Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, put a plan to make higher education at public universities free at the cent

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问题     Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, put a plan to make higher education at public universities free at the centre of his upstart campaign for the presidency in 2015. The idea seemed radical, even gimmicky. Now some democrats oppose the notion, for example Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, and their arguments still pack a punch. Why indeed should taxpayers’ money be spent on the children of the rich rather than more generous financial aid for the poor?
    Across much of the rich world, a public-university education is free or nearly free, apart from the cost of books and living expenses. But those in America and Britain pay tuition fees which are high and growing higher. Places like America and Britain pass some of this increase on to students in the form of higher fees, with the understanding that poorer students will receive financial aid while richer ones will bear the full tuition bill.
    To many politicians in these places, this seems just. Unlike primary or secondary education, university is a minority pursuit in most advanced economies. Only about 45% of adults aged 25 to 34 have some post-secondary education. Those people tend to come from richer families. A universal programme that mostly benefits a well-off not-quite-half of the country would seem a strange aspiration for egalitarian-minded politicians. Better to target aid at those from poorer families.
    However, supporters of free university marshal a number of practical arguments. University attendees are more likely to come from wealthier families precisely because university is not free. Several analyses of the introduction of tuition fees in Britain found a negative effect on university attendance. A report produced by the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that an increase of £1,000 ($1,243) in tuition fees is associated with a decline of 3.9 percentage points in the rate at which recent school-leavers choose to go on to university. Work by Thomas Kane of Harvard University found a response of similar magnitude in America. And research by Susan Dynarski of the University of Michigan and Judith Scott-Clayton of Columbia University concludes that both attendance and completion rates are higher when education is more affordable.
    But the most powerful arguments for free university are about values rather than economic efficiency. There are broad social benefits to a well-educated citizenry, because new ideas allow society as a whole to prosper. Amid constant technological change, a standing offer of free higher education may represent an important component of the social safety-net. Universality reinforces the idea that free education is not a makeshift form of redistribution, but part of a system of collective insurance forming an egalitarian society.
Which of the following can be inferred from Paragraph 4?

选项 A、Affordable tuition has positive effect on college attendance.
B、A rise of tuition fees causes the decline of dropouts.
C、Britain and America faced quite different situations.
D、Most undergraduates are from wealthier families.

答案 A

解析 根据题干关键词Paragraph 4可定位至第四段。该段第四句指出,an increase of £1,000($1,243)in tuition fees is associated with a decline of 3.9 percentage points in the rate at which recent school-leavers choose to go on to university.(学费每增加1000英镑,近期高中毕业生选择继续上大学的比例就下降3.9个百分点),由此可知,大学学费上涨会致使穷人越来越无法接受高等教育,对入学率产生负面影响;本段最后一句说明当教育成本更低时,入学率和毕业率都会上升,由此可知,当学费可负担时,对入学率有积极影响。故选项[A]为正确答案。
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