单选题 .  In recent years, we have all watched the increasing commercialization of the campus. The numerous advertising posters and the golden arches of fast food outlets may be an insult to our aesthetic sensibilities, but they are, arguably, no worse than ugly. Some of the other new features of commercialized campus life do, however, constitute a serious threat to things we rightly respect. "Privatization" and the "business model" are the potential menace.
    What do these notions mean? To me, they involve an increased dependence on industry and charitable actions for operating the university; an increased amount of our resources being directed to applied or so-called practical subjects, both in teaching and in research; a proprietary treatment of research results, with the commercial interest in secrecy overriding the public's interest in free, shared knowledge; and an attempt to run the university more like a business that treats industry and students as clients and ourselves as service providers with something to sell. We pay increasing attention to the immediate needs and demands of our "customers" and, as the old saying goes, "the customer is always right."
    Privatization is particularly frightening from the point of view of public well-being. A researcher employed by a university-affiliated hospital in Canada, working under contract with a medicine-making company, made public her findings that a particular drug was harmful. This violated the terms of her contract, and so she was fired. Her dismissal caused a scandal, and she was subsequently restored to her previous position. The university and hospital in question are now working out something similar to tenure for hospital-based researchers and guidelines for contracts, so that more public exposure of privately funded research will become possible. This is a rare victory and a small step in the right direction, but the general trend is the other way. Thanks to profit-driven private funding, researchers are not only forced to keep valuable information secret, they are often contractually obliged to keep discovered dangers to public health under wraps, too. Of course, we must not be too naive about this. Governments can unwisely insist on secrecy, too, as did the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food in the work they funded in connection with a certain epidemic. This prevented others from reviewing the relevant data and pointing out that problems were more serious than government was letting in.1.  According to the first paragraph, campus life has become ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】 推理题。本题定位到第一段第三句,校园商业化的其他特征对校园生活构成威胁。题干中的harmful对应原文中的aserious threat,因此正确答案是B。A和C在文中提到,但不是对校园生活的本质描写;而D项在文中没有提到。
   近些年,我们亲眼目睹了越来越严重的校园的商业化现象。数不清的广告海报和快餐店金色的拱形门或许是对我们的审美观的凌辱,但毫无疑问地,没有比它们更丑陋的了。然而,商业化的校园生活的一些其他新特点,确确实实对我们正应当尊重的事物构成了威胁。“私有化”和“商业模式”就是潜在的威胁。
   这些观念意味着什么?对我来说,它们意味着:开办大学对工业和慈善事业越来越大的依赖;我们越来越多的资源被用于应用或者所谓的实用学科,既有教学方面也有研究方面;私人占有研究成果,出于商业利益对研究成果保密,践踏公众获得免费共享知识的权益,以及更倾向于像经商一样去管理大学,把企业和学生都当作客户,学校自己则当作服务的供应商,出售商品。我们密切关注我们“客户”的即时需要和需求,而且就像俗话说的,“顾客永远是对的。”
   从公众幸福的角度来看,私有化尤其可怕。就职于加拿大一所大学附属医院并与一家制药公司签订劳务合同的研究人员,公开宣称她发现一种特定的药物对人体有害。这一举动违反了合同的条款,因此她被解雇了。她被解雇的事引出了丑闻,后来她回到原来的工作岗位上继续工作。上述的大学和医院正在制定有关驻院研究人员研究成果所有权的规定,并确定合同的指导方针,这样向公众告知更多的自费研究就将变得可能了。这是难得的胜利,也是向正确方向迈出的一小步,但是总体的趋势却是向着相反的方向。由于接受了唯利是图的私人赞助,研究人员不仅被迫对珍贵的信息保密,他们也通常有义务按照契约对公众健康的已知威胁守口如瓶。当然,我们对此不能太轻信了。政府也会不明智地坚持保守秘密,就像英国农渔食品部对他们赞助的有关流行病的研究所做的那样。这样就阻止了别人检查相关的数据然后指出问题比政府公布的要更严重。