1、Unit One Education Chinese Higher Education Fails the Test By Robert Hartmann(Adapted) Opinion polls in China in the past year have generally listed the countrys higher education as one of the three major targets of growing public discontent, with the other two being health care and housing. In Chin
2、a, where learning used to be highly esteemed because of the Confucian tradition, university graduates were once regarded as “heavens favored ones“ who would never worry about employment. But this year seeing a record high unemployment rate, quite a number of university graduates have taken jobs as h
3、ousemaids, security guards or unpaid trainees. Even so, half of the more than 4 million graduates remained jobless months after leaving school. In light of this, Ministry of Education officials in charge of student affairs have made a public appeal that university graduates should be prepared to com
4、pete with “ordinary laborers“ in the job market, which raises the question: If a university graduate is like an “ordinary laborer“, what is Chinas higher education for? Critics have concluded that the whole of Chinas higher-education system is problematic, from students admission, to their education
5、, to their graduation. The entrance-exam problem. The strict unified exam has been severely blamed by many in education circles for being only good at enrolling bookworms and creating inequality and injustice. To be successful in passing the entrance exam, youngsters have to bury themselves in book
6、stacks, completely divorced from social reality, and strive with all their might to score more points by coming closer to the “standard answers“. More often than not, the best performers in such exams cannot stand up to an oral test, or an admission interview. The employment problem. While higher-ed
7、ucation enrollment still follows the mode of “planned economy“, the employment end has been linked to a free-market economy. The two are obviously incompatible. The blame for this employment crisis seems to rest on the explosive over-enrollment of students, with many in majors that are not demanded
8、in the market. The quality problem. If universities can be regarded as “factories“, then graduates are their “products“. Generally speaking, the target of university education is to produce either specialists or all-around persons with a wider background of knowledge and possessing deeper intelligen
9、ce reserves as required by the society. The former task used to be taken up by the specialist institutes, and the latter by the so-called comprehensive universities. In China currently, however, the specialist institutes produce students without adequate and updated specialist knowledge, while the “
10、all-arounds“ lack a wide enough outlook. Moreover, what the students learn in universities often cannot meet the needs of the developing industries. An example of this is the technical people needed in developing online-game industries, which have to get their human resources from non-official schoo
11、ls. The financial problem. Under the trend of education “industrialization“, annual university tuition fees have skyrocketed to between 5,200 and 8,000 yuan per student, about 20 times what they were 10 years ago. How can low or even medium-wage families afford such high fees? Where is the equality
12、of the right of education? China is known to possess ample foreign-currency reserves, but statistics show that government investment in education amounts to only 3.3% of gross domestic product, considerably lower than the global average of 4.2%. It was reported that in 2003 the fees collected by the
