2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 77

Unit 77

Few ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers—letting parents choose to educate their children wherever they wish at the taxpayer’s expense. The principle is compellingly simple. The state pays; parents choose; schools compete; standards rise; everybody gains. Simple, perhaps, but it has aroused predictable—and often fatal—opposition from the educational establishment. Letting parents choose where to educate their children is a silly idea; professionals know best. Co-operation, not competition, is the way to improve education for all. Vouchers would increase inequality because children who are hardest to teach would be left behind.

But these arguments are now succumbing to sheer weight of evidence. Voucher schemes are running in several different countries without ill-effects for social cohesion; those that use a lottery to hand out vouchers offer proof that recipients get a better education than those that do not. In several American states, the voucher pupils did better even though the state spent less than it would have done had the children been educated in normal state schools. American voucher schemes typically offer private schools around half of what the state would spend if the pupils stayed in public schools.

These results are important because they strip out other influences. Home, neighbourhood and natural ability all affect results more than which school a child attends. If the pupils who received vouchers differ from those who don’t—perhaps simply by coming from the sort of go-getting family that elbows its way to the front of every queue—any effect might simply be the result of any number of other factors. But assigning the vouchers randomly guarded against this risk. Opponents still argue that those who exercise choice will be the most able and committed, and by clustering themselves together in better schools they will abandon the weak and voiceless to languish in rotten ones. Some cite the example of Chile, where a universal voucher scheme that allows schools to charge top-up fees seems to have improved the education of the best-off most.

The strongest evidence against this criticism comes from Sweden, where parents are freer than those in almost any other country to spend as they wish the money the government allocates to educating their children. Sweeping education reforms in 1992 not only relaxed enrolment rules in the state sector, allowing students to attend schools outside their own municipality, but also let them take their state funding to private schools, including religious ones and those operating for profit. The only real restrictions imposed on private schools were that they must run their admissions on a first-come-first-served basis and promise not to charge top-up fees. The result has been burgeoning variety and a rapid expansion of the private sector. At the time of the reforms only around 1% of Swedish students were educated privately; now 10% are, and growth in private schooling continues unabated.

More evidence that choice can raise standards for all comes from Caroline Hoxby, an economist at Harvard University, who has shown that when American public schools must compete for their students with schools that accept vouchers, their performance improves. Swedish researchers say the same. It seems that those who work in state schools are just like everybody else: they do better when confronted by a bit of competition.

注（1）：本文選自Economist；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為1999年真題Text 2 （1、2、3、5題）和2002年真題Text 2第2題（第4題）。

1. We learn from the beginning of the passage that vouchers _______.

A) have evoked different opinions in the educational circle

B) have gained unanimous support in the American society

C) encourage cooperation among educational establishments

D) can help promote equal distribution of educational resources

2. Speaking of voucher schemes in Paragraph 2, the author implies that_______.

A) they are always carried out in the way of lottery

B) they can damage social cohesion

C) they are proved to be of help and value

D) they should be adopted by every country

3. In the view of the “opponents” mentioned in the third paragraph, _______.

A) students should pick up their schools randomly so that good students can be equally distributed among schools

B) Chile’s voucher schemes have improved the education of the most able and committed students

C) the right to choose good schools by paying top-up fee serves to improve education

D) students from different family backgrounds are supposed to go to different schools

4. The phrase “burgeoning variety” （Line 7, Paragraph 4） most probably means _______.

A) fast development

B) increasing popularity

C) increasing diversity

D) a larger number

5. We learn from the last paragraph that _______.

A) Swedish parents can only send their kids to schools within their own city

B) the education reform in Sweden is mainly to set up voucher schemes

C) the Harvard economist disagrees with Swedish researchers on vouchers

D) competition is an incentive to spur public schools to improve their teaching

篇章剖析

本文就是否應該向學生提供教育券以及如何提供教育券這一話題展開了談論。第一段首先指出反對發(fā)放教育券的意見和觀點；第二段通過實際例子說明為學生們提供教育券能夠使得他們接受更好的教育；第三、四段是對問題的深入討論，充分考慮了支持者與反對者的觀點；第五段以哈佛大學一位經濟學家的論點總結全文。

詞匯注釋

voucher /?va?t??/ n. 優(yōu)惠，優(yōu)惠券

compelling /k?m?pel??/ adj. 強制的，引人注目的

fatal /?fe?tl/ adj. 致命的，不幸的

succumb /s??k?m/ vi. 屈服，屈從

sheer /???/ adj. 全然的，純粹的

cohension /k???hi???n/ n. 凝聚，團結

recipient /r??s?p??nt/ n. 接受者

strip /str?p/ vt. 剝，剝去

elbow /?elb??/ v. 用肘推

cluster /?kl?st?/ vt. 使成群

languish /?l??gw??/ vi. 憔悴，凋萎

allocate /??l??ke?t/ vt. 分派，分配

municipality /mju??n?s??p?l?t?/ n. 市政當局

impose /?m?p??z/ vi. 征（稅），強加

burgeon /?b??d??n/ v. 萌芽，發(fā)展

unabated /??n??be?t?d/ adj. 不衰退的，不減弱的

難句突破

In several American states, the voucher pupils did better even though the state spent less than it would have done had the children been educated in normal state schools.

