[图] indicates no current is passing through the c...

ssing the last bus, we had no choice but ______ a taxi home.

A．to take

B．take

C．taking

D．taken

Colleges taking another look at value of merit-based aid

Good grades and high tests scores still matter—a lot—to many colleges as they award financial aid.

But with low-income students projected to make up an ever-larger share of the college-bound population in coming years, some schools are re-examining whether that aid, typically known as “merit aid”, is the most effective use of precious institutional dollars.

George Washington University in Washington, D.C., for example, said last week that it would cut the value of its average merit scholarships by about one-third and reduce the number of recipients（接受者）, pouring the savings, about $2.5 million, into need-based aid. Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., made a similar decision three years ago.

Now, Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., says it will phase out merit scholarships altogether. No current merit-aid recipients will lose their scholarships, but need-based aid alone will be awarded beginning with students entering in fall 2008.

Not all colleges offer merit aid; generally, the more selective a school, the less likely it is to do so. Harvard and Princeton, for example, offer generous need-based packages, but many families who don’t meet need eligibility（资格）have been willing to pay whatever they must for a big-name school.

For small regional colleges that struggle just to fill seats, merit aid can be an important revenue-builder because many recipients still pay enough tuition dollars over and above the scholarship amount to keep the institution running.

But for rankings-conscious schools in between, merit aid has served primarily as a tool to recruit top students and to improve their academic profits. “They’re trying to buy students,” says Skidmore College economist Sandy Baum.

Studies show merit aid also tends to benefit disproportionately students who could afford to enroll without it.

“As we look to the future, we see a more pressing need to invest in need-based aid,” says Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, which has offered merit scholarships for 10 years. During that time, it rose in US News & World Report’s ranking of the best liberal arts colleges, from 25 to 17.

Merit aid, which benefited about 75 students a year, or about 4% of its student body, at a cost of about $ 1 million a year, “served us well,” Inzer says, but “to be discounting the price for families that don’t need financial aid doesn’t feel right any more.”

Need-based aid remains by far the largest share of all student aid, which includes state, federal and institutional grants. But merit aid, offered primarily by schools and states, is growing faster, both overall and at the institutional level.

Between 1995-96 and 2003-04, institutional merit aid alone increased 212%, compared with 47% for need-based grants. At least 15 states also offer merit aid, typically in a bid to enroll top students in the state’s public institutions.

But in recent years, a growing chorus（异口同声）of critics has begun pressuring schools to drop the practice. Recent decisions by Hamilton and others may be “a sign that people are starting to realize that there’s this destructive competition going on,” says Baum, co-author of a recent College Report that raises concerns about the role of institutional aid not based on need.

David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, says many of his schools would like to reduce their merit aid but fear that in doing so, they would lose top students to their competitors.

“No one can take one-sided action,” says Laird, who is exploring whether to seek an exemption（豁免）from federal anti-trust laws so member colleges can discuss how they could jointly reduce merit aid, “This is a merry-go-round that’s going very fast, and none of the institutions believe they can sustain the risks of trying to break away by themselves.”

A complicating factor is that merit aid has become so popular with middle-income families, who don’t qualify for need-based aid, that many have come to depend on it. And, as tuitions continue to increase, the line between merit and need blurs.

That’s one reason Allegheny College doesn’t plan to drop merit aid entirely.

“We still believe in rewarding superior achievements and know that these top students truly value the scholarship,” says Scott Friedhoff, Allegheny’s vice president for enrollment.

Emory University in Atlanta, which boasts a $4.7 billion endowment（捐赠）, meanwhile, is taking another approach. This year, it announced it would eliminate loans for needy students and cap them for middle-income families. At the same time, it would expand its 28-year-old merit program.

“Yeah, we’re playing the merit game,” acknowledges Tom Lancaster, associate dean for undergraduate education. But it has its strong point, too, he says. “The fact of the matter is, it’s not just about the lowest-income people. It’s the average American middle-class family who’s being priced out of the market.”

＊A few words about merit-based aid:

Merit-based aid is aid offered to students who achieve excellence in a given area, and is generally known as academic, athletic and artistic merit scholarships.

Academic merit scholarships are based on students’ grades, GPA and overall academic performance during high school. They are typically meant for students going straight to college right after high school. However, there are scholarships for current college students with exceptional grades as well. These merit scholarships usually help students pay tuition bills, and they can be renewed each year as long as the recipients continue to qualify. In some cases, students may need to be recommended by their school or a teacher as part of the qualification process.

Athletic merit scholarships are meant for students that excel（突出）in sports of any kind, from football to track and field events. Recommendation for these scholarships is required, since exceptional athletic performance has to be recognized by a coach or a referee（裁判）. Applicants need to send in a tape containing their best performance.

Artistic merit scholarships require that applicants excel in a given artistic area. This generally includes any creative field such as art, design, fashion, music, dance or writing. Applying for artistic merit scholarships usually requires that students submit a portfolio（选辑）of some sort, whether that includes a collection of artwork, a recording of a musical performance or a video of them dancing.