13、 universities added up to 40 billion yuan and yet the total government investment was only 70 billion yuan. The only way out restructuring of the system. All these problems consist in an overall crisis facing the higher-education system due to its irrational structure. The government still decides t
14、he number of students to be admitted, imposes a unified entrance exam, and determines what subjects a university may teach. This planned education can not meet the demands of the job market. To facilitate genuine progress, the government needs to launch a thorough restructuring of the system to rela
15、x its unnecessary controls on the universities, to increase its financial input, and to give schools full autonomy to pilot their own reforms. Unit 1 教育 中国的高等教育不胜考验 改编自 Robert Hartmann 去年中国的民意调查都不约而同地将该国高等教育列为老百姓不满意度日增的三大目标之一（另外两个分别是医疗保健和房价）。 以往中国人受儒家 传统思想的影响，信奉“万般皆下品惟有读书高”，大学毕业生曾被捧为“天之骄子”，丝毫不用担心就业问
16、题。但今年高失业率创下了记录，使得不少大学毕业生委身去做保洁员、保安，甚至是没有酬薪的实习生。即便如此， 4 百多万毕业生中还有一半毕业头几个月还找不到工作。 鉴于此，教育部主管学生工作的官员公开呼吁大学毕业生应该做好在职场与“普通劳工”竞争的准备，这就产生了一个问题：如果大学毕业生和“普通劳工”一样，那中国的高等教育还有什么意义呢？ 批评人士总结说整个中国高教体系都是毛病多多，从学生的招收录取，到课程设置，乃至毕业去向。 入学考试问题 严格的统一考试制度被认为只适合招收死读书的人，制造不平等和不公而受到教育界许多人的严词抨击。 为了顺利通过高考，年轻人不得不埋头于书山题海，完全与社会现实脱节
17、，使出浑身解数为一个目标而奋斗 向“标准答案”再靠近一点，分数更高一点。这样的考试取得最佳成绩者常常在口试的时候，或者录取复试的时候败下阵来。 就业问题 高等录取这一块仍然沿袭“计划经济”的模式，而就业端一直与自由化市场经济挂钩。二者显然不 相匹配。导致这场就业危机的原因似乎是学生人数的过度扩招，而且很多学生所学专业根本就没有市场需求。 质量问题 如果可以视大学为“工厂”，那么毕业生就是“产品”。通常大学教育的目标要么是培养专才，要么是培养全才，即有较广泛的知识背景，具备社会所需的较深智力储备的人。过去培养专才的任务是由专门研究型院校承担，培养全才的任务则由所谓综合性大学承担。 然而当前在中国
18、，专业研究型院校培养的学生不具备有充足能力、专业知识前卫的学生，“全才”们的视角不够宽广。而且，学生在学校学的知识常常无法满足新兴行业的需求。比如说网游开 发行业所需的技术人员，不得不从民办高校招聘。 资费问题 在教育“产业化”的大潮下，每年大学学费和杂费一路高涨，已经涨到每人 5200 到 8000元不等，大约是十年前的 20 倍。低收入工薪家庭，甚至中等收入的工薪家庭如何能支付得起如此高的学杂费啊？到哪里能找到教育平等权呢？ 众所周知中国拥有巨额外汇储备，但是统计数据表明政府的教育投资仅为国民生产总值的 3.3%，大大低于全球平均值 4.2%。据报道， 2003 年大学所收学杂费总额 40
19、0 亿元，但政府教育经费总投入却只有700 亿元。 唯一出路 重整教育体系 结构不合理，使高 教体系面临一个整体危机，才出现了所有这些问题。 中国政府还在指定招生人数，实行统一入学考试，决定大学所开课程。这种计划型教育无法满足职场需求。 为了取得真正的进步，政府需要彻底重整教育体系，放松对大学不必要的控制，增加财政投入，使学校有充分的自主权去试行自身改革。 Unit Two Career Choices he didnt even criticize him. Instead, he put his big arm around the mans shoulder and said, “To
20、show you Im sure that youll never do this again, I want you to service my F-51 tomorrow.“ Excerpt from “1 If you want to gather honey, dont kick over the beehive” The deepest urge in human nature is “the desire to be important.“ Many people who go insane find in insanity a feeling of importance that
21、 they were unable to achieve in the world of reality. If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle we can achieve by giving people honest appreciation. A member of our classes told of a request made by his wife. She and a group
22、 of other women in her church were involved in a self-improvement program. She asked her husband to help her by listing six things he believed she could do to help her become a better wife. He reported to the class: “I was surprised by such a request. Frankly, it would have been easy for me to list
23、six things I would like to change about hermy heavens, she could have listed a thousand things she would like to change about mebut I didnt. I said to her, Let me think about it and give you an answer in the morning. The next morning I got up very early and called the florist and had them send six r
24、ed roses to my wife with a note saying “I cant think of six things I would like to change about you. I love you the way you are.” When I arrived at home that evening, who do you think greeted me at the door? Thats right. My wife! She was almost in tears. Needless to say, I was extremely glad I had n
25、ot criticized her as she had requested. The following Sunday at church, after she had reported the results of her assignment, several women with whom she had been studying came up to me and said, “That was the most considerate thing I have ever heard.” It was then I realized the power of appreciatio
