The bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is,

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问题    The bastion of excellence in American education is being destroyed by state budget cuts and mounting costs. Whatever else it is, higher education is shot through with waste, lax academic standards and mediocre teaching and scholarship.
   Higher education is a bloated enterprise. Too many professors do too little teaching to too many ill-prepared students. Costs can be cut and quality improved without reducing the number of graduates. Many colleges and universities should shrink. Some should go out of business.
   Even so, our system has strengths. It boasts many top-notch schools and allows almost anyone to go to college. But mediocrity is pervasive. We push as many freshmen as possible through the door, regardless of qualifications. We create more graduate degrees of dubious worth. Does anyone believe the MBA explosion has improved management?
   You won’t hear much about this from college deans or university presidents. They created this mess and are its biggest beneficiaries. Large enrollments support large faculties. More graduate students liberate tenured faculty from undergraduate teaching to concentrate on writing and research.
   Private schools will, for better or worse, be influenced by state actions. The states need to do three things.
   First, create genuine entrance requirements. States should raising tuitions sharply and coupling the increase with generous scholarships based on merit and income. To get scholarships, students would have to pass meaningful entrance exams. Ideally, the scholarships should be available for use at in-state private schools. All schools would then compete for students on the basis of academic quality and costs. Today’ s system of general tuition subsidies provides aid to well-to-do families that don’ t need it or to unqualified students who don’ t deserve it.
   Next, states should raise faculty teaching loads. This would cut costs and reemphasize the primacy of teaching at most schools. "You can’t do more of one (research) without less of the other (teaching)," says Fairweather. "People are working hard—it’s just where they’re working."
   Finally, states should reduce or eliminate the least useful graduate programs. Journalism or communications, business and education are prime candidates. A lot of what they teach can—and should—be learned on the job. If colleges and universities did a better job of teaching undergraduates, there would be less need for graduate degrees.
   Our colleges and universities need to provide a better education to deserving students. Higher education could become a bastion of excellence, if we would only try.
Fairweather is mentioned to .

选项 A、stress the importance of teaching
B、lessen the teaching work of teachers
C、show his attitude toward education reform
D、explain the important role of universities

答案A

解析 根据题干关键词定位到文章倒数第三段“你不能为了多做研究而减少教学工作。教师们在努力工作,这正是他们工作的地方”。结合前文提到的“各州应该提高教师的教学任务”和“反复强调教学的首要作用”可以得知,A项“强调教学的重要性”符合题意。B项“减少教师的教学工作”、C项“显示他对教育改革的态度”和D项“解释大学的重要作用”均不是提到Fairweather的目的。故选A。
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