1. With more and more low-income students pursuing higher education, a number of colleges are ________.

A) offering students more merit-based aid B) revising their financial aid policies

C) increasing the amount of financial aid D) changing their admission processes

2. What did Allegheny College in Meadville do three years ago?

A) It tried to implement a novel financial aid program.

B) It added $ 2.5 million to its need-based aid program.

C) It phased out its merit-based scholarships altogether.

D) It cuts its merit-based aid to help the needy students.

3. The chief purpose of rankings-conscious colleges in offering merit aid is to ______.

A) improve teaching quality B) boost their enrollments

C) attract good students D) increase their revenues

4. Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, believes ______.

A) it doesn’t pay to spend $ 1 million a year to raise its ranking

B) it gives students motivation to award academic achievements

C) it’s illogical to use so much money on only 4% of its students

D) it’s not right to give aid to those who can afford the tuition

5. In recent years, merit-based aid has increased much faster than need-based aid due to ______.

A) more government funding to colleges B) fierce competition among institutions

C) the increasing number of top students D) schools’ improved financial situations

6. What is the attitude of many private colleges toward merit aid, according to David Laird?

A) They would like to see it reduced.

B) They regard it as a necessary evil.

C) They think it does more harm than good.

D) They consider it unfair to middle-class families.

7. Why doesn’t Allegheny College plan to drop merit aid entirely?

A) Raising tuitions have made college unaffordable for middle-class families.

B) With rising incomes, fewer students are applying for need-based aid.

C) Many students from middle-income families have come to rely on it.

D) Rising incomes have disqualified many students for need-based aid.

8. Annual renewal of academic merit scholarships depends on whether the recipients remain ______.

9. Applicants for athletic merit scholarships need a recommendation from a coach or a referee who ______ their exceptional athletic performance.

10. Applicants for artistic merit scholarships must produce evidence to show their ______ in a particular artistic field.

How did the woman know that a mailman came?

A．The mailman rang the bell.

B．The mailman knocked at the door.

C．The mailman shouted.

On entering the laboratory, Mr Abu was immediately suspicious because ______.

A．the whole class was looking so innocent

B．he was a suspicious man by nature

C．there was no teacher in the room

D．he could smell chemicals and he knew it was a physics lesson

On entering the laboratory, Mr. Abu was immediately suspicious because ______.

A．the whole class was looking so innocent

B．he was a suspicious man by nature

C．there was no teacher in the room

D．he could smell chemicals and he knew it was a physics lesson

As if they didn't have their hands full with Iraq and terrorism, U. S. intelligence agencies are being drawn into the debate over whether the United States is imminently threatened by a deadly outbreak of bird influenza and whether the Bush administration has adequately prepared for such an epidemic. Over the last two weeks, the administration has held bird flu briefings classified "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information" for members of both houses of Congress. A counterterrorism official indicated that the intelligence community is also studying whether it would be possible for terrorists to somehow exploit the avian flu virus and use it against the United States, though there is no evidence that terrorists have in any way tried to do so. The World Health Organization is warning that if a pandemic (a disease for which there is no certain treatment and to which humans have no natural immunity.) outbreak occurs, "at least 30 million people worldwide could require hospitalization, and at least 2 million people could die." The alarming figures like these in recent weeks caught the attention of President George W. Bush and other White House aides.

An intelligence official said, "The briefings did contain classified information. The reason the information is classified is because some of it was acquired through clan-destine means." A leading public-health expert, Dr. Irwin Redlener, said, "This is old-fashioned cold war secrecy being applied to a public-health issue-a very bad idea." Redlener has criticized President Bush and other administration officials for hinting recently that in the event of a pandemic bird flu outbreak, the federal government might rely heavily on the military to establish quarantine zones and restrict public movement to limit the possible spread of disease. Despite HSN1 (a bird flu strain) is reported mortality rate of 50 percent or more, Dr. Redlener says that by the time such a virus did arrive in the United States, its strength might be significantly degraded. But he notes that in the case of the 1918 Spanish flu, the eventual mortality rate of the virus turned out to be around 2 percent, yet millions still died.

What is vexing the Bush administration and other public-health professionals is the fact that the United States is not particularly well prepared in the event a bird flu pandemic does strike in the near future. HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) Secretary Mike Leavitt is currently on a trip to several countries in Asia to get a firsthand look at measures some countries are taking to contain the spread of known bird flu cases. The best defense against a deadly flu pandemic would be stopping it where it starts.

What can we learn about the U.S. intelligence agencies?

A．They believe the outbreak of bird flu is the terrorists' trick.

B．They take the federal attitude to the bird flu outbreak seriously.

C．They participate in the debate with reluctance.

D．They're ill-informed because it's a top secret.

By saying that "in too many academic fields, the work has no context" (Para. 1), the author means that the teaching in these areas

A．ignores the actual situation.

B．is not based on the right perspective.

C．only focuses on an integrated core of common learning.

D．gives priority to the cultivation of a global vision among students.

By saying that "in too many academic fields, the work has no context" (Para. 1) the author means that the teaching in these areas ______.

A．ignores the actual situation

B．is not based on the right perspective

C．0nly focuses on an integrated core of common learning

D．gives priority to the cultivation of a global vision among students