题目内容
When next year’s crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009, they’ll be joined by a new face; Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old provost (教务长) of Yale, who’ll become Oxford’s vice-chancellor—a position equivalent to university president in America.
Hamilton isn’t the only educator crossing the Atlantic. Schools in France, Egypt, Singapore, etc, have also recently made top-level hires from abroad. Higher education has become a big and competitive business nowadays, and like so many businesses, it’s gone global. Yet the talent flow isn’t universal. High-level personnel tend to head in only one direction: outward from America.
The chief reason is that American schools don’t tend to seriously consider looking abroad. For example, when the board of the University of Colorado searched for a new president, it wanted a leader familiar with the state government, a major source of the university’s budget. “We didn’t do any global consideration,” says Patricia Hayes, the board’s chair. The board ultimately picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political activist (活动家) who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising. Fund-raising is a distinctively American thing, since U.S. schools rely heavily on donations. The fund-raising ability is largely a product of experience and necessity.
Many European universities, meanwhile, are still mostly dependent on government funding. But government support has failed to keep pace with rising student number. The decline in government support has made funding-raising an increasing necessary ability among administrators and has hiring committees hungry for Americans.
In the past few years, prominent schools around the world have joined the trend. In 2003, when Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard, another former Yale provost, as its vice-chancellor, the university publicly stressed that in her previous job she had overseen “a major strengthening of Yale’s financial position.”
Of course, fund-raising isn’t the only skill outsiders offer. The globalization of education means more universities will be seeking heads with international experience of some kind of promote international programs and attract a global student body. Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective on established practices.
41. What is the current trend in higher education discussed in the passage?
A) Institutions worldwide are hiring administrators from the U.S.
B) A lot of political activists are being recruited as administrators.
C) American universities are enrolling more international students.
D) University presidents are paying more attention to funding-raising.
42. What is the chief consideration of American universities when hiring top-level administrators?
A) The political correctness. B) Their ability to raise funds.
C) Their fame in academic circles. D) Their administrative experience.
43. What do we learn about European universities from the passage?
A) The tuitions they charge have been rising considerably.
B) Their operation is under strict government supervision.
C) They are strengthening their position by globalization.
D) Most of their revenues come from the government.
44. Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard as its vice-chancellor chiefly because _____.
A) she was known to be good at raising money
B) she could help strengthen its ties with Yale
C) she knew how to attract students overseas
D) she had boosted Yale’s academic status
45. In what way do top-level administrators from abroad contribute to university development?
A) They can enhance the university’s image.
B) They will bring with them more international faculty.
C) They will view a lot of things from a new perspective.
D) They can set up new academic disciplines.
ABDAC
When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks to win a highly competitive scholarship(奖学金)and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie, “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.
Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted(吸毒)parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that loss became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.
Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets.“What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,”she wrote in her book Breaking Night.
She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”
Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.
【小题1】In which order did the following things happen to Liz?
a. Her mother died of AIDS. b. She worked at a petrol station.
c. She got admitted into Harvard. d. The movie about her life was put on.
e. She had trouble finding a place to sleep.
A.b, a, e, c, d | B.a, b, c, e, d | C.e, d, b, a, c | D.b, e, a, d, c |
A.how Liz managed to enter Harvard University | B.what a hard time Liz had in her childhood |
C.why Liz loved her parents so much | D.how Liz struggled to change her life |
A.Envy and encouragement. | B.Willpower and determination. |
C.Decisions and understanding. | D.Love and respect for her parents. |
A.she had little experience of social life | B.she could hardly understand the society |
C.she would do something for her own life | D.she needed to travel more around the world |