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  3. It may be just as well for Oxford University’s reputation that this week’s meeting of Congregation, its 3,552-strong governing b

It may be just as well for Oxford University’s reputation that this week’s meeting of Congregation, its 3,552-strong governing b

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问题     It may be just as well for Oxford University’s reputation that this week’s meeting of Congregation, its 3,552-strong governing body, was held in secret, for the air of civilized rationality that is generally supposed to pervade donnish conversation has lately turned fractious. That is because the vice-chancellor, the nearest thing the place has to a chief executive, has proposed the most fundamental reforms to the university since the establishment of the college system in 1249; and lots of the dons and colleges don’t like it.
    The trouble with Oxford is that it is unmanageable. Its problems—the difficulty of recruiting good dons and of getting rid of bad ones, concerns about academic standards, severe money worries at some colleges—all spring from that. John Hood, who was recruited as vice-chancellor from the University of Auckland and is now probably the most-hated antipodean in British academic life, reckons he knows how to solve this, and has proposed to reduce the power of dons and colleges and increase that of university administrators.
    Mr. Hood is right that the university’s management structure needs an overhaul. But radical though his proposals seem to those involved in the current row, they do not go far enough. The difficulty of managing Oxford stems only partly from the nuttiness of its system of governance; the more fundamental problem consists in its relationship with the government. That’s why Mr. Hood should adopt an idea that was once regarded as teetering on the lunatic fringe of radicalism, but these days is discussed even in polite circles. The idea is independence.
    Oxford gets around 5,000 per undergraduate per year from the government. In return, it accepts that it can charge students only ￡1,150 (rising to ￡3,000 next year) on top of that. Since it probably costs at least ￡10,000 a year to teach an undergraduate, that leaves Oxford with a deficit of ￡4, 000 or so per student to cover from its own funds.
    It would lose the ￡52m undergraduate subsidy at least if Oxford declared independence. Could it fill the hole? Certainly. America’s top universities charge around ￡20,000 per student per year. The difficult issue would not be money alone: it would be balancing numbers of not-so-brilliant rich people paying top whack with the cleverer poorer ones they were cross-subsidising. America’s top universities manage it: high fees mean better teaching, which keeps competition hot and academic standards high, while luring enough donations to provide bursaries for the poor. It should be easier to extract money from alumni if Oxford were no longer state-funded.
The third paragraph implies that
选项 A、reliance upon official subsidy has bred the current predicament of Oxford.
B、an overhaul of Oxford management structure is urgently needed.
C、the nuttiness of Oxford system of governance may be easily removed.
D、the current row is essential to many in polite circle.
答案A
解析 这是一道细节归纳推导题，测试考生对原文重点语句的理解和归纳能力。本题的答案信息来源在第三段的第三句至尾句，尤其是尾句。第三段暗示：牛津大学的问题就是其与政府的关系，它的独立性问题是关键存在。由此可以推断本题的正确选项应该是A“reliance upon official subsidy has bred the current predicament of Oxford”(对官方资助的依赖导致了目前牛津大学的困境)。考生在阅读时要重视原文重点语句的含义，例如本文第三段的结论句(尾句)。
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