四、练习答案
Text I
Text comprehension
I. Decide which of the following best states the author’s purpose.
II. Judge, according to the text, whether the following statements are true or false.
1．T Refer to Paragraph 2.
2．F The author had graduated from a second-echelon Philadelphia university, but he had managed to carve out a nice little niche for himself. Refer to Paragraph 4.
3．T Refer to Paragraph 7.
4．T Refer to Paragraph 9.
5．F These parents had once dreamed of their children going to some top-flight universities when their children were born. Refer to Paragraph 11.
6．F The campus tour did not change the author’s attitude about college selection. Instead, it confirmed his view “I was never MIT material.” Refer to Paragraph 15.
III. Answer the following questions.
1．The problem is that while the local university proves affordable for the family, the father is afraid that education in a less prestigious university might put his daughter on a less advantageous road in the future. This would make him feel guilty.
2．The author responds to the man’s story by relating his own experience, his university days, his high school friends and his present career, because this account would hopefully suggest to the man that a second-echelon university could equally provide an illuminating and rewarding learning experience, and help to secure a career that turns out quite successful.
3．The author is relatively open-minded. Like all other parents, he would be deeply affected when sending his children to college and feel sorry to see them off. But every dark cloud has a silver lining; he would not have to participate in conversations concerning college selection, because they are mind-numbing, and either self-aggrandizing or self-flagellatory.
4．Some parents would congratulate themselves on the job well done for two reasons. One is that admission to a top university provides their children with a passport to success and a guarantee for a good life in the future. The other reason is that their job of child rearing has proved to be successful and is now over. But the author expresses his disagreement that a good university does not necessarily guarantee a successful career, and parents’ responsibility does not end when their children leave home for university.
5．The author believes that life has many, “acts” and failure in admission to first-echelon universities is only “one act” of life. Some kids could achieve success later in life （late bloomers）, some could achieve success without degrees from prestigious universities, and some could even become accomplished people even if they are university dropouts.
6．The author humorously restates his lack of interest in college selection: since I never prepared myself for a prestigious university such as MIT, people may call me insensitive or fiat-out dumb.
IV. Explain in your own words the following sentences taken from the text.
1．... entering a prestigious university will undoubtedly put a child on the road to guaranteed/certain success and promise a life of material comfort.
2．Given that they will already be familiar with the achievements of the university, it is not obvious what they come in search of.
Writing strategies
The essay has the following subtopics as main components:
1） the author’s own situation and experiences in college education and college selection （Paragraphs 3-8）;
2） his probe into and comments on the two classes of college selection obsessives （Paragraphs 9-12）.
The two incidents are respectively related with the first and the second subtopics: the encounter puts the author and the man in a similar situation （both the man and the author have kids who are going to attend college）; the campus tour provides support to the author’s comments on the matter. The two incidents help to clarify the subtopics by means of full and progressive explanation of the author’s attitude towards the matter （the author’s college days, his high school chums, examples of failures and successes, etc.）
Language work
I. Explain the underlined part（s） in each sentence in your own words.
1．Not having much money; children who are going to college
2．regret not having studied in the first-class university
3．find a job which was very suitable
4．go to college too
5．are going to be poor, living on welfare, without a job or a place to live, and often drinking too much alcohol
6．measure up to a certain standard
7．having a bad effect
8．making jokes about; a place where boring personalities are fostered
9．At one point
10．the process of reducing a large number of universities to a much smaller number; with regard to
II. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the given words.
1．illumination
2．inspiration
3．biographical
4．devastated
5．neurotic
6．infuriating
7．obsessive
8．fixation
9．obligatory
10．interjections
III. Fill in each of the blanks with a phrase taken from the box in its appropriate form.
1．dragooned into
2．in question
3．in jeopardy
4．follow suit
5．screwed up
6．taken a toll
7．stemmed from
8．sotto voce
9．fork over
10．Tick off
11．winnowed down
12．flat out
IV. Explain the meaning of the underlined part in each sentence.
1．a one-hundred-percent pleasant experience
2．his wish to argue with people all the time
3．embarrassed
4．had $100,000 more than he had in the past
5．secretly listening to
6．Traffic which is traveling north
7．extreme shock and sadness
8．concluding
9．it is not necessary for you to
10．shook violently and stopped
V. Correct the errors in the following passage. The passage contains ten errors, one in each indicated line. In each case, only one word is involved.
