On August 18thUS News & World Report released its 2007 rankings of America’s top colleges. The survey began in 1983 as an unofficial opinion poll, when the magazine asked 662 college presidents to identify the country’s best places of learning. It has since changed into an annually frightening experience for reputable universities. A strong showing in the rankings spurs student interest and alumni giving while a slip has grave consequences for public relations.
University administrators deeply dislike the survey. Many reject the idea that schools can be stacked up against one another in any meaningful way. And the survey’s methodology is suspect. The rankings are still based partly on peer evaluations. They compare rates of alumni giving, which has little to do with the transmission of knowledge. Besides, the magazine’s data are supplied by the schools and unproved. But whether the rankings are fair is beside the point, because they are wildly influential. In the 1983 survey barely half of the presidents approached bothered to respond. Today, only a handful dare refuse.
Most, in fact, do more than simply fill out the survey. Competition between colleges for top students is increasing, partly because of the very popularity of rankings. Colin Diver, the president of Reed College in Oregon, considers that “ranking create powerful incentives to manipulate data and distort institutional behavior.” a school may game the system by luring applications from students who stand no chance of admission, or by leaning on alumni to arrange jobs for graduates. Reed is one of the few prominent colleges that dares to despise taking part in the US News survey.
In some ways, the scramble to attract applicants has helped students. Universities such as Duke in North Carolina and Rice in Houston are devoting more money to scholarships. That seems a reasonable response to challenge of the rankings, as the National Centre for Education Statistics reckons that roughly two-thirds of undergraduates rely on financial aid.
Other colleges, though, are trying to drum up excitement by offering privileges that would have been unheard of generation ago. Students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) now appreciate weekly maid service in the dorms.“The elevators”, replied an enthusiastic respondent to an online survey, “smell lemon fresh.” Students at Pennsylvania State University enjoy free access to Napster, the music-sharing service. Multi-million dollar gyms have become so common that they are unremarkable.
University officials, defending this strategy, often imply that they are only responding to student demand. Discouraging words for those who believe that a college’s job is to educate, not indulge.
1. What do the top universities take the annual rankings as?
A A severe test.
B A routine schedule
C A chance to distinguish themselves
D An official public-opinion poll
2. The universities administrators most probably agree that the rankings should____.
Acount completely on peer evaluations
B count out the rates of alumni giving
C be done by a more convincing magazine
D be based on date supplied by the presidents
3. What does Colin Diver think of the purpose of a school’s leaning on alumni to arrange jobs for graduates?
A To attract more top applicants.
B To make the rankings reliable.
C To take advantage of its public relations
D To become more popular in the rankings.
