2020考研英语阅读理解精读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）：本文选自Time；

注（2）：本文习题命题模仿对象为2004年真题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

本文可以说是一篇记叙文，主要记述作为校园改革派的大学校长鲁思·西蒙斯的一些轶事。文章第一段就以前的大学校长和当今的大学校长的不同之处进行了对比；第二段记述了鲁思·西蒙斯作为布朗大学的新任校长和第一个一流学校的黑人校长的一些做法；第三段描述了她的贫困家境以及求学的艰辛；第四段记述了她在以往任职的学校里的一些举措；第五段记述了她在布朗大学所要解决的首要问题。

词汇注释

big-league /ˈbigˈliːg/ adj. 一流的，最高的

removed /rɪˈmuːvd/ adj. （from）有区别的；遥远的；不同的

alumni /əˈlʌmnaɪ/ n. 〈口〉校友（alumnus的复数，可指男女）

Ivy League （美国东北部哈佛、哥伦比亚等八所名牌大学的）常春藤联合会

throwback /ˈθrəʊbæk/ n. 【生】返祖现象；〈喻〉 大倒退；逆转；（电影中的）前景重现；（小说的）倒叙

crusade /kruːˈseɪd/ n. 十字军；改革运动

of old 古时的，很久以前的

marshal /ˈmɑːʃ(ə)l/ v. 汇集 n. 元帅

purge /pɜːdʒ/ v. （使）净化，清除

ubiquitous /juːˈbɪkwɪtəs/ adj. 到处存在的，普遍存在的

sharecropper /ˈʃeəkrɒpə(r)/ n. （尤指美国西南部的）小佃农

shack /ʃæk/ n. 小室

sibling /ˈsɪblɪŋ/ n. 兄弟，姐妹，同胞，同属

ZIP code邮区代码，邮政编码（一种划分美国邮政区域的五位数号码）

recruit /rɪˈkruːt/ v. 招生；征募

standoff /ˈstændɒf, -ɔːf/ n. 避开；冷淡

provost /ˈprɒvəst; (US) prəʊ-/ n. 宪兵司令，监狱看守，教务长

boil over 因沸溢出，发怒

heal /hiːl/ v. 治愈，医治，结束

rupture /ˈrʌptʃə(r)/ n. 破裂，决裂，敌对，割裂

incendiary /ɪnˈsendɪəri/ adj. 纵火的，煽动的

polemicist /pəˈlemɪsɪst/ n. 善辩论者

难句突破

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.

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

结构分析：本句是一个主从复合句。主句后有after引导的时间状语从句；by意为“由…做（写）”；arguing是现在分词作状语，对polemicist David Horowitz进行补充说明；后又跟that引导的宾语从句作argue的宾语。

句子译文：去年春天，学生报上刊登了一篇由保守派辩论家戴维·霍罗威茨撰写的煽动性文章。他在文章中诡称，黑人在经济上受益于奴隶制。文章一发表，就导致了种族关系的破裂。她在布朗大学的首要任务就是要修复这一裂痕。

题目分析

1. A 细节题。文章第一段就以前的大学校长和当今的大学校长的不同之处进行了对比，There was a time when big-league university presidents really mattered是第一段前半部分的主题句，随后作者以伍德罗·威尔逊和艾森豪威尔为例，进一步说明这一观点。

2. D 推理题。第二段记述了鲁思·西蒙斯作为布朗大学的新任校长和第一个“常春藤”名校的黑人校长的一些成功的举措，其中包括如何进行资金运作，这些说明她是非常有能力的；在讨论史密斯大学数学系发展前景的会议上，她对教授说“Dream bigger”，表明她还是非常有雄心的。

3. C 主旨题。第四段记述了鲁思·西蒙斯在她以往任职的学校里为解决种族问题进行的一些努力和尝试。

4. B 语义题。文章第一段前半部分提到曾有一段时间一流大学的校长是非常重要的人物。紧接着though引导的句子进行了转折，指出校长的工作同雅芳小姐的工作差别越来越小了。这里主要考查“be removed from”的用法，其中removed是形容词，词组含义是“有区别的；遥远的；不同的”。

5. D 细节题。文中对应信息是one professor timidly requested two more discussion sections for his course. Her response: “Dream bigger.”

参考译文

曾有一段时间，一流大学的校长着实起着举足轻重的作用。《纽约时代》杂志一直关注着他们的一举一动。就连总统也向他们征求意见。伍德罗·威尔逊和艾森豪威尔曾是普林斯顿和哥伦比亚大学的校长，他们的大学校长身份是他们入主白宫的敲门砖。然而，今天大学校长的差事与雅芳小姐的工作差别越来越小了（除登门拜访有钱的校友外）。

鲁思·西蒙斯是布朗大学的新任校长，也是第一位领导“常春藤”名校的黑人校长，她继承了过去校园改革派领导人的遗风。她不单只是筹集资金，还把这些资金投入到我们伟大的教育事业之中。西蒙斯用她在1995~2001年担任史密斯学院院长期间筹集到的3亿美元的资金开设了工程学专业（开设这个专业在女子学校里尚属首次），并增设演讲研讨会，以把那些无所不在的“像”和“嗯”等废话从校园用语中清除出去。在一次讨论史密斯大学数学系发展前景的会议上，一个教授战战兢兢地提出能否给他的课再增加两次讨论。她是这样回答的：“再大胆些。”

她自己的梦想是在得克萨斯州东部的一个佃农小屋里诞生的。家里没钱买书或玩具——过圣诞节时，她和十一个兄弟姐妹每人只得到一个苹果、一个橘子和十个坚果。尽管在去上学的路上有人叫她黑鬼，但进教室时她却说：“这倒唤醒了我。”当她获得迪拉德大学的奖学金时，她的高中老师慷慨解囊，凑钱让她买一件外套。毕业后她接着上哈佛大学，攻读拉丁系语言博士学位。

西蒙斯把多样性作为校园改革的头等大事。她几乎使史密斯大学的黑人新生入学人数翻了一番。能做到这一步主要是靠她亲自到美国最贫困地区的高中去招生。少数民族学生来校后，她一直关心学生的情况，一直为缓解令很多校园十分苦恼的种族冷漠情绪而奋斗。在史密斯大学，她拒绝了学生提出的按种族分住公寓的要求。她在1993年任普林斯顿大学副教务长期间，写了一篇至今仍很著名的报告。在报告中，她建议大学成立一个专门解决种族冲突的办公室，以便在种族误解激化之前将其化解。

去年春天，学生报上刊登了一篇由保守派辩论家戴维·霍罗威茨撰写的煽动性文章。他在文章中诡称，黑人在经济上受益于奴隶制。文章一发表，就导致了种族关系的破裂。她（西蒙斯）在布朗大学的首要任务就是要修复这一裂痕。“在种族关系中，任何人都没有什么安全的地方。但是校园不同于我们社会上的其他机构，它给我们提供了跨越种族界限的机会，”西蒙斯说，“即便你受到了伤害，你也不能一走了之，你得跨越这条线。”