In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We are pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparato

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问题     In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We are pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession is more about us than them: So we’ve contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
    We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible — and mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures — professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams — selective schools do slightly worse.
    By some studies, selective schools do enhance their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2% ~4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke. A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
    Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and, paradoxically, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college isn’t life’s only competition. In the next competition — the job market and graduate school — the results may change. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph. D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of prestigious universities didn’t.
    So, parents, lighten up. The stakes have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?

选项 A、They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B、They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C、They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D、They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.

答案D

解析 事实细节题。题干中的parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions ways出现在第一段第一句,后文解释了这个现象的原因:家长逼迫孩子们拿高分、上SAT预备课程、做简历,以便能进人家长首选的大学。由此可知,作者说家长是大学录取战争中真正的战士,是因为在申请大学的过程中,对于大学的选择和要做的准备,家长比他们的孩子更关心。四个选项中只有[D]项符合文义。文中仅提到家长心中有首选的大学,并未提到选哪所大学的最终决定权在家长手里,故排除[A]项;[B]项和[C]项文中未提及,故排除。
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