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  3. When U. S. News started the college and university rankings 25 years ago, no one imagined that these lists would become what som

When U. S. News started the college and university rankings 25 years ago, no one imagined that these lists would become what som

admin2015-03-25  36
问题     When U. S. News started the college and university rankings 25 years ago, no one imagined that these lists would become what some consider to be the 800-pound gorilla of American higher education, important enough to be the subject of doctoral dissertations, academic papers and conferences, endless debate, and constant media coverage. What began with little fanfare has spawned imitation college rankings in at least 21 countries, including Canada, China, Britain, Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, and Taiwan.
    Today, it’s hard to imagine there ever was a void of information to help people make direct comparisons between colleges, but such was the case in 1983 when we first ventured into the field. The editors back then, led by Marvin L. Stone, thought the project was worth attempting because a college education is one of the most important—and most costly—investments that people ever make.(Of course, that perspective is even more relevant today when the price of an undergraduate education at some private universities hovers in the $200,000 range.)So the magazine designed a survey and sent it out to 1,308 college presidents to get their opinions of which schools offered the best education. The winners: Stanford(National Universities)and Amherst(National Liberal Arts Colleges).
    That academic-reputation-only method was repeated in 1985 and 1987. In 1988, we started to use statistical data as part of the ranking methodology, evaluating those numbers along with the results of the survey. In 1997, in another pioneering step, the America’s Best Colleges rankings made the leap online at usnews. com. The online version, viewed by millions, has substantially more information and extended rankings than there is room for in the magazine.
    Of course, we’ve changed the ranking formula over the years to reflect changes in the world of higher education. In general, the biggest shift has been the move toward evaluating colleges less by the quality of the students they attract(inputs)and more by the success the school has in graduating those students(outputs). We operate under the guiding principle that the methodology should be altered only if the change will better help our readers compare schools as they’re making decisions about where to apply and enroll.
    Higher education’s response. It helps to have this principle to focus on when the inevitable criticisms of the rankings and their influence arise. Chief among the criticisms is the idea that it is impossible to reduce the experience that any given college has to offer to a number on a list. A fair enough observation, but one that does little to help the student who will have to choose just one to attend. Another criticism of the rankings is that they often substitute as a sort of performance evaluation measure for the school and its employees. U. S. News is keenly aware that the higher education community is also a major audience and consumer of our rankings. We understand how seriously academics, administrators, and governing boards study and analyze our rankings and how they use them in various ways, including benchmarking, alumni fundraising, and advertising to attract students.
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
选项 A、It is likely to reduce the experience that the list should contain the name of any given college.
B、The college rankings do a lot to help the student who will have to choose just one to attend.
C、The college rankings always substitute as a sort of performance evaluation measure for the school and its employees.
D、U.S. News has deep understanding on the response of the college rankings in various aspects.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。由题干提示定位至末段。从最后一段最后两句可知，《美国新闻与世界报道》对大学排名的反映、使用及影响心知肚明，因此[D]正确。从最后一段中的第三句…it is im—possible to reduce the experience that any given college has to offer to a number on a list．可知，减少任何一个大学得在排名名单上提供一个数字的事情是不可能的，而[A]与之相反；从最后一段中的第四句可知，大学排名对学生选择入学的学校帮助不大，因此[B]错误；从最后一段中的第五句可知，对学校和其雇佣者来说，他们“经常”以一种性能评估措施来代替，是often而非always，因此[C]错误。
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