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《考研英语阅读理解100篇 基础版》第4章 科学研究类 Unit 53

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2019年01月14日

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Nobody ever went into academia to make a fast buck.Professors,especially those in medical-and technology-related fields,typically earn a fraction of what their colleagues in industry do.But suddenly,big money is starting to flow into the ivory tower,as university administrators wake up to the commercial potential of academic research.And the institutions are wrestling with a whole new set of issues. 
The profits are impressive:① the Association of University Technology Managers surveyed 132 universities and found that they earned a combined $576 million from patent royalties in 1998,a number that promises to keep rising dramatically. Schools like Columbia University in New York have aggressively marketed their inventions to corporations,particularly pharmaceutical and high-tech companies. 
Now Columbia is going retail—on the Web.It plans to go beyond the typical“dot.edu” model,free sites listing courses and professors’ research interests.Instead,it will offer the expertise of its faculty on a new for-profit site which will be spun off as an independent company.The site will provide free access to educational and research content,say administrators,as well as advanced features that are already available to Columbia students,such as a simulation of the construction and architecture of a French cathedral and interactive 3-D models of organic chemicals.Free pages will feed into profit-generating areas,such as online courses and seminars,and related books and tapes.Columbia executive vice provost Michael Crow imagines“millions of visitors” to the new site,including retirees and students willing to pay to tap into this educational resource.“We can offer the best of what's thought and written and researched,” says Ann Kirschner,who heads the project.Columbia also is anxious not be aced out by some of the other for-profit“knowledge sites,” such as About.com and Hungry Minds.“If they capture this space,” says Crow,“they’ll begin to cherry-pick our best faculty.” 
Profits from the sale of patents typically have been divided between the researcher,the department and the university,and Web profits would work the same way,so many faculty members are delighted.But others find the trend worrisome: is a professor who stands to profit from his or her research as credible as one who doesn’t? ② Will universities provide more support to researchers working in profitable fields than to scholars toiling in more musty areas? 
“If there's the perception that we might be making money from our efforts,the authority of the university could be diminished,” worries Herve Varenne,a cultural anthropology professor at Columbia's education school.Says Kirschner:“We would never compromise the integrity of the university.” Whether the new site can add to the growing profits from patents remains to be seen,but one thing is clear.It's going to take the best minds on campus to find a new balance between profit and purity. 
注(1):本文选自Newsweek; 
注(2):本文习题命题模仿对象为 2002年真题Text 2。 
1.In the past,if you want to make fast money,you should work in ______. 
A) academia 
B) ivory tower 
C) company 
D) medical field 
2.The word“aggressively”(Line 4,Paragraph 2)most probably means ______. 
A) harmfully 
B) carelessly 
C) desperately 
D) boldly 
3.According to the text,the traditional feature of the Web of Columbia is ______. 
A) offering free access to the advanced features that are available to Columbia's students 
B) that free page will feed into profit-producing page 
C) providing the expertise of the teachers on the profit site 
D) offering free sites listing courses and professors’ research interests 
4.Besides the delight of most people for the profit,some ______. 
A) worry that the professors are not reliable 
B) think this tendency may be terrible 
C) hope the university to give more support to researchers who work for profit 
D) show mercy to the scholars toiling in the musty area 
5.The author uses the words of the professor Herve Varenne and Kirschner to show ______. 
A) if the faculties all try to make money the university will have no authority 
B) the new site may not add to the growing profits 
C) there exist some problems behind the profit 
D) new balance between profit and purity will be the best opinion 

从未有人为快速致富而进入学术界。教授们,特别是那些在医学和技术相关领域的工作的教授,他们只能挣到在企业工作的同行收入的一小部分。但是突然之间,大量金钱现在开始流入大学这座象牙塔,因为大学管理者开始意识到学术研究的商业潜力。研究机构正在全力解决一系列的新问题。 
利润是相当可观的:大学技术经理人协会对132所大学进行调查,结果表明在1998年他们从专利税中共赢利5.76亿美元,而且这个数字有望保持快速增长的势头。一些大学,如纽约哥伦比亚大学已经积极地向公司——特别是那些生产药品的和高科技公司——推销他们的发明。 
现在,哥伦比亚大学正在尝试通过互联网发展零售业。它计划超越典型的教育网站一般仅提供关于免费列出课程和教授们研究兴趣的信息的“dot.edu”模式。取而代之的是,哥伦比亚大学将在一家新的赢利网站上提供学校教员的专业技能,这种网站就像一个独立的公司。管理者说,网站允许免费访问教育和研究内容,以及已经为哥伦比亚大学学生所利用的一些先进的功能,诸如展示建筑物模型、法国教堂的建筑结构和有机化学变化的交互式3D模型。免费网页插入收费网页中,比如在线课题、研讨会和相关书籍、磁带。哥伦比亚大学执行副教务长米切尔·克罗预计会有数百万人访问这个新网站,包括会为访问教育资源付费的退休人员和学生。牵头这项计划的安·克斯科娜说:“我们能提供给人们思考、写作和研究的最好内容。”哥伦比亚大学也担心,不愿被其他一些赢利的“知识网站”如About.com和Hungry Minds打败。克罗说:“如果他们抓住空子,他们会抢走我们最好的教职人员。” 
出售专利所得利润通常是分给研究人员、院系和大学,网站利润也同样分配。这样一来,许多大学教员都很满意,但是,另外一些人则对这种趋势深感忧虑:一位从自己研究中获利的教授和不从研究中获利的教授是否同样可信呢?大学会为从事可赢利领域的研究者提供比从事冷门领域的研究者更多支持吗? 
“如果我们存在可以通过努力挣钱从中牟利的这种观念,大学的权威性可能会降低,”哥伦比亚教育学院的一位文化人类学教授赫维·瓦雷纳担心地说。克斯克娜说:“我们在大学的清廉方面从未妥协。”这种新网站能否增加正在增长的专利收入还有待观察,但是有一个事实是显而易见的,那就是利用大学里最聪明的头脑去寻求利益与清廉之间新的平衡。 
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