Universities Branch OutA．As never before in their long history, universities have become i

Universities Branch Out

A．As never before in their long history, universities have become instruments of national

competition as well as instruments of peace. They are the place of the scientific

discoveries that move economies forward, and the primary means of educating the talent

required to obtain and maintain competitive advantage. But at the same time, the opening of

national borders to the flow of goods, services, information and especially people has

made universities a powerful force for global integration, mutual understanding and

geopolitical stability.

B．In response to the same forces that have driven the world economy, universities have

become more self-consciously global: seeking students from around the world who represent

the entire range of cultures and values, sending their own students abroad to prepare them

for global careers, offering courses of study that address the challenges of an

interconnected world and collaborative (合作的)research programs to advance science for

the benefit of all humanity.

C．Of the forces shaping higher education none is more sweeping than the movement across

borders. Over the past three decades the number of students leaving home each year to study

abroad has grown at an annual rate of 3.9 percent, from 800,000 in 1975 to 2.5 million in

2004. Most travel from one developed nation to another, but the flow from developing to

developed countries is growing rapidly. The reverse flow, from developed to developing

countries, is on the rise, too.

Today foreign students earn 30 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded in the United States

and 38 percent of those in the United Kingdom. And the number crossing borders for

undergraduate study is growing as well, to 8 percent of the undergraduates at America’s

best institutions and 10 percent of all undergraduates in the U.K. In the United States, 20

percent of the newly hired professors in science and engineering are foreign-born, and in

China many newly hired faculty members at the top research universities received their

graduate education abroad.

D．Universities are also encouraging students to spend some of their undergraduate years in

another country. In Europe, more than 140,000 students participate in the Erasmus program

each year, taking courses for credit in one of 2,200 participating institutions across the

continent. And in the United States, institutions are helping place students in summer

internships (实习) abroad to prepare them for global careers. Yale and Harvard have led the

way, offering every undergraduate at least one international study or internship

opportunity—and providing the financial resources to make it possible.

E．Globalization is also reshaping the way research is done. One new trend involves

sourcing portions of a research program to another country. Yale professor and Howard

Hughes Medical Institute investigator Tian Xu directs a research center focused on the

genetics of human disease at Shanghai’s Fudan University, in collaboration with faculty

colleagues from both schools. The Shanghai center has 95 employees and graduate students

working in a 4,300-square-meter laboratory facility. Yale faculty, postdoctors and graduate

students visit regularly and attend videoconference seminars with scientists from both

campuses. The arrangement benefits both countries; Xu’s Yale lab is more productive,

thanks to the lower costs of conducting research in China, and Chinese graduate students,

postdoctors and faculty get on-the-job training from a world-class scientist and his U.S.

team.

F．As a result of its strength in science, the United States has consistently led the world

in the commercialization of major new technologies, from the mainframe. computer and the

integrated circuit of the 1960s to the Internet infrastructure (基础设施) and applications

software of the 1990s. The link between university-based science and industrial application

is often indirect but sometimes highly visible: Silicon Valley was intentionally created by

Stanford University, and Route 128 outside Boston has long housed companies spun off from

MIT and Harvard. Around the world, governments have encouraged copying of this model,

perhaps most successfully in Cambridge, England, where Microsoft and scores of other

leading software and biotechnology companies have set up shop around the university.

G． For all its success, the United States remains deeply hesitant about sustaining the

research-university model. Most politicians recognize the link between investment in

science and national economic strength, but support for research funding has been unsteady.

The budget of the National Institutes of Health doubled between 1998 and 2003, but has

risen more slowly than inflation since then. Support for the physical sciences and

engineering barely kept pace with inflation during that same period. The attempt to make up

lost ground is welcome, but the nation would be better served by steady, predictable

increases in science funding at the rate of long-term GDP growth, which is on the order of

inflation plus 3 percent per year.

H．American politicians have great difficulty recognizing that admitting more foreign

students can greatly promote the national interest by increasing international

understanding. Adjusted for inflation, public funding for international exchanges and

foreign-language study is well below the levels of 40 years ago. In the wake of September

11, changes in the visa process caused a dramatic decline in the number of foreign students

seeking admission to U.S. universities, and a corresponding surge in enrollments in

Australia, Singapore and the U.K. Objections from American university and business leaders

led to improvements in the process and a reversal of the decline, but the United States is

still seen by many as unwelcoming to international students.

I． Most Americans recognize that universities contribute to the nation’s well-being

through their scientific research, but many fear that foreign students threaten American

competitiveness by taking their knowledge and skills back home. They fail to grasp that

welcoming foreign students to the United States has two important positive effects: first,

the very best of them stay in the States and—like immigrants throughout history—

strengthen the nation; and second, foreign students who study in the United States become

ambassadors for many of its most cherished (珍视) values when they return home. Or at least

they understand them better. In America as elsewhere, few instruments of foreign policy are

as effective in promoting peace and stability as welcoming international university

students.

注意：此部分试题请在答题卡 2上作答。

46.American universities prepare their undergraduates for global careers by giving them

chances for international study or internship.

47.Since the mid-1970s, the enrollment of overseas students has increased at an annual

rate of 3.9 percent.

48.The enrollment of international students will have a positive impact on America rather

than threaten its competitiveness.

49.The way research is carried out in universities has changed as a result of

globalization.

50.Of the newly hired professors in science and engineering in the United States, twenty

percent come from foreign countries.

51.The number of foreign students applying to U.S. universities decreased sharply after

September 11 due to changes in the visa process.

52.The U.S. federal funding for research has been unsteady for years.

53.Around the world, governments encourage the model of linking university-based science

and industrial application.

54.Present-day universities have become a powerful force for global integration.

55.When foreign students leave America, they will bring American values back to their home

countries.