In a country with a shrinking population, the latest trend in Germany’s higher education is something of a mystery: the number o

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问题     In a country with a shrinking population, the latest trend in Germany’s higher education is something of a mystery: the number of universities and academic programs is rising. The growth is the sharpest for professional graduate schools, where the number has soared from practically zero in 2013 to 130 now, in fields ranging from law and business to clinical counseling and education. But there is one obvious problem: not enough students are signing up. The German government says that nearly half of professionally oriented programs, aside from law schools, have yet to fill their stated student capacity. And the problem has been especially acute in graduate programs in education.
    Interest in many professional schools has been less than overwhelming, said Markus Zimmermann, an executive senior consultant at the Germany Research Institute in Berlin, which is affiliated with Berliner Banking Corp. "German universities tend to roll out programs without having a good grasp of the needs in the marketplace," said Mr. Zimmermann, who watches Germany’s higher education. "When they start a program, they assume there will be students."
    In German, the need for graduate programs seems undeniable: lifetime employment is crumbling, employers are spending less time and money to train young workers, and social problems are becoming more complex, increasing the need for experts. Setting up graduate programs in education was the universities’ answer to a growing dissatisfaction with the primary and secondary school system.
    With the accreditation of the Ministry of Education, 19 universities launched professionally oriented graduate programs in teacher education, seeking approximately 700 students in total. Seven more schools introduced similar programs a year later. During the first year, 8 of the 19 original institutions fell short of the target enrollment—some by far: two schools managed to recruit only half of the target numbers of students. A ministry assessment completed shortly afterward said the schools lacked proper marketing methods and had failed to clearly state the practical benefits of receiving graduate diplomas.
    Some schools are taking their own measures to increase enrollment. They have gone around visiting undergraduate departments giving explanatory sessions and did what they could to let people know about their problems. The graduate school has also been placing an emphasis on practical training, for example, sending students to teach at local primary and secondary schools. Students teach lessons at local schools, videotape the classes and then bring the tapes back for evaluation with other students. Then they feed the solutions back to the classes. A number of graduate students have had years of teaching experience before coming to the graduate programs, and generally held positive views about the in-class training.
What is the evident problem of Germany’s graduate education?

选项 A、The deteriorating educational environment.
B、The soaring number of graduate schools.
C、The inadequate graduate enrollment.
D、The narrowing professionally oriented fields.

答案C

解析 本题关键词是graduate education,问题是:德国研究生教育的突出问题是什么?可以定位到原文第一段第三句。原文第一段第三句说目前存在一个显而易见的问题(obvious problem):申请读研的学生人数不足(not enough students are signing up)。选项C“研究生招生人数不足(inadequate graduate enrollment)”和原文属于相同含义,是正确选项。选项A“日益恶化的教育环境”,原文未提及,属于无中生有。选项B“数量猛增的研究生院校(soaring number of graduate schools)”,原文第一段第一句提到大学数量在不断增加,选项B与原文内容一致,但这不属于德国研究生教育的突出问题(evident problem),而是一个现状描述,选项B属于答非所问。选项D“专业领域选择日益狭窄”,根据fields定位到原文第一段第二句,原文说研究生课程涉及多个领域,包括法律、商务、临床咨询和教育等(in fields ranging from law and business to clinical counseling and education)。选项D与原文内容相反,属于正反混淆。第一段:德国研究生院校数量猛增,但生源不足。第二段:齐默尔曼先生对德国高等教育发展现状的看法。
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