主體句式：The voucher pupils did better.

結構分析：it would have done是過去完成時，這個時態(tài)用來描述過去已經完成的事情。此外，這個句子的難點在于had the children been educated in normal state schools，這個倒裝的虛擬結構等同于if the children had been educated in normal state schools。

句子譯文：在美國的幾個州，接受教育券的學生表現(xiàn)不錯，而且國家花在這些學生身上的錢比花在上公立學校的學生身上的錢要少。

題目分析

1. A 細節(jié)題。文章第一段第一句話開門見山地提出“Few ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers”，說明這個問題教育界有著不同的看法。

2. C 推理題。文章第二段中提到，許多國家都實施了教育券計劃，而且都取得了不錯的效果，也沒有給社會造成負面影響。

3. B 細節(jié)題。文章第三段中，反對者們舉的一個例子就是在智利，允許學校收取附加學費的全面教育券計劃提高了最出色學生的教育水平。

4. C 語義題。如果不知道burgeon的意思，可以通過上下文來理解。最重要的是要理解variety的意思，而選項中和variety詞義最接近的是diversity。

5. D 推理題。各個選項的細節(jié)都來自文章最后兩段。A、B、C選項的錯誤原因都在于句意與文章的原意相反。D選項來自文章的最后一句話，即It seems that those who work in state schools are just like everybody else: they do better when confronted by a bit of competition.

參考譯文

在教育界，很少有什么觀點比教育券更容易引發(fā)爭議——花著納稅人的錢，父母們可以為孩子選擇受教育的學校。其原則相當簡單。政府出錢；父母選校；學校競爭；標準提升；各方獲益?；蛟S事情就是這么簡單，但這已在各個教育機構中引發(fā)了預料中的——經常是致命性的——反對態(tài)度。讓父母為孩子擇校的想法很荒唐；只有專家才知道如何最好地選擇學校。合作，而不是競爭，才是提高教育水平的正確方法。發(fā)放教育券只會增加不公平現(xiàn)象，因為最難教的孩子往往會落在后面。

但是這些說法在強有力的證據(jù)面前愈顯蒼白。許多國家都實行了教育券計劃，且都沒有對社會團結造成負面影響；在那些通過使用抓鬮的方法來發(fā)放教育券的國家，接受教育券的人比沒有接受教育券的人得到了更好的教育。在美國的幾個州，接受教育券的學生表現(xiàn)不錯，而且國家花在這些學生身上的錢比花在上公立學校的學生身上的錢要少。美國的教育券計劃一般為私立學校提供費用，其費用是學生在公立學校時國家支出的一半。

這些結果很重要，因為他們排除了其他因素的影響。家庭、鄰居和天賦對孩子的影響都比他們在哪所學校學習更大。如果接受教育券的學生與沒有接受教育券的學生之間存在差異——或許差異僅僅是因為接受教育券的學生來自那種喜歡插隊、事事爭先的家庭——任何效果可能就是其他多種因素作用的結果。但隨意分配教育券則能夠避免這種風險。反對者仍然堅持認為那些擇校的人都是最有能力、最執(zhí)著的人，而且他們都聚集在好的學校，而那些軟弱、沉默的學生則被留在了較差的學校任由其變壞。有人以智利為例，在這個國家，允許學校收取附加學費的全面教育券計劃似乎已經提高了最出色的學生的教育水平。

反擊這一批評的最有力證據(jù)來自瑞典，在支配政府分配的子女教育費用上，這個國家的父母享有比其他任何國家的人們更大的自由。在1992年的教育改革運動之后，國家不僅放寬了公立學校在招生方面的要求，允許學生在所居住城市之外的地方上學，而且也允許學生在國家的資助下到私立學校上學，包括宗教學校和盈利性學校。對私立學校唯一的限制就是必須按“先來先得”的原則招生，并且承諾不收取附加費。改革的結果就是教育的多樣化發(fā)展以及私立學校飛快的擴張。改革初期，瑞典只有大約1%的學生接受私立教育；而現(xiàn)在這一數(shù)據(jù)已經達到了10%，并且私立學校仍然在不斷增加。

哈佛大學經濟學家卡羅琳·霍克斯比提供了支持擇校能夠提高所有學生水平的更為有利的證據(jù)。他已經證明，當美國的公立學校必須同接受教育券的學校為生源而競爭時，他們的表現(xiàn)就會改進。瑞典研究人員也持相同觀點?？雌饋砉W校的工作人員就像其他人一樣：當面臨競爭時，他們會做得更好。