A detailed and thorough research project undertaken by the Open University recently reported that their evidence appears to show that competition between nearby schools does not significantly improve academic standards. Indeed, their report inclines to the opposite outcome: the exam results may actually decline where competition is fiercest.When the further education sector was "privatized" a few years ago, competition between colleges became truly fierce, at least in urban areas where potential students could choose between several of them. Colleges appointed highly paid marketing directors and gave them large budgets; some even "bribed" interested students with promises of hundreds of pounds if they completed certain courses satisfactorily.Fully competitive markets being a philosophical foundation of Britain"s recent governments, it was no surprise to hear claims that many educational developments of the 1990s would move us towards a free market in secondary education--giving youngsters and their parents a free choice of where to study. However, the secondary sector did not become particularly competitive while, admittedly, the consumers have been given more information, which is one aspect of a truly free market. It is very rare that two nearby schools with at least some empty places are similar enough to be comparable yet different enough to be rankable; only where that occurs can there be true competition.The Open University research was probably not flawed--but its conclusions are. This is because the team did not really compare areas having true competition (as just defined) with areas that do not.But, let us all breathe a sigh of relief. Secondary schools had started of late to move in the marketing direction—considering allocating scarce resources of staff and money to persuading the pupils that their schools are the best in the area. No schools could afford to do that properly, so it is a relief to realize this research tells us we don"t have to.Competition We haven"t got time for it! Let"s spend our small budget in teaching and learning, not in competing and marketing. It is indicated in the passage that competition between schools results in ______.
A. higher enrollment rate
B. lower academic standard
C. higher marketing expenses
D. privatization of further education
Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any sensible student with my alms would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that"s not what I did.I chose to study engineering at a smallliberal-arts(文科) university that doesn"t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren"t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn"t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical genius and sensitivehumanist(人文学者) all in one.Now I"m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try toreconcile(协调) engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don"t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways; together they threaten to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult. The author chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university because he ______.
A. intended to be a sensible student with noble ideals
B. wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality
C. intended to be a combination of engineer and humanist
D. wanted to coordinate engineering with liberal-arts courses in college
Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality, but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any sensible student with my alms would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, famous reputation and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that"s not what I did.I chose to study engineering at a smallliberal-arts(文科) university that doesn"t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my career. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by interacting with people who weren"t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a sensible choice. They told me I was wise and mature beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.I headed off to college sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn"t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical genius and sensitivehumanist(人文学者) all in one.Now I"m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideals crashed into reality, as all noble ideals eventually do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try toreconcile(协调) engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don"t mix as easily as I assumed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways; together they threaten to confuse. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult. According to the author, by interacting with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ______.
A. broaden their horizons
B. become noble idealists
C. receive guidance in their careers
D. balance engineering and the liberal arts
The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare"s time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language, as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms.It is virtually impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own language. The purposes for which English is learned and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to define and still more difficult to assess what constitutes an adequate working knowledge for each situation.The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its present-day importance as a world language. Besides serving the infinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of the most important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international conferences, and thedissemination(传播) of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for access to the scientific and technological development in the West. According to this passage, the English language might be used ______.
A. for only one reason that English is becoming an international language
B. mainly by people from the American continent and the European continent
C. as an official language in an international conference on the American culture
D. in science and technology as well as in cultural and historical studies of all countries