26、n.“ There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise. “ Ex
27、cerpt from “2 The big secret of dealing with people Unit 9 成功的方式 如何赢得朋友和影响人 批评是徒劳无益的，批评促使 人们为自己辩护，人们通常会想尽一切办法证明自己怎么做是有道理的。批评又是危险的，它伤害人们高贵的自尊、摧毁人们的自信、激起人们的愤恨。 伟大的心理学家汉斯赛利曾说过，“我们有多么渴望得到认同，就有多么惧怕遭受谴责。” 任何蠢人都可能会批评、谴责和抱怨，并且大部分蠢人都是这么做的。然而，要做一个善解人意、原谅他人的人是需要肚量和自律的。卡莱尔认为，“一位伟人的不平凡之处恰恰就在于他能够善待微不足道的小人物”。 鲍勃胡佛
28、是位著名的试飞员，经常参加一些空中飞行表演活动。一次他结束在圣地亚哥的表演，打算飞回洛杉 矶的家。据飞行操作杂志报道，在离地面仅 300 英尺时，飞机的两个引擎突然都熄火了。胡佛熟练地操纵飞机，使其安全降落，虽没有人员伤亡但飞机已经严重损毁。 紧急迫降后，胡佛做的第一次件事就是仔细检查飞机的燃料。正如他所料，他所驾驶的这架曾在二战中效力的螺旋桨飞机加的是喷气燃料而并非航空汽油。 返回机场后，胡佛希望能够见见那位替他检修飞机的技师。那位年轻人痛恨自己所犯错误，深感自责。当胡佛走向他时，他涕泪横流。他深刻认识到自己的错误已造成一架价值不菲的飞机彻底报废，而且还差点让三个人丧命。 你可以想象胡佛当时
29、 心中的愤怒，你一定会以为这位骄傲尊贵、一丝不苟的飞行员要把这位严重失误的年轻人骂得狗血喷头，字字句句如鞭子一样抽打着这位年轻人。然而胡佛不但没有责骂他，甚至也没有批评他，而是用他粗大的手臂搂着技师的肩膀对他说：“我肯定你再不会犯类似错误了，为了给你自己证明这一点，我请你明天为我的 F-51 战机做检修工作。” 节选自 “ 如果你想酿蜜，那么就不要踢翻蜂箱！ ” 人性中最强烈的愿望就是要“出人头地”。 许多精神失常的人疯狂后找到了那种在正常生活中无法找到的那种受重视的感觉。 如果有些人急切地渴望受到重视的感觉，以至 于精神失常才找到这样感觉，那么试想一下，如果我们诚挚地表达对他人的欣赏，那会出
30、现何种奇迹啊！ 我教过的一个班里有一位同学，讲述了他妻子提出的一个特殊要求。原来他妻子与教会的几位女伴参加了一个“提升自我”的活动，她请求丈夫帮助她完善自己，方法就是请他列出 6 项能使她成为更完美妻子的事情。这位同学在课堂上说：“妻子提出这样的要求，我非常惊讶。坦白地说，列出 6 件可以使我老婆变得更加完美的事情，本来是毫不费力的。我的天啊！她本来也可以列出成千上万件我做得不够好的事情啊！所以，我没有答应她。我只她说：让我想一想吧，明天早上我会给你个答复的。 “第二天一早我就起床，给花店打电话，让他们送 6 朵玫瑰花给我的妻子， 并附上一张卡片，留言是：我实在无法想出 6 件你身上需要做得更
31、好的事，我就爱你现在这个样子。 “当我傍晚到家时，猜猜谁在家门口迎接我：对了，是我的妻子！她几乎热泪盈眶，不用说，我很高兴自己并没有像她要求的那样去批评她”。 “第二个周日在教会，她向伙伴们报告了完成任务的结果，和她一起学习的几个女士随后找到我，感动地说，这是我们听到过的最贴心的故事了。就在那刻，我深切地体会到赞赏他人的力量”。 “没有什么会像上级批评下级一样扼杀他的雄心壮志。因此，我从不批评任何人，我深信一定要给人以激励。所以，我总是积极地 赞扬他人，讨厌吹毛求疵。凡是我喜欢的事情，我都会诚于嘉许，宽于称赞。” -节选自“ 2 与人打交道的秘诀” Unit Ten Science and T
32、echnology The End of the World While the apocalypse is pretty unlikely to come in 2012, it does have to happen sooner or later. Here are five possible scenarios for the end of humanity. Asteroid How it could happen: Objects from space impact Earth all the time, generally burning up in the atmosphere
33、. Occasionally, a large object makes it through, resulting in a massive impact. The most recent major blast was the 1908 Tunguska event that flattened a 2,000-square-mile area of Siberian forest with an explosion about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The object i
34、nvolved, which was likely only a few dozen meters in diameter, could have reduced a major metropolitan area to ruin. How likely is it? An object big enough to kill off a substantial portion of the earths population only hits earth about twice every million years. None of the objects yet discovered b
35、y NASAs Near Earth Objects program have a high probability of striking the earth. But given the relatively small effort devoted to identifying near-earth objects, theres no guarantee that the earth would have much warning time before one hit. Climate Disasters How it could happen: The worst case sce
36、nario is the increase in global surface temperature by 4 to 5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. This situation will lead to a rise of 0.5 meters above sea level, which inundates many coastal cities, including many of the worlds major cities. At the same time, nearly one-third of the worlds
37、regions may become desert, and more than half of the region will experience drought. Even if the earth temperature rose only 3.5 degrees Celsius, will make the world 40% to 70% of the species is facing the danger of extinction. How likely is it? The likelihood is that the worlds carbon content is 38
38、0 parts per million, compared with 280 parts per million before the industrial revolution. Once the content of more than 450, catastrophic damages will begin to be felt. Nuclear War How it could happen: There are more than 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, of which 8,000 are currently operational
