3) Liberal arts courses should be got out of the way, and the advisors should help students check off those requirements. 4) Schools exist only to get you the right certificate or degree, not to help you develop as a creative, critically intelligent, compassionate, and concerned human being. B. Many professors and deans also don’t understand why students should take all those general education requirements because they know very little about what the whole tradition of liberal education entails. C. Some influential policy-makers in Washington, D.C. dismiss liberal education as meaningless for they hold that: 1) The value of education is to prepare for a job. 2) The aim of higher learning is to train someone to do a task that would make them money. Pros of liberal education: Our most creative and productive subjects found great value in general and liberal education because: 1) It enables students to encounter a vast range of ideas and creations, so that they can recognize good ideas when meeting them. 2) It helps students to engage and stimulate their minds, and understand education as a developmental process in which they sought to grow the power of their minds. Language in Use 4.
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1) stimulating, stimuli
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2) implicate, implication
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3) compassion, compassionate 4) specialize, specialization
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5) reject, rejection
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6) defined, definite
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7) utilizing, utility
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8) influential, influence
5.
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1) by accident
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2) by turns
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3) By contrast 4) by definition
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5) in case of
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6) in terms of
7) in consideration of
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8) in honor of
6.
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1) groping for
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2) strive for
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3) applauded for
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4) substituted for 5) compensate for
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6) stand for
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7) weep for
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8) blame for
7.
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1) comment on
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2) deciding on
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3) elaborate on
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4) imposed on 5) concentrate on
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6) acts on
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7) feed on
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8) relied on
8.
Reference translation
1) 接下来的几分钟里，他简要介绍了通识教育的发展历史，告诉学生们“通识”一词来自拉丁语，意为“自由”，这种学校教育在古代只有自由的小孩（而非奴隶）才能享受。
2) 现代的通识教育让学生接触许多理工和人文学科，这些学科知识有助于深入探求人生重大问题的答案。
3) 他们认为，高等教育如果不以培训学生做事挣钱为核心，就是毫无意义的。 4) 如果想弄清我们的调查对象究竟做了什么成就了极富成效与创造力的人生，我们就必须理解为什么他们如此重视在选定专业领域之前所接受的通识教育。 5) 他们把教育理解为一种成长历程，在此过程中，他们致力于思维能力的提升，这样一种理解也影响到了他们所尝试的学习方向。
9.
Reference translation
The imperial examination system in China began to be put into practice in the Sui Dynasty and lasted more than 1,300 years. In ancient China, class consciousness was distinct and people from lower classes had little chance to gain a position in the official court. But once the imperial examination system was introduced, scholars from poor families had opportunities to take the government exams, which enabled them to bring honor to their families. Such a talent-selection system had great impact not only on the politics, economy, education, cultural concepts and social customs in Chinese feudal society, but also on the education systems of such neighboring countries as Japan, Korea and Vietnam. To some extent, China’s current education system has selectively inherited some advantages from the imperial examination system.
Text B
Reading Comprehension
1.
1) pro Plumbing college clearly has a lot to recommend it. You learn useful and relevant skills there. You become eminently employable. And you probably don’t find yourself having ￡30,000 of tuition fees to pay back when you finally complete the course. 2) con A humanities student in the 1980s, pursuing a non-vocational course, could still feel confident that the degree he or she was studying was worthwhile in itself. University was supposed to be about a broadening and deepening of the individual. 3) con Job prospects, employability skills and building networks of “contacts”, must be a secondary or even tertiary concern. Study something that fascinates you, and worry about the future later on. 4) con Classicists would be able to tell us that Aristotle’s concept of “flourishing” as an individual — eudaimonia — does not imply great material success at all. Living and doing well is what matters. One probably needs to be well educated to achieve this, but not necessarily paid an investment banker’s salary (or bonus). Language in Use
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1) affordable
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2) conscientious
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3) synthetic