3 questions

[mengta]

1.There was a tentative knock on the door. "Professor wiesenfeld? i took your physics 2121 class? i flunked it?i wonder if there's anything i can do to improve my grade?" i thought: "why arae you asking me? isn't it too late to worry about it? do you dislike making declarative statements?"

what does the " do you dislilke making declarative statements" mean?

2.Time was, when you received a grade, that was it.

what does the "time was" mean?

3. Having been raised on gold stars for effort and smiley faces for self-esteem, they've learned that they can get by without hard word and real talent if they can talk the professor into giving them a break.

gold stars for effort, smiley faces for self-esteem?what do they mean?

thanks

[Tdol]

1 The person is being too tentative and unsure
2 Time was = there was a time when a grade was fixed and that was it.
3 It's a crticism of some of the techniques used in teaching to encourage children- they get gold stars for good work and some teachers use emoticon faces to indicate good work.