By almost any measure, there is a boom in Internet-based instruction. In
just a few years, 34 percent of American universities have begun offering some
form of distance learning (DL), and among the larger schools, it's closer to 90
percent. If you doubt the popularity of the trend, you probably haven't heard of
the University of Phoenix. It grants degrees entirely on the basis of online
instruction. It enrolls 90,000 students, a statistic used to support its claim
to be the largest private university in the country. While the
kinds of instruction offered in these programs differ, DL usually signifies a
course in which the instructors post syllabi (课程大纲), reading assignments, and
schedules on Websites, and students send in their assignments by e-mail.
Generally speaking, face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized
or eliminated altogether. The attraction for students might at
first seem obvious. Primarily, there's the convenience promised by courses on
the Net: you can do the work, as they say, in your pajamas (睡衣). But figures
indicate that the reduced effort results in a reduced commitment to the course.
While drop-out rates for all freshmen at American universities is around 20
percent, the rate for online students is 35 percent. Students themselves seem to
understand the weaknesses inherent in the setup. In a survey conducted for
Cornell, the DL division of Cornell University, less than a third of the
respondents expected the quality of the online course to be as good as the
classroom course. Clearly, from the schools' perspective,
there's a lot of money to be saved. Although some of the more ambitious programs
require new investments in servers and networks to support collaborative
software, most DL courses can run on existing or minimally upgraded (升级)
systems. The more students who enroll in a course but don't come to campus, the
more the school saves on keeping the lights on in the classrooms, paying
doorkeepers, and maintaining parking lots. And, while there's evidence that
instructors must work harder to run a DL course for a variety of reasons, they
won't be paid any more, and might well be paid less.
单选题
What is the most striking feature of the University of Phoenix?
A. All its courses are offered online.
B. Its online courses are of the best quality.
C. It boasts the largest number of students on campus.
D. Anyone taking its online courses is sure to get a degree.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的the University of Phoenix定位到文章第一段第三句。结合上下文可以判断该段第四句中的it指代的就是上文中提到的大学：该学校授予学位完全以网络教育为基础。由此可推断该学校是一个网络学校，课程都是以远程教育的方式开展。
单选题
According to the passage distance learning is basically characterized
by ______.
A. a considerable flexibility in its academic requirements
B. the great diversity of students' academic backgrounds
C. a minimum or total absence of face-to-face instruction
D. the casual relationship between students and professors
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的basically characterized by定位到第二段最后一句。题干中basically speaking与原文第二段末句中的generally speaking相对应，答案就是face-to-face communication with an instructor is minimized or eliminated altogether，选项C中的minimum仅是对minimize词性的转换，total absence是eliminated altogether的同义转述。
单选题
Many students take Internet-based courses mainly because they can
______.
A. earn their academic degrees with much less effort
B. save a great deal on traveling and boarding expenses
C. select courses from various colleges and universities
D. work on the required courses whenever and wherever
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的because定位到第三段首句；由mainly定位到第三段第二句。由这两句话可知学生选择这种学习方式的主要原因在于它的便捷性。通过对该句中冒号后面句子you can do the work, as they say, in your Pajamas.(正如他们所说的，你可以穿着睡衣做作业)的理解，很容易选出正确答案。
单选题
What accounts for the high drop-out rates for online students?
A. There is no strict control over the academic standards of the
courses.
B. The evaluation system used by online universities is inherently
weak.
C. There is no mechanism to ensure that they make the required effort.
D. Lack of classroom interaction reduces the effectiveness of
instruction.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 由题干中的drop-out一词定位到文章第三段第四句；由题干中的accounts for定位到第三段第三句。根据the reduced efforts results in a reduced commitment to the course(付出的减少导致课程约束力的下降)的意思，很显然C项中的缺乏保障机制是原文的同义转述。
单选题
According to the passage, universities show great enthusiasm for DL
programs for the purpose of ______.