Dropping out of university to launch a start-up is old hat. The twist with Joseph Cohen, Dan Getelman and Jim Grandpre is that their start-up aims to improve how universities work. In May 2011 the three founders quit the University of Pennsylvania to launch Coursekit, soon renamed as Lore, which has already raised $6 million to develop what Mr. Cohen, its 21-year-old chief executive, describes as a 'social-learning network for the classroom'.
Lore is part of a trend that builds on the familiarity with social networking that has come with the success of Facebook. It customizes the rules of a network to meet the specific needs of students. Anyone teaching a class would reasonably worry that students using Facebook were gossiping rather than learning useful information from their network of friends. Lore allows teachers to control exactly who is in the network by issuing a class-membership code and to see how they are using it. They can also distribute course materials, contact students, manage tests and grades, and decide what to make public and what to keep private. Students can also interact with each other.
In the academic year after launching its first version last November, Lore was used in at least one class in 600 universities and colleges. Its goal for its second year, about to begin, is to spread rapidly within those 600 institutions, not least to see what the effects of scale are from having lots of classes signed up within the same institution.
The firm has a fast-growing army of fans in the faculty common room. Lore, says Edward Boches, who uses it for his advertising classes at Boston University, makes teaching 'more interactive, extends it beyond the classroom and stimulates students to learn from each other rather than just the professor'.
Among other challenges for the company, there remains the small matter of figuring out a business model. For the moment it has none. Mr. Cohen hopes that eventually Lore could become the primary marketplace for everything from courses to textbooks, but so far the service is free and carries no advertising. Blackboard, the industry incumbent (现任者), charges users for its course-management software. It remains to be seen how it will respond to the upstart (自命不凡的家伙).
The lack of a plan does not appear to bother Lore's founders or investors, who seem content to learn a lesson from another university drop-out, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook: Achieve critical mass in your network and the profits will follow. And after that perhaps they can expect an honorary degree from the alma mater (母校).

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】

由题干中的the first paragraph定位到第一段。定位段第二句指出，Joseph Cohen，Dan Getelman和Jim Grandpre的合作创业旨在提升大学的运作方式，故答案为B。 [参考译文] 大学辍学去创业已成老生常谈。Joseph Cohen，Dan Getelman和Jim Grandpre的合作创业旨在提升大学的运作方式。2011年5月，这三个创建者从宾夕法尼亚大学退学后创建了“课程工具箱”，不久又更名为“学问”。它已经募集到600万美元的资金，据21岁的执行总裁Cohen先生所描述，“学问”将发展为教室里的社交学习网络。随着脸谱网的成功，社交网络日渐流行，“学问”就是顺应这一潮流而创建的。他们定制了网络规则来满足学生们的具体需求。任何一个老师都有理由担心学生在脸谱网上闲聊而不是从朋友网络中学习有用的信息。“学问”使得教师们通过发行课堂成员代码来严格控制网络中的学生以及他们如何使用网络。他们也可以传递课程资料、联系学生、管理考试和打分、决定什么东西该公布和什么东西该属于隐私。学生们也能够相互交流。在去年11月发行了它的首个版本后的一个学术年里，600所大学和学院里至少有一个班上使用了“学问”。“学问”即将开始实行的第二年计划是在600所机构里扩大影响范围，尤其是要看看同一机构里很多班级报名的规模效应。这家公司越来越受教师的欢迎。在波士顿大学教授广告学的Edward Boches说“学问”使得教学更具互动性，将教学延伸至课堂外并激励学生相互学习而不是仅仅请教教授。在公司所面临的诸多挑战中，还存在着一个小问题，那就是要找到一种商业模式。就目前而言，它还没有任何商业模式。Cohen先生希望“学问”最终能成为从课程到教科书等一切的主要市场。但是到目前为止，这项服务是免费的，也没有做广告。现在占领市场的黑板公司向使用其课程管理软件的人索取费用。对于它将如何对待“学问”这个自命不凡的新兴公司，还有待观察。 “学问”的创始人和投资者并没有因为缺乏计划而烦恼，他们似乎满足于向另一所大学的辍学者——脸谱网的共同创建者Mark Zuckerberg学习：让网络使用量达到一个临界值，利润就会随之而来。之后，他们或许还能拿到母校的荣誉学位。