2021年英语专八听力真题和原文答案
PART I LISTENING COMPREHENSION [25 MIN]
SECTION A MINI-LECTURE
In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening, please complete the gap-fulling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s) you fill in is (are) both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note taking. You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task. Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.
Current Challenges Confronting U.S. Higher Education
Section B Interview
This is the end of Part Two of the interview. Questions 6 to 10 are based on what you have just heard.
Question 6, what did Maureen think about socializing with writers?
Question 7, what was Maureen's view about a community for poets?
Question 8, why did her sections have concluding stanzas?
Question 9, what did Maureen think about her way of poetry reading?
Question 10, what is the interview mainly about?
This is the end of Part One of the interview. Questions 1 to 5 are based on what you have just heard.
Question 1, what is Maureen McLean, according to the interviewer?
Question 2, when did Maureen first begin to read poetry?
Question 3, who were the most important teachers to Maureen?
Question 4, which of the following did Maureen feel more strongly about when she returned to
teach at Harvard?
Question 5, why did Maureen bring recordings to class?
答案解析和原文
1、MINI-LECTURE录音原文
Current Challenges Confronting U.S. Higher Education
Good morning, everyone. In our last lecture, we discussed challenges that face universities and
react to和respond to的区别
colleges worldwide. Today, we'll take a special look at U.S. higher education and see what
challenges U.S. higher education is facing. OK, let's get started.
The first challenge we are examining in today's lecture is the force of the marketplace on higher education. Many people believe that the marketplace has overtaken state government as the
dominant external force, shaping and reshaping American higher education, even for public colleges and universities. You may ask, why is it so? Well, as is always the case, government support is not keeping pace with educational expenditures. So, in many ways the market is having more bearing on higher education than government. In order to create more flexibility, many public colleges and universities are now asking for less government regulation and supervision. In some instances, they are even asking for less state money in return for more autonomy. And, their argument is that the current structures and accountability requirements have hindered their capacity to be effective and efficient. The ability to set their own tuition fees and secure freedom from state policies and regulations i
n areas, such as purchasing and building, represent just some of the additional autonomy that public institutions are seeking. And many are pressing for new legislation to provide this freedom through a range of innovations, including public corporations, charter colleges, state enterprise status and performance contracts.
So, what is the result of these efforts? Well, the result is that activities and research in certain
fields and disciplines, for example, engineering, applied natural science and agricultural science
become higher institutional priorities because they have stronger market value than other programs such as humanities do. So, what has happened is that institutions create new programs, alter academic calendars and pursue different financial aid policies to capture more and better students, in particular those who can afford to pay high tuition. For instance, executive MBA programs are increasingly popular. Also, institutions seek contracts and partnership agreements and enhance research programs with practical appli
cations that have large financial payouts. In order to do so, they are changing their institutional structures. And how do they do it? Let me tell you, institutions would add new units that focus on generating external grants and bringing new technology to market. They would build conference centers and create for profit subsidiaries. All of these are done to generate more revenue for institutions. What are the implications of this? Well, the implications are that academic research is increasingly focused on marketable knowledge. Entrepreneurial priorities are taking precedence, services are being outsourced, and students are carrying an increasing burden to pay higher tuition fees for their education.
Then how do university administrators view this trend? That is, the marketplace is showing
stronger impact on how institutions are run. In fact, university administrators see little option except to respond to the marketplace. The reason is if their institution does not react effectively, it will not have the necessary resources to offer high quality and diverse academic programs. Institutions unable to compete may face hard circumstances because government support continues to fall, students become better informed consumers and adv
ances in technology also widen the number and reach of competitors. In turn, the ability to compete for students, resources, faculty and prestige becomes a driving strategic force. At its extreme, competition can overtake more traditional academic values. However, the downside of pursuing market goals without appropriately balancing them against the public good is, is that institutions will no longer be able to fulfill their social responsibility to produce well-educated citizens and face the threat of losing their privileged place in society as they resemble more closely other market driven organizations.

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