几个世纪以来美国高等教育都是非常成功的，但现在随着其规模不断扩大和政府拨款逐年减少，只能一年又一年大幅涨学费，以至于很多学生不得不背负巨额债务，而学校却在疯狂地建楼修体育场、游泳池和攀岩墙，把钱花在非教师职位的人身上，似乎忘记了自己的初衷。
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The first American college, Harvard College, was a child of the University of Cambridge in England. The Puritans had come over to New England in the early 1630s, and after they settled the basics of food and shelter, they turned their attention to starting a college. 哈佛大学是美国第一所大学，是由英国剑桥大学孕育而生。在1630年早期来到新英格兰，当他们解决了食物及住宿问题后，就有了建立一所大学的想法。
★★ Puritan n.
★ shelter n.住处
In that sense, the college was an offshoot of the church, the lecture, so central to college education, is really a kind of modern version of the sermon. It was a commitment to the idea that students could be transformed to lead lives of meaning and purpose. 那时的大学其实是教堂的衍生物，而大学教育的精髓，讲座，其实只是一种更现代的布道，其背后所恪守的思想是让学生能够在以后的人生中主导自己生活的意义及目的。
★★★ offshoot n.分支，衍生物
★ version n.版本，说法
★★★ sermon n.布道
★★ commitment n.信奉
★ transform vt.改变
Harvard is the source of DNA, for almost all of higher education in America. It laid out the model that a university needs to emulate in order to get better resources, better professors, better credentials, better students. As Harvard passed that DNA down to everybody else, it created a race. 全美所有的大学都继承着哈佛的 DNA，它为其他大学提供了一个为了更好的资源、教授、声望及学生所需要的竞争模型，在哈佛把这种 DNA传下去的同时，造就了一种竞争。
★ lay out 规划，设计
★★★ emulate vt.尽力赶上
★★ credential n.文凭，证书
When the colonial colleges started to become universities, and when brand-new institutions were founded as universities, you began to see a tension developing between the mission to educate young people and the competition for prestige to out-build your rivals. 当殖民地大学转变成为大学，当新的大学被建立起来，你能看到各个大学在教育年轻人和超越对手以获得更高的威望这两个理论之间，产生了一种紧张的气氛。
★★ colonial a.殖民地的
★ brand-new a.全新的
★ institution n.机构
★★★ tension n.紧张
★★ prestige n.威望，声望
★ rival n.对手，竞争者
American colleges are driven by the pursuit of prestige. And the way you get prestige is that you get the highest ranking, which expands your market, and allows you to charge more. 美国的大学被追逐声望的欲望驱动着，提高声望的方法就是获得更高的排名，从而可以扩大自己的市场，收取更高的学费。
★ pursuit n.追求
★★ prestige n.威望，声望
★ ranking n.排名
★ expand vt.扩大
★ charge v.收费
So, in order to go up the ladder, everybody has to keep adding more programs and more facilities at a faster rate than competitors. This really was the most sort of grandiose vision of what universities could be, that it was a place of higher learning, it was a place of research. It covered every single discipline under the sun, and there really was no end to its expansion. 所以，为了提高排名，每所学校都要比对手更快地增加更多的项目及设施。一所大学最崇高的愿景就是让自己成为一个提供高等教育，做研究，能够包含世界上所有学科（的大学），这种扩张是无穷无尽的。
★ facility n.设施
★★★ grandiose vision 宏伟愿景
★ discipline n.学科
★ expansion n.扩大，扩张
The system of elite residential higher education that Americans assembled over the course of the last centuries is extraordinarily effective. Nobody disputes that. But it’s also extraordinarily inefficient in terms of the resources that it expended to produce these spectacular places. 美国在过去一个世纪里发展出来的精英住宿式高等教育体系是非常行之有效的，没有人质疑这一点。但从另一方面来说，它需要花费极大的资源来建立这一切，从这点上来说，这个体系又是非常低效的。
★★ elite n.精英
★★ residential a.寄宿制的
★ assemble vt.组装
★ extraordinarily ad.极其，非常
★ effective a.有效的
★ dispute vt.怀疑，反驳
★ inefficient a.效率低的
★ in terms of 在…方面
★★ expend vt.花费
★★ spectacular a.壮观的