4. The author tends to think that the weekly maid service of the UCLA is meant to be ___.
A beneficial
B innovative
C appealing
D indulgent
5. The passage is intended to tell most clearly about ___.
A the result of the competition for top students
B the defects in the American educational system
C the influence of the rankings of top universities
D the ways to increase the number of top applicants
2019英语四级考试阅读专项练习(30) Passage 2 In October 1987, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards began its work to set new standards of accomplishment for the teaching profession and to improve the 11 of education available to all children in the United States. Teachers are 12 to students and their learning. They must act on the belief that all students can learn. They must recognize 13 differences in their students and adjust their practice 14 . They must know that their mission extends beyond developing the cognitive capacity of their students. They must be 15 with their students' self-concept, with their motivation, and with the development of character. Teachers must know the subjects they teach and how to teach them. They must 16 specialized knowledge of how to convey a subject to students. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning. They must call on 17 methods to meet their goals, knowing and being able to 18 a variety of instructional skills. Teachers must think systematically about their practice and learn from experience, seeking the 19 of others and drawing on education research and scholarship to improve their practice. As members of learning communities, teachers contribute to school effectiveness by collaborating with other professionals. They take ___20 of
2020年大学英语四级阅读理解练习题及解析(5) Everyday we go to school and listen to the teacher, and the teacher will ask us some questions. Sometimes, the classmates will ask your opinions of the work of the class. When you are telling others in the class what you have found out about these topics, remember that they must be able to hear what you are saying. You are not taking part in a family conversation or having a chat(闲谈)with friends—you are in a slightly unnatural situation where a large group of people will remain silent, waiting to hear what you have to say. You must speak so that they can hear you—loudly enough and clearly enough but without trying to shout of appearing to force yourself. Remember, too, that it is the same if you are called to an interview whether it is with a professor of your school or a government official who might meet you. The person you are seeing will try to put you at your ease(轻松)but the situation is somewhat(一点儿)different from that of an ordinary conversation. You must take special care that you can be heard. 1.When you speak to the class, you should speak ________. A.as loudly as possible B.in a low voice C.loudly D.forcefully https://www.doczj.com/doc/dd15964649.html,ually, when you speak to the class, the class is __________. A.noisy B.quiet C.having a rest D.serious
洛基英语，中国在线英语教育领导品牌 综合题，请根据题目给出的内容，来回答下面给出的试题。Space is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors (流星) but also because of rays from the sun and other stars. The atmosphere again acts as our protective blanket on earth. Light gets through, and this is essential for plants to make the food which we eat. Heat, too, makes our environment endurable. Various kinds of rays come through the air from outer space, but enormous quantities of radiation from the sun are screened off. Af soon as men leave the atmosphere they are exposed to this radiation but their spacesuits or the walls of their kspacecraft,if they are inside, do prevent a lot of radiation damage. Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space. The unit of radiation is called "rem". Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than 0.1 rem without being damaged; the figure of 60 rems has been agreed on. The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to be sure about radiation damage-- a person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of his or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will not be discovered until the birth of deformed (畸形的) children or even grandchildren. Missions of the Apollo flights have had to cross belts of high amount of rems. So far, no radiation have been reported, but the Apollo missions have been quite short. We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory. Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have beenfound so far. 请根据上面给出的内容，来回答下面的单项选择题（下列每小题备选答案中，只有一个符合题意的正确答案。每小题0分，共5题。）1. According to the first paragraph, the atmosphere is essential to man in that ______. A ：it protects him against the haumful rays from space B ：it provides sufficient light for plant growth C ：it supplies the heat necessary for human survival D ：it screens off the falling meteors 请选择答案：A:B:C:D:2. We know from the passage that ______. A ：exposure to even tiny amounts of radiation is fatal B ：the effect of exposure to radiation is slow in coming C ：radiation is avoidable in space exploration D ：astronauts in spacesuits needn't worry about radiation damage 请选择答案：A:B:C:D:3. The harm radiation has done to the Apollo crew members ______. A ：is insignifiacant B ：seems overestimated C ：is enormous
