单选题
To produce the upheaval in the United States that
changed and modernized the domain of higher education from the mid-1860s to the
mid-1880s, three primary causes interacted. The emergence of a half dozen
leaders in education provided the personal force that was needed.
Moreover, an outcry for a fresher, more practical, and more advanced kind
of instruction arose among the alumni and friends of nearly all of the old
colleges and grew into a movement that overrode all conservative
opposition. The aggressive "Young Yale" movement appeared, demanding partial
alumni control, a more liberal spirit, and a broader course of study. The
graduates of Harvard College simultaneously rallied to relieve the college's
poverty and demand new enterprise. Education was pushing toward higher standards
in the East by throwing off church leadership everywhere, and in the West by
finding a wider range of studies and a new sense of public duty.
The old-style classical education received its most crushing blow in the
citadel of Harvard College, where Dr. Charles Eliot, a young captain of
thirty-five, son of a former treasure of Harvard, led the progressive forces.
Five revolutionary advances were made during the first years of Dr. Eliot's
administration. They were the elevation and amplification of entrance
requirements, the enlargement of the curriculum and the development of the
elective system, the recognition of graduate study in the liberal arts, the
raising of professional training in law, medicine, and the fostering of greater
maturity in student life. Standards of admission were sharply advanced in 1872 -
1873 and 1876 ~ 1877. By the appointment of a dean to take charge of student
affairs, and a wise handling of discipline, the undergraduates were led to
regard themselves more as young gentlemen and less as young animals. One new
course of study after another was opened up: science, music, the history of the
fine arts, advanced Spanish, political economy, physics, classical philology,
and international law.
单选题
Which of the following is the author's main purpose in writing the
passage?
A. To present the history of Harvard College and compare it with that of
Yale University.
B. To criticize the conditions of the U. S. universities in the 19th
century.
C. To describe innovations in the U. S. higher education in the late
180Os.
D. To introduce what was happening in major U. S. universities before the
turn of the century.