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北京外国语大学

2000年硕士研究生入学试题基础英语试卷

I. Reading Comprehension.（32分）

1. Read the following article and paraphrase the underlined parts:

The twenty-first century will mark the era of tertiary and lifelong learning for everybody-or [NCIHE], 1997).

The notion of lifelong learning has pervaded higher education around the world as governments have increasingly come to recognize a link between their education systems and national economic performance. However, policy relating to the actual making of the link needs deeper consideration. The development of key skills’ has been seen in the UK as an important way in which higher education can contribute to economic development, but it can be argued that to focus on these skills represents a narrow and insufficient response to what employers-and the wider interest-really need (see Stephenson’s [1998] argument for a ‘capability’ approach to higher and, in particular, for fist-cycle provision.

was a sufficient basis for lifetime career. The accelerating pace of knowledge development has undermined this conception, and increasing attention is now being given to the provision of higher degree programs and other opportunities for professional development. This raises a serious question: what function does the first degree serve in the context of lifelong learning?

Logically, it makes no sense in today’s world to try to pack first degree curricula with all the knowledge, understanding and skills need for the rest of a lifetime. There simply is not the time degree should, if they have not already acquired it, develop in students the ability to learn how to learn, as well as enhance their subject-specific expertise and other relevant skills. The old saying is valid here: giving individuals each a fish might feed them for a day, but teaching them the skills of fishing could feed them for life.

There is a need to think of the first degree in terms of the quality, rater than the quantity, of students’ learning, In today’s world the first degree becomes more of a foundation qualification, upon which graduates will expect to build during their lives. Some might react by saying that to degree need be no intellectual poor relation: academic rigour can be built into curricula of widely differing focus. The standards may well be different, but they do have to be inferior. in particular, on the part of employers and professional bodies. The professional accreditation of some first degree programs is seen by some as an essential condition. However,