in TEM-8 which contribute to the phenomenon of high score and low ability among Chinese English majors. Meanwhile, the paper also broaches several ways to reform TEM-8 in China by learning from GRE better serve students and teachers.

Keywords: GRE; TEM8; scoring system; relevant education system; problems; ways；

摘要

英语专业八级考试的对象是英语专业的学生。它是把英语作为第二语言来进行考试的一种。自1991年起由中国大陆教育部实行，考察全国综合性大学英语专业学生。英语专业八级考试由高等学校外语专业教学指导委员会主办。它已经有20年的历史。
美国研究生入学考试，适用于除法律与商业外的各专业，由美国教育考试服务处（Educational Testing Service，简称ETS)主办。GRE是世界各地的大学各类研究生院（除管理类学院，法学院）要求申请者所必须具备的一个考试成绩，也是教授对申请者是否授予奖学金所依据的最重要的标准。通过将GRE（美国研究生入学考试）和TEM8（英语专业八级考试）的写作部分从考试内容、评分标准、评分体系以及相应的教育体系来进行对比，我们能够找出存在于这两种考试之间的差别。我们希望借助这些差别来分析中国英语专业学生在英语专业八级考试中所存在的问题，以便能更好地解释中国英语专业学生高分低能的现象。我们也分析出可行性方法来对改革TEM8中的弊端，以更好地适应中国英语专业学生和老师的需要。从而我们可以看到TEM8中存在的不足和想出可行性方法。最后，我们将会对上述两者之间的比较进行总结。

关键词：GRE；TEM8；评分体系；相应的教育体系；问题；方法