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  3. The study of literature allows us to glimpse universal truths as well as encounter the diversity of human experience in all its

The study of literature allows us to glimpse universal truths as well as encounter the diversity of human experience in all its

admin2022-12-09  83
问题     The study of literature allows us to glimpse universal truths as well as encounter the diversity of human experience in all its fascinating particularity. With expert guidance, an immersion in great novels, plays and poems can deliver a sense of spiritual headroom and wellbeing which lasts a lifetime.
    Such benefits—intangible but very real—were sadly not enough to persuade Sheffield Hallam University to continue to offer a standalone English literature degree to undergraduates. Amid falling demand generally for arts and humanities courses, a university spokesperson this week announced that the course was being suspended. The news prompted an outpouring of frustration from lecturers, and criticism from writers such as James Graham and Philip Pullman. It follows a similar move by the University of Cumbria last year and mounting cuts to humanities provision elsewhere. In May, recruitment for all performing arts courses at the University of Wolverhampton was suspended.
    This depressing trend is part of a wider pattern. It is understandable that young people from lower-income backgrounds, contemplating a working career shadowed by debt and punitive interest rates, might think twice about taking a non-vocational course. Applications for English studies, including English literature, have fallen steadily since 2012, when the cap on tuition fees was lifted to £9,000. There have also been drop-offs in other humanities subjects.
    Anxious that as many graduates as possible pay off their loans—for which the Treasury is ultimately on the hook—the government has focused on the virtues of Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Meanwhile, supposedly "dead end" university courses—those which fail to deliver an instant graduate premium in the job market—are coming under increasingly aggressive scrutiny. This year, the Office for Students set out plans to remove funding for "low quality" courses, defined as those where less than 60％ of participants go into good jobs or further study soon after graduating.
    The overall approach is both wrong-headed and shortsighted. As Mr Graham points out, the arts and entertainment industry has become one of the few booming areas of the economy in which Britain can claim to be world-leading. Narrowing the humanities talent pool to a privileged subset of students will, in this sense, be self-defeating. More fundamentally, it will radically shrink the cultural horizons and options of those outside that elite group.
    After a decade of marketisation, a grimly utilitarian worldview is beginning to exercise a suffocating chokehold over much of England’s higher education sector. But the intrinsic quality and worth of a course cannot be fairly judged by reference to employment statistics and labour market outcomes. Sheffield Hallam’s decision must be a wake-up call for those concerned to preserve the future of the arts and humanities in our universities.
Which of the following has discouraged applications for English studies?
选项 A、The lack of good career training.
B、The ever-increasing education costs.
C、The number of drop-offs in other humanities subjects.
D、The enrollment of students from lower-income homes.
答案B
解析 细节题。根据题干中的applications for English studies可定位至第三段。第三句提到自2012年学费上限被提高到9000英镑以来，包括对英国文学在内的英语学科的申请人数一直在稳步下降，由此可知，年轻人会考虑到学费的问题，因此不断增加的教育成本是导致学生申请数下降的原因之一。B项属于正确概括，故正确。A项属于无中生有，职业培训在原文中未体现，故排除。C项属于答非所问，最后一句说其他人文学科的申请人数也出现了下降，但原文未提到这导致了英语学科申请人数的下降，这两者之间没有必然关系，故排除该选项。D项属于无中生有，原文未提到低收入家庭学生的入学情况，故排除。故本题答案为B项。
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