39、 and 2,000 are on high alert and ready to launch on short notice. Scientists in the 1980s developed models showing that the dust and smoke caused by a superpower nuclear war would cause temperature and precipitation shifts unprecedented in human historya “nuclear winter.“ A crop failure even for a y
40、ears could lead to a famine that would exterminate most of humanity. How likely is it? The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists created the famous “Doomsday Clock“ in 1947 to convey how close humanity is to “catastrophic destruction.“ The clock reached its high-point2 minutes to midnightafter the first hyd
41、rogen bomb tests in 1953. Despite this, the worst-case scenario of all-out nuclear war is far less likely than it once was. The nuclear winter theory also remains controversial, with some scientists saying the predicted effects have been exaggerated. Plague How it could happen: Throughout history, p
42、lagues have brought civilizations to their knees. The Black Death removed more than half of Europes population in the Middle Ages. In 1918, a flu pandemic took away about 50 million lives, nearly 3 percent of the worlds population, a far greater impact than just-concluded World War . An outbreak of
43、a disease such as Ebola virus or a mutated drug-resistant from of the flu virus on a global scale could be devastating, even civilization-ending. How likely is it? Treatment of deadly diseases has improved since 1918, but so have the disease. Modern industrial farming techniques have been blamed for
44、 the flare-up of viruses, such as swine flu, and as the worlds population grows and humans move into previous unoccupied areas, the risk of exposure to previously unknown pathogens increases. Unknown Event How it could happen: There are numerous theories for how human civilizationthe world we know i
45、tmight end. Some are natural: super volcanoes that could severely alter the Earths climate or a gamma-ray burst from a star that would cause disastrous radiation in the Earths atmosphere. Other are man-made: overpopulation causing a food crisis or the accidental development of life-threatening new t
46、echnologies. How likely is it? Sooner or later, the world will end. In about 5-8 billion years, according to astronomers estimates, our sun will burn out the last of its hydrogen into helium and will balloon up into a red giant hundreds of times its current size, dragging the Earth to its inevitable
47、 doom. But human beings have only been around for a small fraction of that timearound 200,000 yearsand one way or another, the chances of us being around for the real end of the world are pretty slim.From Foreign Policy by Joshua Keating Unit 10 科学与技术 世界末日 尽管世界末日不太可能在 2012 年到来，但有人认为迟早都会发生，下面是人类末日可能出
48、现的五种情况。 小行星撞击 如何发生： 太空中总有物体撞向地球，但通常都会在大气层中燃烧殆尽。偶尔也会有大型物体穿透大气层，给地球造成巨大冲击。最近一次大爆炸是 1908 年通古斯大爆炸，这次爆炸产生的威力比美国扔向广岛的原子弹强大约 1000 倍，将西伯利亚森林中 2000 平方英里的树木夷为平地。造成这一事件的天体，其直径可能仅有几十米大小，却有可 能将一个面积广阔的大都市化为乌有。 可能性有多大： 大到足以消灭地球上绝大多数人口的物体撞击地球的概率大约每百万年仅有两次。美国国家航空航天局近地物体项目尚未发现极有可能撞击地球的任何物体。但考虑到人类在识别近地天体方面投入的精力相对较少，目前
49、并不能保证在地球受到撞击之前，我们有足够多的预警时间。 气候灾难 如何发生： 预测的最坏情形是到本世纪末，全球地表温度增加 4 5 摄氏度。这一情形将会导致海平面上升 0.5 米，从而淹没包括世界许多大城市在内的沿海地区。同时，地球上可能会有近三分之一的地区变成沙漠，一半以上的地区经历干旱。哪怕地球温度只上升 3.5 摄氏度，也会使世界上 40% 70%的物种面临灭绝的危险。 可能性有多大： 目前全球的碳含量是百万分之三百八十，而工业革命前是百万分之两百八十。一旦这一含量超过四百五十，将会出现灾难性的后果。 核战争 如何发生： 目前世界上有超过 2.3 万枚核武器，其中有 8000 枚处于可操作状态 ， 2000 枚处于高度戒备状态，一旦接到指令就能立刻发射。 20 世纪 80 年代科学家研发的模型表明，一场超级大国的核战争所引发的尘土和烟雾将会给人类带来史上前所未有的温度和雨雪天气的变化 一个“核冬天。” 哪怕只有一年颗粒无收都可能导致饥荒，饿死大多数人类。 可能性有多大： 1947 年原子科学家公报制造了著名的“末日时钟”，以此表示人类离“灾难性毁灭”有多近。在 1953 年首次氢弹试验之后，该时钟指到了一个高点 离午夜仅有两分钟。尽
