单选题 In recent years American society has become increasingly dependent on its universities to find solutions to its major problems. It is the universities that have been charged with the principal responsibility for developing the expertise to place men on the moon; for dealing with our urban problems and with our deteriorating environment; for developing the means to feed the world's rapidly increasing population. The effort involved in meeting these demands presents its own problems. In addition, this concentration on the creation of new knowledge significantly impinges on the universities' efforts to perform their other principal functions, the transmission and interpretation of knowledge the imparting of the heritage of the past and the preparing of the next generation to carry it forward.
With regard to this, perhaps their most traditionally sanctioned task, colleges and universities today find themselves in a serious hind generally. On the one hand, there is the American commitment, entered into especially since WW 1I, to provide higher education for all young people who can profit from it. The result of the commitment has been a dramatic rise in enrollments in our universities, coupled with a radical shift from the private to the public sector of higher education. On the other hand, there are serious and continuing limitations on the resources available for higher education.
While higher education has become a great "growth industry", it is also simultaneously a tremendous drain on the resources of nation. With the vast increase in enrollment and the shift in priorities away from education in state and federal budgets, there is in most of our public institutions a significant decrease in per capita outlay for their students, one crucial aspect of this drain on resources lies in the persistent shortage of trained faculty, which has led, in rum, to a declining standard of competence in instruction.
Intensifying these difficulties is, as indicated above, the concern with research, with its competing claims on resources and the attention of the faculty. In addition, there is a strong tendency for the institutions; organization and functioning to conform to the demands of research rather than those of teaching.

单选题 According to the passage,—is the most important function of institutions of higher education.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。
题意为：“根据本文，——是高等院校更重要的职能。”根据第一段末句(此外，致力于知识的创新会严重影响到大学的其他主要职能，传授知识——让学生掌握历史积淀下来的知识并准备好继承这一事业。)，可知选项D“让学生准备好传授知识”为正确答案。选项A“为知识创新”；选项B“为社会问题提供解决方案”；选项C“将他们的学生塑造成复杂产业的专家”。
单选题 According to the passage, one of the causes for the difficulties of American higher education is that______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推断题。
题意为：“根据本文，造成美国高等教育困难重要的一个原因是______。”根据第三段第二句“人学人数剧增，联邦预算和各州的预算也不再优先考虑教育，致使在大多数公立院校中分到每个学生头上的花费锐减。”可知选项A“政府拨给公立院校的财政资助不如以前多”为正确答案。选项B“美国总是鼓励年轻人上大学”；选项C“许多公立院校取代了私立院校”；选项D“政府仅仅资助类似登月的研究项目”。
单选题 The phrase "impinge on" in Paragraph 1 most probably means______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】词义猜测题。
题意为：“文章第一段中impinge on的意思可能是______。”参见本文第一道题的解析，该词组最可能的解释是选项C“影响”。选项A“促进”；选项B“依赖”；选项D“阻挡”。
单选题 A serious outcome brought out by the shortage of resources is that______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。
题意为：“资源短缺的一个严重后果是______。”根据第三段末句(资源短缺的一个重要方面是师资的持续短缺，它导致教学水平的下降。)，可知选项B“教师的授课水平有欠缺”为正确答案。选项A“许多公立院校不得不减少学生入学人数”；选项C“有些院校不得不减少研究的开支”；选项D“公立和私立院校之间在资源和师资方面存在激烈竞争”。
单选题 Which of the following statements is NOT true?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】细节题。
题意为：“下列陈述哪句不正确?”选项B“尽管困难重重，这些院校下决心要兼顾科研和教学的职能”，文中未提及，故不正确，为正确答案。选项A“美国未能给这些院校足够的资源满足它们的需要”，参见本文第二题的分析，可知选项A为正确陈述。选项C“美国社会过于依赖高等院校，以至于这些院校很难在各项职能之间游刃有余”是文章的主要论述。根据文章最后一段首句：如上所述，研究对资源和师资的要求更高。因此注重研究加剧了这些困难，可知选项D“研究工作比教学工作需要更多的资源和师资”为正确陈述。