2024英语寒假作业·高三年级 第1周 第5天

2024英语寒假作业·高三年级

第1周 第5天

【外刊精读】
【原文】
Is a university a university without the liberal arts? Marymount University seems to think so. The institution’s trustees voted unanimously in February to eliminate majors in mathematics, art, English, history and philosophy, among other fields.
It is the latest in a very long line of defeats for the liberal arts. From 2013 to 2016, across the United States, 651 foreign language programs were closed, and majors in classics, the arts and religion have frequently been eliminated or, at larger schools, shrunk. The trend extends from small private schools like Marymount to the Ivy League and major public universities and shows no sign of stopping.
The steady disinvestment in the liberal arts risks turning America’s universities into vocational schools narrowly focused on professional training. Increasingly, they have robust programs in subjects like business, nursing and computer science but less and less funding for and focus on departments of history, literature, philosophy, mathematics and theology.
Students do not select majors and courses in a vacuum. Their choices are downstream of a cultural and political discourse that actively discourages engagement with the humanities. For decades — and particularly since the 2008 recession — politicians in both parties have mounted a strident campaign against government funding for the liberal arts. They express a growing disdain for any courses not explicitly tailored to the job market and outright contempt for the role the liberal-arts-focused university has played in American society.
Federal funding reflects those priorities. The National Endowment for the Humanities’ budget in 2022 was just $180 million. The National Science Foundation’s budget was about 50 times as large, having nearly doubled within two decades.
What were students meant to think? As the cost of higher education rose, substantially outpacing inflation since 1990, students followed funding — and what politicians repeatedly said about employability — into fields like business and computer science. Even majors in mathematics were hit by the focus on employability.
Universities took note and began culling. One recent study showed that history faculty across 28 Midwestern universities had dropped by almost 30 percent in roughly the past decade. Classics programs were often simply eliminated.
Never mind that neither politicians nor students seem to have a particularly good idea of which college majors will actually prepare young people for the work force. History majors had a lower unemployment rate than economics, business management or communications majors, and their salaries barely lag behind in those fields, according to a recent study. Art history majors do just fine, too, with strong projected job growth in the next decade. And despite the sneers, those with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy have an average salary around $76,000, according to PayScale. But this is a grim and narrow view of the purpose of higher education, merely as a tool to train workers as replaceable cogs in America’s economic machine, to generate raw material for its largest companies.
Higher education, with broad study in the liberal arts, is meant to create not merely good workers but also good citizens. Learning in many different forms of knowledge teaches the humility necessary to accept other points of view in a pluralistic and increasingly globalized society.
（节选自The New York Times）









文本精读
Is a university a university without the liberal arts? Marymount University seems to think so. The institution’s trustees voted unanimously in February to eliminate majors in mathematics, art, English, history and philosophy, among other fields.
liberal arts  大学文科
trustee  n. 受托人；托管人
unanimously  adv. 一致地
eliminate  v. 清除，消除；淘汰
请翻译上文：
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It is the latest in a very long line of defeats for the liberal arts. From 2013 to 2016, across the United States, 651 foreign language programs were closed, and majors in classics, the arts and religion have frequently been eliminated or, at larger schools, shrunk. The trend extends from small private schools like Marymount to the Ivy League and major public universities and shows no sign of stopping.
shrink  v. 收缩，减少；缩水；退缩
请翻译上文：
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The steady disinvestment in the liberal arts risks turning America’s universities into vocational schools narrowly focused on professional training. Increasingly, they have robust programs in subjects like business, nursing and computer science but less and less funding for and focus on departments of history, literature, philosophy, mathematics and theology.
robust  adj. 强健的；结实的；富有活力的
请翻译上文：
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Students do not select majors and courses in a vacuum. Their choices are downstream of a cultural and political discourse that actively discourages engagement with the humanities. For decades — and particularly since the 2008 recession — politicians in both parties have mounted a strident campaign against government funding for the liberal arts. They express a growing disdain for any courses not explicitly tailored to the job market and outright contempt for the role the liberal-arts-focused university has played in American society.
in a vacuum  与世隔绝，脱离实际
strident  adj. 强硬的；咄咄逼人的；刺耳的
disdain  n. / v. 鄙视，蔑视
tailored ... to / for ...  针对……而做，针对……而修改
outright  adj. 完全的，彻底的；公开的  adv. 公开地；彻底地
contempt  n. 蔑视，鄙视
【长难句分析】
They express a growing disdain for any courses not explicitly tailored to the job market and outright contempt for the role the liberal-arts-focused university has played in American society.
分析：“They express a growing disdain and outright contempt”为本句主句；“for any courses”作后置定语，修饰disdain；“not explicitly tailored to the job market”作后置定语，修饰courses；“for the role”作后置定语，修饰contempt；“the liberal-arts-focused university has played in American society”为定语从句，修饰role。
请翻译上文：
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Federal funding reflects those priorities. The National Endowment for the Humanities’ budget in 2022 was just $180 million. The National Science Foundation’s budget was about 50 times as large, having nearly doubled within two decades.
endowment  n. 捐款，资助；天赋，天资
请翻译上文：
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What were students meant to think? As the cost of higher education rose, substantially outpacing inflation since 1990, students followed funding — and what politicians repeatedly said about employability — into fields like business and computer science. Even majors in mathematics were hit by the focus on employability.
substantially  adv. 非常，大大地；大体上，总的来说
请翻译上文：
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Universities took note and began culling. One recent study showed that history faculty across 28 Midwestern universities had dropped by almost 30 percent in roughly the past decade. Classics programs were often simply eliminated.
cull  v. 选出，挑选，采集；部分捕杀
请翻译上文：
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Never mind that neither politicians nor students seem to have a particularly good idea of which college majors will actually prepare young people for the work force. History majors had a lower unemployment rate than economics, business management or communications majors, and their salaries barely lag behind in those fields, according to a recent study. Art history majors do just fine, too, with strong projected job growth in the next decade. And despite the sneers, those with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy have an average salary around $76,000, according to PayScale. But this is a grim and narrow view of the purpose of higher education, merely as a tool to train workers as replaceable cogs in America’s economic machine, to generate raw material for its largest companies.
lag behind  落后
grim  adj. 令人沮丧的，令人难以接受的；阴森的；严肃的
cog  n. 齿轮；（大机构中的）小人物
请翻译上文：
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Higher education, with broad study in the liberal arts, is meant to create not merely good workers but also good citizens. Learning in many different forms of knowledge teaches the humility necessary to accept other points of view in a pluralistic and increasingly globalized society.
pluralistic  adj. 多元性的，多元化的
请翻译上文：
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参考答案

