单选题 A recurring criticism of the UK"s university sector is its perceived weakness in translating new knowledge into new products and services.
Recently, the UK National Stem Cell Network warned the UK could lose its place among the world leaders in stem cell research unless adequate funding and legislation could be assured. We should take this concern seriously as universities are key in the national innovation system.
However, we do have to challenge the unthinking complaint that the sector does not do enough in taking ideas to market. The most recent comparative data on the performance of universities and research institutions in Australia, Canada, USA and UK shows that, from a relatively weak starting position, the UK now leads on many indicators of commercialisation activity.
When viewed at the national level, the policy interventions of the past decade have helped transform the performance of UK universities. Evidence suggests the UK"s position is much stronger than in the recent past and is still showing improvement. But national data masks the very large variation in the performance of individual universities. The evidence shows that a large number of universities have fallen off the back of the pack, a few perform strongly and the rest chase the leaders.
This type of uneven distribution is not peculiar to the UK and is mirrored across other economies. In the UK, research is concentrated. Less than 25% of universities receive 75% of the research funding. These same universities are also the institutions producing the greatest share of PhD graduates, science citations, patents and licence income. The effect of policies generating long-term resource concentration has also created a distinctive set of universities which are research-led and commercially active. It seems clear that the concentration of research and commercialisation work creates differences between universities.
The core objective for universities which are research-led must be to maximise the impact of their research efforts. These universities should be generating the widest range of social, economic and environmental benefits. In return for the scale of investment, they should share their expertise in order to build greater confidence in the sector.
Part of the economic recovery of the UK will be driven by the next generation of research commercialisation spilling out of our universities. There are three dozen universities in the UK which are actively engaged in advanced research training and commercialisation work.
If there was a greater coordination of technology transfer offices within regions and a simultaneous investment in the scale and functions of our graduate schools, universities could, and should, play a key role in positioning the UK for the next growth cycle.
单选题 What does the author think of UK universities in terms of commercialisation?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 由UK universities和commercialisation定位到第三段第二句。
细节辨认题。作者从第三段开始就表明自己不同的立场,即我们需要反驳那些称大学缺乏商业化能力的抱怨;之后作者通过研究数据证明自己的观点,指出英国大学的起点虽然相对较低,但是其在商业化活动中的许多指标都居于前列。因此,答案选D。
单选题 What does the author say about the national data on UK universities" performance in commercialisation?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 由national data定位到第四段第三句。
细节辨认题。定位句提到,全国性的数据掩盖了各个大学表现之间的巨大差异,也就是说,没有反映出各个大学之间的不同;第四句又具体地描述了有哪些不同:一大批大学已经掉队,只有少数大学表现十分突出,剩下的大学在追赶领先者。因此,答案为A。
单选题 The "policy interventions" (Line 1, Para. 4) refers to ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 由policy interventions定位到第四段第一句。
推理判断题。题干中的policy interventions出现在第四段第一句,第四段大意是政府干预对英国大学的表现有积极作用,但导致了各个大学实力不均衡的现象;第五段第二句指出,在英国,科研是十分集中的,不到25%的大学获得了75%的研究基金;第五段末句总结:很明显,科研和商业化活动上的集中导致了大学之间的差异。由此推断,政府的政策指“对一定数量的大学进行资源的集中投入”,故答案为C。
单选题 What does the author suggest research-led universities do?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 由research-led universities定位到第六段的第一、二句。
推理判断题。定位句指出:以研究为主导的大学的核心目标必定是将其研究成果的作用最大化。这些大学应该要产生最大范围的社会、经济和环境效益。由此推断,作者建议以研究为主导的大学要“充分利用研究成果以造福社会各个行业”,故答案为B。
单选题 How can the university sector play a key role in the UK"s economic growth?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 由play a key role in the UK"s economic growth定位到最后一段。
细节辨认题。定位段提到,如果想要英国大学在本国经济增长中发挥作用,就要满足两个条件:“地区间技术转让部门的协调更加顺畅”,同时,“投入资金进行研究生院的建设,使其规模更大且更好地发挥作用”,也就是技术转让和研究生教育这两个方面。因此,答案为C。