How out of it should you feel if you are not engaged in tests like CET and TOEFL? Not very. For college students and those in need of certain identities, such tests are commonplace and have been existed so reasonably. Years from now, perhaps, people will no longer be curious about those rigid names of the dazzling tests, whose ever-increasing influence has been exerted upon our values of the new century.

In the sense of their provision of some figures, we should owe a lot to these tests. As is commonly agreed, in a world with intense competitions it is crucial and hence inevitable that measures be taken to produce testimony of a group of people’s intelligence and competence, and selections be made accordingly to decide which and which should belong in the qualified and be afforded the opportunities for certain positions. Tests of various kinds are consequently coming into being, with the purpose of filling the vacancy for the selective methods so urgently demanded. To our delight, their present performances are apparently satisfying.

But this is not the full story. A second theme runs through the view of such tests. The saying of “bubble TOEFL, made in China” reveals a great deal: the almost-incredible excellent results the Chinese students have achieved, which we often brag about and amuse ourselves by, do not essentially indicate the candidates’ capability in the language. In some sense, it just witnesses their effort during the short-term preparation and the efficiency of the tricks they have learned and adopted. The short-order courses they attend before the exams are effective and fruitful in terms of boasting shortcuts and manufacturing high scores that, in all possibilities, will work a native speaker into a great shock.

Let’s begin by looking at our candidates’ endeavor in their preparation. As no success can be achieved effortlessly, the process has been proved painstaking and even dreadful. For those without an interest and a solid fundament, there is no other alternative but to cram for the test, burning midnight oil as the examination approaches. However, the improvement of language skills, for example, is not just a dramatic, instant acquirement. It is, indeed, a day-by-day and year-by-year confrontation with effort as well as determination and patience. There is the generally accepted opinion that those who do well merely in exams should likely be outstanding in all respects. In reality, it is a misapprehension. Worse still, it is this very notion that offers those “true lies” the hot bed to be born and to culminate.

As long as the question of profit arises, nobody will go out of his way to give up benefits when the bargaining has become both-willing— the examinees gain no less than the tutorial schools.