外國人寫文章都愛用破題法，只要看第一段即可知道文章大概在講什麼內容，但有時主題句不見得會出現在一開始，也有可能在段末才出現。此篇文章的開頭，有提到“tale” (故事)、“blind men” (瞎子)、“elephant” (大象)，所以文章一定跟“瞎子摸象”的故事有關嗎？然而，這只是一個寓言來吸引讀者，整篇文章其實與“高等教育”有關。文章裡到處都是線索，掌握主題後，就可以輕鬆作答囉！
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Sometime around the seventh grade, many American students |
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are introduced to the tale of 10 blind men inspecting an elephant. |
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When each blind man reaches different conclusions about the |
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creature, the students are invited to consider whether truth is absolute |
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or lies in the eye of the beholder. College professors and |
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administrators might want to remember that fable when they take the |
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measure of American higher education. Many of them, who tend to |
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see only what they stand to lose, perceive the beast as wounded, |
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suffering from the shocks of rising costs, dwindling resources and |
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life-draining cutbacks. But foreigners, who compare America’s |
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universities with their own, often reach very different conclusions |
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about the nature of the beast. |
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If sheer numbers provide any proof, America’s universities and |
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colleges are the envy of the world. For all their abiding troubles, the |
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United States’ 3,500 institutions were flooded with 407,530 students |
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from 193 different countries last year. Asia led the way with 39,600 |
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students from China and 36,610 from Japan, followed by India and |
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Canada. Many of the foreigners entered graduate and |
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undergraduate programs in roughly equal numbers…. |
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Most European and Asian universities provide an elite service to a |
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small and privileged clientele. While fully 60% of all U.S. high school |
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graduates attend college at some point in their life, just 30% of the |
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comparable German population, 28% of the French, 20% of the |
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British and 37% of the Japanese proceed beyond high school. |
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German students who survive the Abitur or Britons who pass their A |
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levels may still not qualify for a top university at home, but find |
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American universities far more welcoming. Some U.S. schools |
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acknowledge the rigor of European secondary training and will give |
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up to a year’s credit to foreigners who have passed their high school |
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exams. |
( ) 1. What do American college professors and administrators believe about American universities?
(A) American universities are better than foreign universities.
(B) There is a financial crisis in American universities.
(C) American universities are well-equipped.
(D) The students in American universities are not as good as those in foreign universities.
( ) 2. The phrase “at some point in their life” in the third paragraph means that most U.S. high school graduates _____.
(A) enter college at the same age (B) enter college before they get married
(C) enter college at different times (D) seldom enter college
( ) 3. According to this passage, which of the following statements is true?
(A) More U.S. high school graduates go to college than their European counterparts.
(B) More foreign students enter undergraduate schools than graduate schools.
(C) Most foreign students in American universities come from Canada.
(D) Secondary training in the U.S. is more difficult than that in Europe.
( ) 4. Why does the author begin the passage with the fable of the elephant?
(A) The author thinks it is meaningless to define an elephant.
(B) The author wants to emphasize that a blind man can never know what an elephant is like.
(C) The author is especially interested in elephants.
(D) The author wants to demonstrate that it is not easy to see the whole truth.
英銘老師：閱讀測驗是很多考生畏懼的英文題型之一，其實閱題測驗的的解題並不難，因為外國人寫文章都愛用破題法，只要看第一段即可知道文章大概在講什麼內容，但有時主題句不見得會出現在一開始，也有可能在段末才出現。例如在此篇文章的開頭，有提到“tale” (故事)、“blind men” (瞎子)、“elephant” (大象)，所以文章一定跟“瞎子摸象”的故事有關嗎？然而，這只是一個寓言來吸引讀者，整篇文章其實與“高等教育”有關。
第1題：美國的大學教授及行政人員，關於美國的大學所相信的是什麼？根據文章的第9行至第10行，可得知飽受成本上升，資源減少和生活釋放削減的衝擊。因此答案是(B)。
補充：
dwindle v. 減少 (always)
Gary's hope for success dwindled. Gary想成功的希望變得渺茫了。
同義：decrease, reduce, decline, diminish, drop, fall.
第2題：第3段的“at some point in their life”這句話，意味著美國大部分的高中畢業生如何？“at some point in their life”意思為在人生的某一個時期，所以不見得高中一畢業就會去唸大學，故答案是(C)。
第3題：根據這篇文章，下列敘述何者正確？根據文章的第21行至第24行，得知美國有60%的高中畢業生念大學，德國是30%，法國是28%，英國則是20%，所以答案是(A)。
補充：
counterpart n. 對應的人(物) (always)
Each twin is the counterpart of the other.
雙胞胎彼此相似。
第4題：為什麼作者要以大象的故事為開頭？根據文章的第1段的最後幾行，得知外國人與美國人比較起來，常會有不同得結論，所以最適合的答案是(D)。
※更多關於字彙的補充，請參考「國考英文字彙一把抓」。