大学英语四级阅读理解基础练习题 大学英语四级老是考不好，怎么办!!为了让大家在大学能轻松过英语四级，下面是我为您收集整理的，供大家练习! Passage six(Dropouts for Ph. D. s) Educators are seriously concerned about the high rate of dropouts among the doctor of philosophy candidates and the consequent loss of talent to a nation in need of Ph. D. s. Some have placed the dropouts loss as high as 50 percent. The extent of the loss was, however, largely a matter of expert guessing. Last week a well-rounded study was published. It was published. It was based on 22,000 questionnaires sent to former graduate students who were enrolled in 24 universities and it seemed to show many past fears to be groundless. The dropouts rate was found to be 31 per cent, and in most cases the dropouts, while not completing the Ph. D. requirement, went on to productive work. They are not only doing well financially, but, according to the report, are not far below the income levels of those who went on to complete their doctorates. Discussing the study last week, Dr. Tucker said the project was
2洛基英语，中国在线英语教育领导品牌 阅读练习】 Nowadays, is it possible to tell a person’s class just by looking at him? Physical details __1__ tell us about health, diet and type of work done. A hundred years ago the working class very often lookd unhealthy, small and were either too thin or too fat. The upper classes were often __2__, sporting types who were used to a good diet and looked healthy. Today living and working conditions have improved, and such __3__ would no longer be so true.The clothes people choose to wear, however, do provide information about their __4__. The most obvious way in which is for the amount of money spent on them. Expensive clothes look expensive and show their wearer had money. Clothes can provide other __5__ as well. The upper classes __6__ to be less interested in fashion and wear good quality clothes in non-bright colours, made of natural material like wool, leather or cotton. Lower working class people often choose clothes in bright colours, made of man-made material. A sociological explanation for this would be that color and interest are mssing from their lives, and therefore any opportunity to introduce this is __7__.Clothes are __8__ at a price within most people’s reach. New clothes make the wearer feel good, and show some __9__ of wealth to the outside world. Today some new fashions are started by the lower working class people who want to look __10__ and feel important. They want people to look at them.A) available B) background C) different D) tallE) totally F) taken G) descriptions H) degreeI) clues J) alone K) appear L) considerM) full N) hobby O)fetched ANSWER: 1.选J)。此处应填副词。可选项有totally和alone，由前一句中just可推出，外表上的细节仅仅能告诉我们这个人的健康状况，平时的营养状况以及他所从事的工作而不能看出他所处的阶级，故排除totally而选alone“惟一”。 2.选D)。此处应填形容词。因此此句和前一句是在将以前的工人阶级和上层阶级的身体状况进行对比，故此处应填与small“矮的”意思相反的词，选项中只有tall符合题意。而full“丰满的”不能用来修饰sporting types,故排除。 3.选G)。此处应填名词。现在的生活和工作条件改善了，情况已经不同了。而such指代的是上文中对一百年以前工人阶级和上层阶级的身体状况的身体状况的描述，故descriptions“描述”符合题意。 4.选B)。此处应填名词。根据句意“衣服可以提供...方面的信息”，选项中有background和hobby，选background“人的背景，社会阶层”，符合文章主题。 5.选I)。由as well可知，此处应填名词且与本段首句中的informaiton的意思相近，选项中只有clues“线索”符合题意。 6.选K)。此处应填动词的原形。选项中有appear和consider,appear可直接接不定式；而consider带不定式的复合结构，用于主动语态时，consider后面得接宾语，故选appear。7选F)。这句中this指代bright colour，句子主干是any opportunity is...。可选项有taken和fetched,take“抓住”则可以与opportunity搭
2019大学英语四级考试阅读专项练习(32) Passage 2 If you are looking for information, library shelves are a good place to start. But if you need up-to-the-minute data or have specialized needs, you may find a computerized database more useful, less expensive, and less time 11 .A database, a file of information on one subject or family of subjects, can be stored and 12 in a computer's memory. The speed of the computer then 13 you to recall any item in this file almost 14 The three main types of databases are statistical, bibliographic, and full text. Statistical databases store 15 amounts of numerical data, such as wage and price indexes, census information, foreign 16 rates and bond prices. Bibliographic databases store references to and summaries of articles in periodicals and newspapers. Full-text databases offer the complex texts of such 17 as newspaper, magazine, and journal articles. Thousands of databases exist today, and their numbers are growing. Many companies have their in-house database, which is 18 to employees through computer terminals or microcomputers. In addition, several hundred commercial databases are now available to the 19 , with literally millions of items of information readily obtainable. These databases 20 specific fields, such as law and financial forecasting, or general information, such as sports and weather data. A. exchange B. public C. instantly D. cover
