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当今美国的女大学生占大学生总数的三分之一以上。尽管许多有高等学历的妇女终生从事的工作并非专业对口,但是,人们相信,接受过大学教育总是颇有益处的。 With so great a proportion of the young peopleentering higher education there is a problem ofmaintaining academic standards, and the processcan be painful. Half of those who embark on[1]higher studies fail to graduate. The number whodrop out[2] after one or two years is disturbinglylarge, though there is evidence that even incom-plete university study gives a person better careerprospects than none at all. On the other hand, onein five of all who receive bachelor's degrees go onto take higher degrees. 由于进大学的青年这么多,便出现了坚持学术标准的问题,而这有时是煞费苦心的。虽然有迹象表明,一个人大学肄业也比从未上过大学在就业前景方面具有更多的优势,但是大学生中仍有一半的人无法毕业,学一两年后退学的则多得惊人。另一方面,获得学士学位的人中,五分之一的人继续攻读更高的学位。 All this effort in America's higher education isvery- expensive. Some of the costs come from feesand benefactions, @ particularly towards research,but most have to be paid from public funds. Par-ents favour big expenditures on higher education; awider public opinion[3] favours them for idealisticand cultural reasons, and because of the supposedvalue of education as an investment by society[4]. 美国抓高等教育所尽的一切努力耗资巨大。某些费用,尤其是科研费用,来自学费和捐款,但是多数费用必须由公共基金支付。家长支持将大笔经费投入于高等教育;基于理想上和文化上的缘由,加上教育具有一种被认定为社会投资的价值,社会舆论也比以前更加普遍地支持在高等教育上花费巨资。 The first universities were developed byprivate charitable organizations. The private universities are still very important, and most of thebest-known institutions, like Harvard, Yale andPrinceton, are private. 美国最早的大学是由私立慈善机构兴办发展的。现在私立大学仍然十分重要,且多数最著名的高等院校,如哈佛大学、耶鲁大学和普林斯顿大学,都是私立大学。 Most of the prinicipal state universities havebetween 10, 000 and 30, 000 students, and somehave increased rapidly in the past few years. Private universities and colleges are generally smaller,and although they are more numerous than publicinstitutions they have a smaller total number ofstudents than those in public institutions. The private colleges vary very much in standards and reputation, from the world-famous and select[5] to thecranky and the obscure. 美国大多数主要的州立大学在校学生人数在1万名至3万名之间,其中有些大学近年来学生人数激增。私立高等院校一般规模较小,尽管其数量超过公立院校,但是其学生总人数却比公立院校的要少。私立院校的水平与名望彼此相差甚远,从举世闻名、出类拔萃到动荡不定或默默无闻的都有。 
美国还有许多只开设大学头两年课程的大专学校,高中生毕业后就可上此类学校。 The best known of all is Harvard, which issituated in the urban area of Boston, Massachusetts. Yale (founded in 1701 ) is betweenBoston and New York. There is much in commonbetween Harvard and Yale, amd together they occupy a position in American university life ratherlike Oxford and Cambridge in England. A remarkable number of the men who hold prominent positions in public life and the big corporations wereeducated at one of these two. 所有大学中,位于马萨诸塞州波士顿市区的哈佛大学员负盛名。耶鲁大学(创立于1701年)位于波士顿市和纽约之间。哈佛大学和耶鲁大学有许多共同之处,两校在美国大学生活中共同占有一席之地,这一点与英国的牛津大学和剑桥大学颇为相似。有相当一部分在社会生活和大企业中身居要职的人都曾就读于哈佛大学或耶鲁大学。 For the most part[7] Americans think that thereis some advantage in attending one of the betterknown private institutions, in spite of the highercost, rather than a state university. However, thestate universities are becoming increasingly important, and some of them, particularly in the midwest have a reputation practically equal to that ofthe private ones. Almost every state by now hasseveral university institutions directly under theauthority of[8] the state government. 尽管私立院校费用较高,大多数美国人认为,就读于名气大一些的私立院校有某种优越性,故不愿上州立大批。然而,州立大学日趋重要,其中部分院校,尤其是中西部绝区的州立大学,现在已与私立大学齐名。如今,几乎各州都有几所隶属于州政府直接管辖的高等院校。 It has always been common for students towork to earn money, not only in vacations butalso, when practicable, by doing part-time jobsduring term-time. As the cost of study and livingkeeps going up steadily year after year, these earnings are useful and often essential, and mostly students do rather unskilled work. Some students dopaid work for the university at which they study,in the library or the restaurant[9], or even by actingas lifeguards at a bathing-place[10]. Others workoutside. 学生打工挣钱历来是一种普遍的现象,他们不仅在假期里干活,若条件许可,也在学期内课余兼职。由于每年的学习费用和生活费用不断上升,这些收入很顶用,而且常常是必不可少的。学生们干的基本上是一些无需专门技术的工作。有的受雇于本校的图书馆或食堂,甚至在游泳场馆担任救生员;有的则在校外打工。
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