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 should graduate school do to ensure enroll-ment according to the Ministry of Education?

选项 A、State the benefits of a master’s degree.
B、Launch more orientation programs.
C、Revise the social system for teachers.
D、Go around visiting undergraduate departments and give explanatory sessions.

答案A

解析 本题关键词是Ministry of Education,定位到原文第四段。原文第四段第四句说到教育部对很多学校未招满学生这一现象的评估是:学校缺乏恰当的营销策略,也未能明确说明取得研究生文凭的实际好处(failed to clearly state the practical benefits of receiving graduate diplomas)。因此,为保证学校的招生数量,教育部的建议应是说明硕士文凭的好处,这与选项A “State the benefits of a master’s degree”属于相同含义,选项A是正确答案。选项B “Launch more orientation programs”和选项C “Revise the social system for teachers”,原文并没有提到相关内容,都属于无中生有。选项D“走访大学本科的各个系并开展讲解说明会”出自原文第五段第二句,但第五段第一句点明这项措施是一些院校自己采取的,并不属于教育部的建议,属于答非所问。第四段:学校开设研究生课程的现状:大多未达到预定招生目标。
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