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  3. The bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is,

The bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is,

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问题    The bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is, higher education is shot through with waste, lax academic standards and mediocre teaching and scholarship.
   Higher education is a bloated enterprise. Too many professors do too little teaching to too many ill-prepared students. Costs can be cut and quality improved without reducing the number of graduates. Many colleges and universities should shrink. Some should go out of business.
   Even so, our system has strengths. It boasts many top-notch schools and allows almost anyone to go to college. But mediocrity is pervasive. We push as many freshmen as possible through the door, regardless of qualifications. We create more graduate degrees of dubious worth. Does anyone believe the MBA explosion has improved management?
   You won’t hear much about this from college deans or university presidents. They created this mess and are its biggest beneficiaries. Large enrollments support large faculties. More graduate students liberate tenured faculty from undergraduate teaching to concentrate on writing and research.
   Private schools will, for better or worse, be influenced by state actions. The states need to do three things.
   First, create genuine entrance requirements. States should raising tuitions sharply and coupling the increase with generous scholarships based on merit and income. To get scholarships, students would have to pass meaningful entrance exams. Ideally, the scholarships should be available for use at in-state private schools. All schools would then compete for students on the basis of academic quality and costs. Today’ s system of general tuition subsidies provides aid to well-to-do families that don’ t need it or to unqualified students who don’ t deserve it.
   Next, states should raise faculty teaching loads. This would cut costs and reemphasize the primacy of teaching at most schools. "You can’t do more of one (research) without less of the other (teaching)," says Fairweather. "People are working hard—it’s just where they’re working."
   Finally, states should reduce or eliminate the least useful graduate programs. Journalism or communications, business and education are prime candidates. A lot of what they teach can—and should—be learned on the job. If colleges and universities did a better job of teaching undergraduates, there would be less need for graduate degrees.
   Our colleges and universities need to provide a better education to deserving students. Higher education could become a bastion of excellence, if we would only try.
Which of the following would be the main idea of this passage?
选项 A、States should help universities improve the environment of education.
B、Mediocrities are abounding in today’ s American universities.
C、Private schools should change their standards of enrollment.
D、It is necessary to reform the graduate programs in America.
答案A
解析 本题为主旨题，需要纵览全文。本文主要阐述美国的高等教育存在着问题，平庸无处不在，各州应该帮助高校解决问题，并提出了相关的建议。A项“各州应该帮助大学改善教育环境”符合原文的主旨。B项“现在的美国大学中，平庸无处不在”、C项“私立学校应该改变他们的入学标准”和D项“有必要改革美国的研究生课程”都只是原文内容的一部分，不能代表全文。故选A。
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