Higher education in America has been very successful for centuries. But now things are changing, because the scale and the cost are enormous. We have a product that is so expensive that a lot of people can’t pay for it and they have to go into debt, and it just isn’t viable. 几个世纪以来，美国的高等教育都是非常成功的，但现在事情开始有了变化，因为其规模及开销已经巨大无比。现在的教育产业已经变得太过昂贵，以至于大多数人都承担不起，他们不得不因此背负巨额债务，这样是不行的。
★ scale n.规模
★ enormous a.巨大的
★★ viable a.可行的
The rise in student tuition is unsustainable. We cannot continue to charge significantly more year after year after year without running into some kind of a brick wall. 一味地提高学费不是长久之计，我们像这样一年又一年地大幅提高学费最终会到达一个终点。
★ tuition n.学费
★★ unsustainable adj.不能持久的
★ charge vt.收费
★ significantly ad.大幅度地
They have this great thing in colleges and universities called tuition, and it’s been a great release valve. As appropriations have gone down in the states, tuition at public colleges has gone up. 大学依靠着一个好东西作为泄气阀，那个东西叫做学费，政府拨款越来越少，学费越来越高。
★ tuition n.学费
★★★ release valve 泄气阀
★★★ appropriation n.拨款
We’ve lost $100 million in funding, and the board has replaced one out of every four of those dollars with tuition. Far more of the cost of education is now borne by the student. Student loans are certainly a really important part of this equation, too. 政府对我们的拨款已经减少了一亿，董事会将其中四分之一的缺口用学费来填补。现在大部分的教育支持已经变为由学生来承担，在这其中，助学贷款也扮演着非常重要的角色。
★ funding n.拨款
★ board n.董事会
★ be borne by 由…负担
★ student loan 助学贷款
★ equation n.综合体
The availability of student loans to pay for college makes families less sensitive to the price, makes colleges less likely to compete on the price. 助学贷款的存在使得每个家庭对学费变得不那么敏感，也淡化了大学在学费上的竞争。
★ availability n.可得性
★ student loan 助学贷款
★ sensitive a.敏感的
Universities are driven by perks wars. One offers an amenity, and they all have to offer the amenity. They’re adding the climbing walls, and they’re adding the plasma screen TVs. 大学现在打的是福利战争，一所学校建起了新的设施，其他学校也都要有。他们建起了攀岩墙，换了等离子大电视。
★★★ perk n.津贴，额外待遇
★★★ amenity n.生活设施，便利设施
★★★ plasma screen 等离子屏幕
There’s a massive construction boom on US colleges and universities today. It’s an arms race, if you will, in higher education. It’s a feeding frenzy to have a better student center, a bigger football stadium. Sometimes it can be grotesque. 现在的美国大学都在疯狂地建楼，你可以把它看成一场高等教育界的军备竞赛。学校对更好的楼、更大的体育场的追求已经达到了狂热的程度，有时候还会建些奇形怪状的东西。
★ massive a.巨大的，大量的
★ boom n.增长
★ arms race 军备竞赛
★★★ frenzy n.狂热
★★★ feeding frenzy 疯狂进食，大鱼吃小鱼
★ stadium n.体育场
★★★ grotesque n.奇形怪状的东西
You give momentum to this notion of the student as customer when you charge them so much money for their education. 当你向学生收取了如此高昂的学费，学生的概念就慢慢转化成了消费者。
★★ momentum n.势头
★ notion n.观念，概念
★ charge vt.收费
We tend to focus a lot on student debt, but over this last decade, institutions themselves, college and universities, doubled the amount of debt that they took on. 我们往往把焦点放在学生债务上，但在过去十年里，就大学本身的债务就已经翻了一番。
★ tend to 往往
★ institution n.机构
★ take on 承担
Administrations seem often to be the tail wagging the dog. Some of our leading presidents can be quite shameless in the size of their compensation. 这个经费比例明显有点主次颠倒，某些大学的校长们拿着如此高的年薪真是显得有些不要脸。
★ administration n.行政人员
★★★ tail wagging the dog 尾巴摇狗，主次颠倒
★ shameless a.无耻的
★★ compensation n.薪酬
注：一星词汇为四级难度，二星词汇为六级、考研难度，三星词汇为雅思、托福及以上难度，大家根据自己的考试要求选择性学习，参考所列词句自由做笔记，学单词、涨知识。建议准备一个专门的本子，日积月累，这会是不小的收获！
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