公共英語五級閲讀文章《現代美國大學》

我們都知道美國擁有許多世界一流的大學，這成為許多學子心心嚮往之地。那麼，你瞭解美國的大學嗎?下面，為大家送上一篇公共英語五級閲讀文章，歡迎閲讀。

　Modern American Universities

Before the 1850's, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.

Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between midcentury and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges —— Harvard, Yale, Columbia —— and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor's own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate students learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.

At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own courses of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.

現代美國大學

19 世紀50年代以前美國有一些小的學院，大多數成立於殖民時期。它們是與教會掛鈎的小機構，主要目的是培養學生的道德品行。

當時在歐洲各地，高等教育機構已經發展 起來，用的是一個古老的名稱——大學。 德國已經發展出一種不同類型的大學。德國大學關心的主要是創造知識和傳播知識，而不是道德教育。從世紀中葉到世紀末，有9000 多名美國青年因不滿國內所受的教育而赴德深造。他們中的一些人回國後成為一些知名學府——哈佛、耶魯、哥倫比亞的校長並且把這些學府轉變成了現代意義的大學。新校長們斷絕了和教會的關係，聘請了新型的教職員，聘用教授根據的是他們在學科方面的知識，而不是正確的信仰和約束學生的強硬手段。新的原則是大學既要傳播知識也要創造知識。這就需要由學者型老師組成教工隊伍。靠死記硬背和做練習來學習的方法變為德國式的講解方法。德國式的講解就是由教授講授自己的研究課題。通過研究生性質的學習可以獲得表明最高學術造詣的古老的德國學位——博士學位。隨着討論課制度的建立，研究生們學會了提問、分析以及開展他們自己的研究。

同時，新式大學學校規模和課程設置完全突破了過去那種只有數學、經典著作、美學和音樂的狹窄課程表。哈佛大學的校長率先推出選課制度，這樣學生們就能選擇自己的專業。主修領域的概念也出現了。新的目標是使大學對實際社會更有用。密切關注着社會上的實際需求，新的大學着意培養學生解決問題的能力。工程系學生成為新式教育體制下最典型的`學生。學生們還被培訓成為經濟學家、建築師、農學家、社會工作人員以及教師。率先推出選課制度，這樣學生們就能選擇自己的專業。

　附：公共英語五級閲讀技巧之養成二次閲讀習慣，培養邏輯推理能力

很多書上要求學生學會分析文章的結構，其實就是要求學生提高邏輯推理能力。在平時練習中，學生做完閲讀，惟一可做的就是對答案，事實上，糾正答案後對文章的再次閲讀往往至關重要。第一遍讀文章時，我們應當模擬考試的緊張氣氛，儘量高質快速。但，對完答案後，我們有充足的時間再次閲讀文章。第二次閲讀文章我們的目的不在是獲取信息，而是把握文章的佈局安排，分析作者的意圖。我們必須帶着思考再次閲讀文章，問問自己以下問題：

如果自己寫同樣題目或題材的文章，會採取何種文章佈局?如我們自己設想的佈局與作者不同，那麼具體不同之處在何處?這篇文章與以前讀過的同體裁文章相比，有何特點?

也許有人會説，這樣的訓練不就成了精讀課了嗎?如果時間允許，二次閲讀成了精讀，又有何不可?講求速度的範讀是應試而用，要想真正培養邏輯推理能力，提高閲讀水平，還非精讀不可。文章的是永遠讀不完的，如果想着去讀200篇各種模擬閲讀題，倒不如踏踏實實讀50篇歷年真題。另外，地道的文章分析多了，對自己寫文章佈局謀篇也不無好處。