2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 78

Unit 78

There was a time when big-league university presidents really mattered. The New York Times covered their every move. Presidents, the real ones, sought their counsel. For Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower, being head of Princeton and Columbia, respectively, was a stepping-stone to the White House. Today, though, the job of college president is less and less removed from that of the Avon lady（except the house calls are made to the doorsteps of wealthy alumni）.

Ruth Simmons, the newly installed president of Brown University and the first African American to lead an Ivy League school, is a throwback to the crusading campus leaders of old. She doesn’t merely marshal funds; she invests them in the great educational causes of our day. With the more than $300 million she raised as president of Smith College from 1995 to 2001, Simmons established an engineering program （the first at any women’s school） and added seminars focused on public speaking to purge the ubiquitous “likes” and “ums” from the campus idiom. At a meeting to discuss the future of Smith’s math department, one professor timidly requested two more discussion sections for his course. Her response: “Dream bigger.”

Her own dream was born in a sharecropper’s shack in East Texas where there was no money for books or toys—she and her 11 siblings each got an apple, an orange and 10 nuts for Christmas. Though she was called nigger on her walk to school, entering the classroom, she says, “was like waking up.” When Simmons won a scholarship to Dillard University, her high school teachers took up a collection so she’d have a coat. She went on to Harvard to earn a Ph. D. in Romance languages.

Simmons has made diversity her No. 1 campus crusade. She nearly doubled the enrollment of black freshmen at Smith, largely by traveling to high schools in the nation’s poorest ZIP codes to recruit. Concerned with the lives of minority students once they arrive at school, she has fought to ease the racial standoffs that plague so many campuses. At Smith she turned down a request by students to have race-specific dorms. In 1993, while vice provost at Princeton, she wrote a now famous report recommending that the university establish an office of conflict resolution to defuse racial misunderstandings before they boiled over.

Her first task at Brown will be to heal one such rupture last spring after the student paper published an incendiary ad by conservative polemicist David Horowitz arguing that blacks economically benefited from slavery. “There’s no safe ground for anybody in race relations, but campuses, unlike any other institution in our society, provide the opportunity to cross racial lines,” says Simmons. “And even if you’re hurt, you can’t walk away. You have to walk over that line.”

注（1）：本文選自Time；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2004年真題Text 2。

1. What does the author intend to illustrate with the example of Woodrow Wilson and Dwight Eisenhower?

A) The president of the first-class university was really very important.

B) University presidents gave them some good advice.

C) The presidents of universities could easily go to the white house.

D) University presidents had more power and authority than Avon ladies.

2. What can we infer from the second paragraph?

A) Simmons was an old crusading campus leader.

B) Simmons wanted to expand her university.

C) Simmons knew well about how to invest money.

D) Simmons was a competent and ambitious president.

3. We can learn from the fourth paragraph that ______.

A) Simmons greatly sympathized the black people

B) Simmons wanted to diversify her university

C) Simmons made a great effort to solve the racial problems

D) Simmons never neglected the racial problems

4. What does the author mean by saying “the job of college president is less and less removed from that of the Avon lady”（Lines 4~5, Paragraph 1）?

A) College presidents can get their position with the help of Avon ladies.

B) The job of college president and that of the Avon lady are quite similar.

C) College presidents got inspiration from the job of the Avon lady.

D) The jobs of college presidents and the Avon lady should be separated.

5. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A) Simmons had successfully solved the racial problems.

B) Simmons owed her success to her high school teachers.

C) Simmons didn’t like “likes” and “ums” in campus idioms.

D) Simmons asked her professor to be more ambitious and aggressive.

篇章剖析

本文可以說是一篇記敘文，主要記述作為校園改革派的大學校長魯思·西蒙斯的一些軼事。文章第一段就以前的大學校長和當今的大學校長的不同之處進行了對比；第二段記述了魯思·西蒙斯作為布朗大學的新任校長和第一個一流學校的黑人校長的一些做法；第三段描述了她的貧困家境以及求學的艱辛；第四段記述了她在以往任職的學校里的一些舉措；第五段記述了她在布朗大學所要解決的首要問題。

詞匯注釋

big-league /?big?li?g/ adj. 一流的，最高的

removed /r??mu?vd/ adj. （from）有區別的；遙遠的；不同的

alumni /??l?mna?/ n. 〈口〉校友（alumnus的復數，可指男女）

Ivy League （美國東北部哈佛、哥倫比亞等八所名牌大學的）常春藤聯合會

throwback /?θr??b?k/ n. 【生】返祖現象；〈喻〉 大倒退；逆轉；（電影中的）前景重現；（小說的）倒敘

crusade /kru??se?d/ n. 十字軍；改革運動

of old 古時的，很久以前的

marshal /?mɑ??(?)l/ v. 匯集 n. 元帥

purge /p??d?/ v. （使）凈化，清除

ubiquitous /ju??b?kw?t?s/ adj. 到處存在的，普遍存在的

sharecropper /??e?kr?p?(r)/ n. （尤指美國西南部的）小佃農

shack /??k/ n. 小室

sibling /?s?bl??/ n. 兄弟，姐妹，同胞，同屬

ZIP code郵區代碼，郵政編碼（一種劃分美國郵政區域的五位數號碼）

recruit /r??kru?t/ v. 招生；征募

standoff /?st?nd?f, -??f/ n. 避開；冷淡

provost /?pr?v?st; (US) pr??-/ n. 憲兵司令，監獄看守，教務長

boil over 因沸溢出，發怒

heal /hi?l/ v. 治愈，醫治，結束

rupture /?r?pt??(r)/ n. 破裂，決裂，敵對，割裂

incendiary /?n?send??ri/ adj. 縱火的，煽動的

polemicist /p??lem?s?st/ n. 善辯論者

難句突破

Her first task at Brown will be to heal one such rupture last spring after the student paper published an incendiary ad by conservative polemicist David Horowitz arguing that blacks economically benefited from slavery.