The fridge is considered necessary. It has been so since the 1960s when packaged food list appeared with the label: "Store in the refrigerator." In my fridgeless Fifties childhood, 1 was fed well and healthy. The milkman came every day, the grocer, the butcher (肉商), the baker, and the ice-cream man delivered two or three times each week. The Sunday meatwould last until Wednesday and surplus(剩余的) bread and milk became all kinds of cakes. Nothing was wasted, and we were never troubled by rotten food. Thirty years on food deliveries have ceased, fresh vegetables are almost unobtainable in the country. The invention of the fridge contributed comparatively little to the art of food preservation. Many well-tried techniques already existed -- natural cooling, drying, smoking, salting, sugaring, bottling... What refrigeration did promote was marketing --- marketing hardware and electricity, marketing soft drinks, marketing dead bodies of animals around the world in search of a good price. Consequently, most of the world’s fridges are to be found, not in the tropics where they might prove useful, but in the rich countries with mild temperatures where they are climatically almost unnecessary. Every winter, millions of fridges hum away continuously, and at vast expense, busily maintaining an artificially-cooled space inside an artificially-heated house -- while outside, nature provides the desired temperature free of charge. 1 / 4
大学英语四级阅读理解（1）We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming(把......按能力分班) pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade! Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning. In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyse and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher. Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil can do advanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every
英语四级阅读理解基础练习及答案翻译 导读：我根据大家的需要整理了一份关于《英语四级阅读理解基础练习及答案翻译》的内容，具体内容：在英语学习过程中,阅读理解能力是学习 者发展语言能力的基础和手段。国内的各类英语考试中几乎都有阅读理解题型,大学英语四级考试也不例外。大学英语四级阅读理解试题是试卷中 分值最重的题型，为了提... 在英语学习过程中,阅读理解能力是学习者发展语言能力的基础和手 段。国内的各类英语考试中几乎都有阅读理解题型,大学英语四级考试也 不例外。大学英语四级阅读理解试题是试卷中分值最重的题型，为了提高大家的阅读水平，下面是我为大家带来英语四级阅读理解基础练习，希望对大家的学习有所帮助! 英语四级阅读理解基础练习一： Upon reaching an appropriate age (usually between 18 and 21 years), children are encouraged, but not forced, to "leave the nest" and begin an independent life. After children leave home they often find social relationship and financial support outside the family. Parents do not arrange marriages for their children, nor do children usually ask permission of their parents to get married, Romantic love is most often the basis for marriage in the United States; young adults meet their future spouses (配偶) through other friends, at jobs, and in organizations and religious institutions, Although
2019大学英语四级阅读理解练习题及解析(15) There are people in Italy who can’t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey. A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who yawn or even frown when somebody mentions baseball. 『Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens.』① They tell you it’s a game better suited to the 19th century, slow, quiet, gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there’s the sport that glorifies “the hit”. By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still. On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, close瞮ps. The geometry of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. T he TV won’t do it for you. Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. 『But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws： the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or bring the glove to a point in front
大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案.
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3 大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案（四） 十六 Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way. First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air. One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly. 1.Pruning should be done to ______. a.make the tree grow taller
2020年英语四级阅读理解练习题及解析(14) Among the more colorful characters of Leadville’s golden age were H.A.W.Tabor and his second wife, Elizabeth McCourt, better known as “Baby Doe”. Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West. Horace Austin Warner Tabor was a school teacher in Vermont. With his first wife and two children he left Vermont by covered wagon in 1855 to homestead in Kansas. Perhaps he did not find farming to his liking, or perhaps he was lured by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines. At any rate, a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch, which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. “Great deposits of lead are sure to be found here.” he said. As it turned out, it was silver, not lead, that was to make Leadville’s fortune and wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself, so he opened a general store, which sold everything from boots to salt, flour, and tobacco.『It was his custom to “grubstake” prospective miners, in other words, to supply them with food and supplies, or“grub”, while they looked for ore, in return for which he would get a share in the mine if one was discovered.』①He did this for a number of years, but no one that he aided ever found anything of value. Finally one day in the year 1878, so the story goes, two miners came in and asked for “grub”. Tabor had decided to quit supplying it because he had lost too much money that way. These were persistent, however, and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. “Oh help yourself. One more time won’t