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Britain’s universities are in an awful spin. Top universities were overwhelmed by the 24% of A-level applicants with indistingui

admin2013-06-02  58
问题     Britain’s universities are in an awful spin. Top universities were overwhelmed by the 24% of A-level applicants with indistinguishable straight A’s; newer ones are beating the byways for bodies.
    Curiously, both images of education — the weeping willows of Cambridge and the futuristic architecture of UEL (University of East London) — are cherished by the government. Ministers want to see half of all young people in universities by 2010 (numbers have stalled at 42%), without letting go of the world-class quality of its top institutions.
    Many argue that the two goals are incompatible without spending a lot more money. Researchers scrabble (寻找) for funds, and students complain of large classes and reduced teaching time. To help solve the problem, the government agreed in 2004 to let universities increase tuition fees.
    Though low, the fees have introduced a market into higher education. Universities can offer cut-price tuition, although most have stuck close to the £3,000. Other incentives are more popular. Newcomers to St. Mark & St. John, a higher-education college linked to Exeter University, will receive free laptops.
    As universities enter the third week of "clearing (调剂)", the marketing has become weirder. Bradford University is luring students with the chance of winning an MP3 player in a prize draw. Plymouth University students visited Cornish seaside resorts, tempting young holiday-makers with surfboards and cinema vouchers (代金券). These offers suggest that supply has surpassed demand.
    Not so the top universities that make up the "Russell group", however. Their ranks include the likes of Imperial College London and Bristol University along with Oxford and Cambridge. Swamped with applicants, only half offer any places through clearing. They have a different problem: they need money to compete for high-quality students and academics, both British and foreign, who could be tempted overseas by better heeled American universities or fast improving institutions in developing countries such as India.
    Higher fees and excess supply are causing students to look more critically at just what different universities have to offer. And the critical situation could become more acute. The number of 18-year-olds in Britain will drop around 2010 and decline over the following ten years, according to government projections.
    Bahram Bekhradnia, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, a think tank, says the government hasn’t a hope of getting 50% of young Britons into higher education by 2010. And the decline of home-grown student numbers will have a "differential effect" on universities, he reckons. Those at the bottom end will have to become increasingly "innovative" about whom they admit and some may not survive.
    The Cambridge shades evoked by Rupert Brooke were gentle, nostalgic (怀旧的) ones. Many vice chancellors today are pursued by far more revengeful monsters of empty campuses, deserted laboratories, failed institutions. Markets, after all, create winners — and losers.
What will happen when the number of students drops according to Bahram Bekhradnia?
选项 A、Both researchers and students will become more critical.
B、The government will consider resuming the former tuition fees.
C、Bottom universities will have to struggle harder to survive.
D、The quality of higher education will decrease accordingly.
答案C
解析 根据题干中的drops和Bahram Bekhradnia将本题出处定位到倒数第二段。该段提到，Bahram Bekhradnia认为，本土大学生数量的减少将会对大学产生“差异化效应”。那些排在末尾的大学招生时将不得不变得更加“富有创造性”，而且，其中的一些可能会惨遭淘汰。换而言之，排名在末尾的学校只有更加努力才能不被淘汰，故答案为[C]。[A]是针对倒数第三段首句设的干扰项。文中没有提到政府会考虑恢复以前的学费水平，故排除[B]。大学生数量的下降与大学教育质量的下降没有直接的关系，故[D]不正确。
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