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  3. Soon after Beijing graduate student Gang Dong-chun landed in Taiwan last year to research its political development, the United

Soon after Beijing graduate student Gang Dong-chun landed in Taiwan last year to research its political development, the United

admin2013-11-29  58
问题    Soon after Beijing graduate student Gang Dong-chun landed in Taiwan last year to research its political development, the United Daily News invited him to write a guest column. Gang quickly discovered, however, that there was a huge gap between his views and those of his Taiwanese comrades.
   The result: The Beijing University researcher came in for stinging criticism in the same newspaper. One critic asked how someone from the university whose students launched China’s historic prodemocracy movement of May 4, 1919, could argue that things such as national and economic development should take precedence over democracy. The episode illustrated both the problems and the promise of educational exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
   Gang was nevertheless just the first of what may soon be a steady trickle of students, teachers and researchers taking part in educational exchanges. Until now, these have been limited to brief conferences and getting-to-know-you tours of each side’s educational centers. But now Taipei and Beijing are allowing longer stays for study and research a significant breakthrough that could help reduce the two sides’ many differences.
   Ironically, the exchanges are gaining momentum despite recent cross-strait tensions. In mid-January, university presidents and administrators from two dozen educational institutions in China met their Taiwanese counterpart for 10 days at National Cheng Kung University in the southern city of Tainan. They discussed how to move from perfunctory to substantive exchanges. "In the past, academics were led by politics," says Wu Jin, the university’s president. "This is not right. We should deal with academics and politics separately."
   The conference concluded with a politically neutral statement with the bland title: To Create the 21st Century for the Chinese People Through Academic Cooperation. In it, the presidents of leading schools in Taiwan and prestigious mainland institutions agreed to open teaching posts in each others’ universities, cooperate on research projects and open doors for students to study on both sides.
   Weng Shilie, an engineering professor who’s president of Shanghai’s Jiaotong University, said in an interview that the next time he see Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who is a Jiaotong alumnus, he will brief him on the latest developments in cross-strait exchanges in education. "Education is forever," says Weng, implying that political problems are merely temporary. Temporary or not, the obstacles to cooperation remain formidable. Neither side recognizes the other’s academic credentials and both governments impose paralyzing restrictions on students. In Taiwan, screening committees at two ministries must vet applications from mainland-Chinese students. Taipei allowed an estimated 6,000 Chinese residents to visit Taiwan for education and cultural exchanges last year, an increase of 50% over 1994. Most were athletes, performing artists and scholars attending conferences.
   Following Gang’s three-month stay last year, Taiwan agreed to let 14 graduate researchers come from China to study; the first are expected to arrive in March. They will research Taiwan-related topics at nine universities. Each student will receive a monthly scholarship of NT ＄15,000 (＄546) for his first four months, a round-trip air ticket, accommodation and health insurance. Education officials in Taipei say they hope to increase the number of scholarships to 20 next year. "We have opened the door," says Bruce Wu, who administers the scholarships from the Chinese Development Fund of the Mainland Affairs Council, a cabinet-level agency in Taipei. "Everything now depends on China’s cooperation."
   Given the political stalemate between Taipei and Beijing, however, skepticism abounds. In practice, says political scientist Lu Ya-li of National Taiwan University, it is very difficult for the two sides to treat education in a politically neutral way. "Cross-stair academic exchanges are very important. But so far no professors can come here for a long-term teaching assignment, and some schools are against these exchanges for political reasons."
   Recent visitors to China say there are already some Taiwanese students studying on the mainland without official approval. Lu and other Taiwanese academics say there is an even stronger attraction among mainland-Chinese professors to teach in Taiwan because salaries are higher and research resources more plentiful. Says Lu: "some schools here are trying to recruit aculty, mostly in such fields as Chinese literature and the natural sciences."
   Still, that may be a pipe dream. Lu says the gap in the social sciences is far too great for such exchanges because of four decades of Marxist ideology. "in political science," sighs Lu, "we still don’t speak the same language."
The author’s opinion on the educational exchange on both sides of Taiwan Strait is ______.
选项 A、that politics is still in the way of its development
B、officials on both sides have taken initiatives in pushing its development
C、the exchange program suffered great setbacks owing to the increasing tension across Taiwan Strait
D、the refusal of recognition of the academic degrees is the most formidable obstacle
答案A
解析 政治因素仍是海峡两岸学术交流的一大障碍，这符合原文的意思，所以A正确；B错误，因为文中只提到台方教育官员的态度，中方态度有待明确；C错误，原文是"Ironically，the exchanges are gaining momentum despite recent cross-strait tensions．"与C项刚好相反；D错误，最主要的原因是政治因素，并非学位给予的问题。
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