单选题Read the following text. Answer the questions below the text by choosing A,
B, C or D. 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 90000 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 will 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 dropout
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 E-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.