（1）down→dawn
（If something dawns on you, you begin to realize it for the first time.）
（2）value→values
（plural form）
（3）minutes’→minutes
（The apostrophe is unnecessary here.）
（4）out→on
（carry on a conversation/the business, etc.; carry out a plan/the assignment, etc.）
（5）latest→last
（latest: most recent）
（6）don’t→aren’t
（“Like” here is used as a preposition, not a verb.）
（7）in→to
（“With respect to” is a set phrase that means “in relation to.”）
（8）for→of
（“Think of” is a set phrase that means “consider.”）
（9）nothing→something
（context）
（10）high→higher
（“Higher” indicates a comparative degree.）
VI. Fill in each blank in the passage below with ONE appropriate word.
1．lifetimes
2．turn
3．times
4．China
5．Greek
6．urban
7．Unlike
8．like
9．government
10．conduct
11．birth
12．apart
13．focused
14．potential
15．did
16．inferior
17．of
18．little
19．considered
20．Both
Translation
I. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words or phrases given in brackets.
1．Being the eldest son in the family, he was the only one to have gained the undivided attention of his parents.
2．He lacked the requisite skills for the job.
3．The United Nations mediated between the local government and the rebels during the crisis.
4．He has carved out a niche for himself as a leading researcher in his field of study.
5．Everyone feigned surprise when I told them how old I was.
6．The data is validated automatically by the computer after it has been entered.
7．When an adult does something, most small children will follow suit, because they have no sense of right and wrong.
8．Set in the last century, the novel tells a story about a girl who was disowned by her parents when she married a foreigner.
9．I’ve got to speak to James vis-à-vis the arrangements for Thursday.
10．At this juncture, it is impossible to say whether she will make a full recovery.
II. Translate the following passage into English.
Summer means internships for thousands of American college students. They work in the kinds of jobs they might want to have some day. Experts say at least one-third of all American college students complete an internship before they graduate. Some students work for large companies. Some work for small organizations. Some work for the United States government.
Many interns do not earn money at their summer jobs. Some college students get an internship to gain experience in the kind of job they want to get after graduation. Others do not yet know what kind of permanent job they want. So they may get internships in several different companies or organizations. In this way, they can find out what kind of job they like best. Why are internships so popular? Students can learn about different kinds of jobs. They can do interesting work. They can learn skills and gain valuable experience. And they can meet important people. Therefore students often describe internships as a chance that happens once in a lifetime.
Text II
I. Answer the following multiple-choice questions.
1．C
2．D
3．B
4．A
5．B
II. Questions for discussion.
1．The main reasons offered by the author can be characterized as follows: （1） the widespread assumption that finding out which colleges have accepted them is the critical moment in young people’s lives; （2） the association of elite schools with great success; （3） the association of failing to win admission to an elite school with a big life setback.
2．The major point of the Krueger-Dale research is that elite-college attendance is not essential to success later in life. Krueger and Dale found that for students bright enough to win admission to a top school, later income “varied little, no matter which type of college they attended.” In other words, the student, not the school, was responsible for the success.
3．He finds their research convincing. To support their research, he further supplied abundant anecdotal evidence that any of a wide range of colleges can equip its graduates for success. For example: fully half of all U.S. senators are graduates of public universities, and many went to state universities; only four of the CEOs of the top ten Fortune 500 corporations went to elite schools; and this year only sixteen of the thirty-two American Rhodes scholars graduated from elite colleges.
4．The major point of her research is that there are indeed significant advantages to the most selective schools. These advantages can be mainly characterized as: （1） more resources and better conference networking scene; （2） a super-competitive environment which may cause many students to work harder.
5 The significance of this essay lies in the following: （1） The idea that getting into an elite college makes a big difference in life may be wrong; （2） to a large extent, what contributes to a person’s success later in life are his personal efforts and abilities rather than his elite university attendance.