主體句式：Her first task will be to heal one rupture after the paper published an ad.

結構分析：本句是一個主從復合句。主句后有after引導的時間狀語從句；by意為“由…做（寫）”；arguing是現在分詞作狀語，對polemicist David Horowitz進行補充說明；后又跟that引導的賓語從句作argue的賓語。

句子譯文：去年春天，學生報上刊登了一篇由保守派辯論家戴維·霍羅威茨撰寫的煽動性文章。他在文章中詭稱，黑人在經濟上受益于奴隸制。文章一發表，就導致了種族關系的破裂。她在布朗大學的首要任務就是要修復這一裂痕。

題目分析

1. A 細節題。文章第一段就以前的大學校長和當今的大學校長的不同之處進行了對比，There was a time when big-league university presidents really mattered是第一段前半部分的主題句，隨后作者以伍德羅·威爾遜和艾森豪威爾為例，進一步說明這一觀點。

2. D 推理題。第二段記述了魯思·西蒙斯作為布朗大學的新任校長和第一個“常春藤”名校的黑人校長的一些成功的舉措，其中包括如何進行資金運作，這些說明她是非常有能力的；在討論史密斯大學數學系發展前景的會議上，她對教授說“Dream bigger”，表明她還是非常有雄心的。

3. C 主旨題。第四段記述了魯思·西蒙斯在她以往任職的學校里為解決種族問題進行的一些努力和嘗試。

4. B 語義題。文章第一段前半部分提到曾有一段時間一流大學的校長是非常重要的人物。緊接著though引導的句子進行了轉折，指出校長的工作同雅芳小姐的工作差別越來越小了。這里主要考查“be removed from”的用法，其中removed是形容詞，詞組含義是“有區別的；遙遠的；不同的”。

5. D 細節題。文中對應信息是one professor timidly requested two more discussion sections for his course. Her response: “Dream bigger.”

參考譯文

曾有一段時間，一流大學的校長著實起著舉足輕重的作用?！都~約時代》雜志一直關注著他們的一舉一動。就連總統也向他們征求意見。伍德羅·威爾遜和艾森豪威爾曾是普林斯頓和哥倫比亞大學的校長，他們的大學校長身份是他們入主白宮的敲門磚。然而，今天大學校長的差事與雅芳小姐的工作差別越來越小了（除登門拜訪有錢的校友外）。

魯思·西蒙斯是布朗大學的新任校長，也是第一位領導“常春藤”名校的黑人校長，她繼承了過去校園改革派領導人的遺風。她不單只是籌集資金，還把這些資金投入到我們偉大的教育事業之中。西蒙斯用她在1995~2001年擔任史密斯學院院長期間籌集到的3億美元的資金開設了工程學專業（開設這個專業在女子學校里尚屬首次），并增設演講研討會，以把那些無所不在的“像”和“嗯”等廢話從校園用語中清除出去。在一次討論史密斯大學數學系發展前景的會議上，一個教授戰戰兢兢地提出能否給他的課再增加兩次討論。她是這樣回答的：“再大膽些?！?

她自己的夢想是在得克薩斯州東部的一個佃農小屋里誕生的。家里沒錢買書或玩具——過圣誕節時，她和十一個兄弟姐妹每人只得到一個蘋果、一個橘子和十個堅果。盡管在去上學的路上有人叫她黑鬼，但進教室時她卻說：“這倒喚醒了我?！碑斔@得迪拉德大學的獎學金時，她的高中老師慷慨解囊，湊錢讓她買一件外套。畢業后她接著上哈佛大學，攻讀拉丁系語言博士學位。

西蒙斯把多樣性作為校園改革的頭等大事。她幾乎使史密斯大學的黑人新生入學人數翻了一番。能做到這一步主要是靠她親自到美國最貧困地區的高中去招生。少數民族學生來校后，她一直關心學生的情況，一直為緩解令很多校園十分苦惱的種族冷漠情緒而奮斗。在史密斯大學，她拒絕了學生提出的按種族分住公寓的要求。她在1993年任普林斯頓大學副教務長期間，寫了一篇至今仍很著名的報告。在報告中，她建議大學成立一個專門解決種族沖突的辦公室，以便在種族誤解激化之前將其化解。

去年春天，學生報上刊登了一篇由保守派辯論家戴維·霍羅威茨撰寫的煽動性文章。他在文章中詭稱，黑人在經濟上受益于奴隸制。文章一發表，就導致了種族關系的破裂。她（西蒙斯）在布朗大學的首要任務就是要修復這一裂痕?！霸诜N族關系中，任何人都沒有什么安全的地方。但是校園不同于我們社會上的其他機構，它給我們提供了跨越種族界限的機會，”西蒙斯說，“即便你受到了傷害，你也不能一走了之，你得跨越這條線。”