Many private institutions of higher education around the country are in danger. Not all will be saved, andperhaps not all deserve to be saved. There are low-quality schools just as there are low-quality business.We have no obligation to save them simply because they exist.
But many thriving institutions that deserve to continue are threatened. They are doing a fine job educationally, but they are caught in a financial squeeze, with no way to reduce rising costs or increase revenuessignificantly. Raising tuition doesn’t bring in more revenue, for each time tuition goes up, the enrollment goes down, or the amount that must be given away in student aid goes up. Schools are bad businesses, whether public or private, not usually because of mismanagement but because of the nature of the enterprise.They lose money on every customer, and they can go bankrupt either from too few students or too many students. Even a very good college is a very bad business.
It is such colleges, thriving but threatened, I worry about. Low enrollment is not their chief problem. Even with full enrollments, they may go under. Efforts to save them, and preferably to keep them private, are a national necessity. There is no basis for arguing that private schools are inherently (固有地)better than public schools. Examples to the contrary abound. Anyone can name state universities and colleges that rank as the finest in the nation and the world. It is now inevitable that public institutions will be dominant, and therefore diversity is a national necessity. Diversity in the way we support schools tends to give us a healthy diversity in the forms of education. In an imperfect society such as ours, uniformity of education throughout the nation could be dangerous. In an imperfect society, diversity is a positive good. Enthusiastic supporters of public higher education know the importance of sustaining private higher education.
練習題：
Choose correct answers to the question:
1.According to the author's opinion, schools are bad businesses because of _______.
A. mismanagement
B. too few students
C. financial squeeze
D. their characteristics
2.The author used the phrase “go under" in Para. 3 to mean "_______".
A. get into difficulties
B. have low enrollment
C. have little money
D. bring in more money
3.We can reasonably conclude from this passage that the author made an appeal to the public in order to support_____
A. public institution
B. private schools
C. uniformity of education
D. diversity of education
4.Which of the following is NOT mentioned about private schools?
A. High-quality private schools deserve to be saved.
B. If the tuition of the private schools is raised, the enrollment goes down.
C. There are many cases to show that public schools are better than private schools.
D. Private schools are more profitable than public schools.
5.Which of the following ways could possibly save private schools?
A. Raising tuition.
B. Full enrollment.
C. National awareness and support.
D. Reduction of rising costs.
答案
1.[D] 事實細節(jié)題。本題考查因果關(guān)系。第2段倒數(shù)第3句中的“not because of... but because of...”指出了nature就是原因所在，characteristics是nature的近義詞，故D正確。
2.[A] 詞義理解題。通過go under所在句子中的Even with......可知，該句與上一句形成對比，這兩句中的enrollment是相對應(yīng)的，所以go under應(yīng)該也與上文的problem相對應(yīng)，由此可推斷，go under就是have problem/ difficulty之義。本題最具干擾性的是C，但文中并無細節(jié)具體說明即使入學人數(shù)滿額學校收人也很少的問題，因此C把problem定義得過細，不如A恰當。
3.[B] 推理判斷題，也是主旨大意題。文章一開頭就指出“許多私立髙等學校都處于危險之中”，引起讀者的關(guān)注，結(jié)尾句明確倡議支持公立髙等教育的人們應(yīng)該同樣支持私立髙等教育，由此可見,B是本文的目的。本題最具干擾性的是D，D的說法在最后一段中多次提到，但是作者提出辦學多樣性是為了說明私立教育的重要性，故D只是本文主題(私立教育)的支持性細節(jié)，并非本文的中心話題。
4.[D] 事實細節(jié)題�？捎门懦ㄕ页龃鸢�。A可從第1段推斷得出;B可在第2段第3句中找到;C可從最后一段中間找到。
5.[C] 推理判斷題。可用排除法找出答案，根據(jù)原文，第2段第3句可證明A不可行;最后一段第3句證明B不可行;第2段第2句也指出D行不通。本文的目的是為了提高公眾對私立教育的關(guān)注，由此可見，只有C是拯救私立高校的可行性方法。
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