没有文科的大学还能叫大学吗？玛丽蒙特大学似乎给出了肯定的答案。今年2月，该大学的托管人一致投票取消了数学、艺术、英语、历史和哲学等领域的专业。
这是文科一系列溃败中的最新一次。从2013年到2016年，全美有651个外语课程停课，古典文化、艺术和宗教专业经常被取消，在规模较大的学校里这些专业减少。这一趋势从玛丽蒙特这样的小型私立学校蔓延到常春藤盟校和主要公立大学，并且没有停止的迹象。
对文科的持续撤资有可能把美国的大学变成狭隘地专注于专业培训的职业学校。大学越来越多地在商科、护理和计算机科学等学科开设健全的课程，但对历史、文学、哲学、数学和神学等院系的资助和关注则越来越少。
学生们对专业和课程的选择并非脱离实际。他们的选择受到极力劝阻接触人文学科的文化和政治话语的影响。几十年来，尤其是自2008年经济衰退以来，美国两党政客都发起运动，强烈反对政府为文科提供资金。他们日益鄙视任何不是明确针对就业市场开设的课程，并公开蔑视以文科为主的大学在美国社会中所扮演的角色。
联邦资金反映了这些优先次序。美国国家人文基金会2022年的预算只有1.8亿美元。美国国家科学基金会的预算大约是它的50倍，在过去20年内几乎翻了一番。
学生应该怎么想？自1990年以来，随着高等教育成本上升，远远超过了通货膨胀的速度，学生们跟随着资金的流向，以及政客们反复提到的就业能力，进入了商业和计算机科学等领域。即使是数学专业也受到了以就业能力为本的影响。
大学注意到了这一点，开始砍掉部分专业。最近的一项研究显示，美国中西部28所大学的历史教师人数在过去大约10年里减少了近30%。古典文化课程经常被直接取消。
政客和学生似乎都不太清楚哪些大学专业能真正让年轻人为工作做好准备，这也无妨。最近的一项研究显示，历史专业的失业率低于经济学、工商管理或传播学专业，历史专业学生的工资也不比这些专业差。艺术史专业的情况也不错，未来十年的就业增长预计会很强劲。尽管受到嘲笑，但根据薪水调查公司PayScale的数据，拥有哲学学士学位的人的平均工资约为7.6万美元。但上面所述是关于高等教育目的的一种悲观而狭隘的看法，仅仅把大学看作一种工具，用来培训工人，让他们成为美国经济机器中可以替换的齿轮，为美国最大的公司生产原材料。

高等教育，包括广泛的文科研究，不仅是为了培养优秀的工人，也是为了培养优秀的公民。在一个多元化和日益全球化的社会中，学习各种不同形式的知识能教会我们谦逊，这对接受其他观点是非常有必要的。