As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on it. They are the mark of success (1)______ or failure in our society. One’s whole future may be decided on one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t feeling very well, or that his mother died. Things like that don’t count on: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when (2)______ he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless might, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects you to do. The moment (3)______ a child begins school, he enters into a world of vicious competition (4)______ where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of "drop-outs": young people who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked (5)______ a career Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students A good education should, among other things, train one to think for himself. The examination system does nothing but that. (6)______ What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek (7)______ more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive teachers off all freedoms. (8)______ Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reducing to training their (9)______ students in exam techniques which they despise of. The most (10)______ successful candidates are not~ always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under duress.