In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fights. We are pushi

游客2024-03-07  22

问题     In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fights. We are pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession (痴迷) is more about us than them. So we’ve contrived various justifications that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
    We have a full-blown prestige panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. Underlying the hysteria (歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All that is plausible—and mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures—professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams—selective schools do slightly worse.
    By some studies, selective schools do enhance their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke (偶然).A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
    Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and, paradoxically, its significance is declining. Old-boy networks are breaking down. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of prestigious universities didn’t.
    So, parents, lighten up. The stakes have been vastly exaggerated up to a point; we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints. [br] Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?

选项 A、They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B、They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C、They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D、They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.

答案 D

解析 细节题。根据题干中的parents are the true fighters定位到原文第一段。该段前两句提到,在大学招生大战中,我们做家长的才是真正在战斗的人。我们督促孩子取得好成绩、学习SAT预备课程、制作简历,这样他们就能进入我们家长心中首选的大学。由此可知,家长比孩子更在意孩子上哪所大学,D项表述符合原文,故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3513751.html
最新回复(0)