发布时间： 2016年06月03日
As students primp and preen to wow their favorite colleges， there's one characteristic they can't control： their race. That's one reason voters， courts and politicians in six states have outlawed racial preferences in college admissions， while other colleges， fearful of lawsuits， play down their affirmative-action efforts these days. But make no mistake： race still matters. How much depends on the school and the state.
In Texas， public universities have managed to counteract the effect of racial-preference bans by automatically admitting the top 10% of the graduating class of every high school， including those schools where most students are minorities. But Rice University in Houston， private and highly selective， has had to reinvent its admissions strategies to maintain the school's minority enrollment. Each February， 80 to 90 black， Hispanic and Native American kids visit Rice on an expenses-paid trip. Rice urges counselors from high schools with large minority populations to nominate qualified students. And in the fall， Rice sends two recruiters on the road to find minority applicants; each recruiter visits about 80 predominantly black or Hispanic high schools. Two weeks ago， Rice recruiter Tamara Siler dropped in on Westlake High in Atlanta， where 99% of the 1，296 students are black. Siler went bearing literature and advice， and though only two kids showed up， she said， “I'm pleased I got two.”
Rice has also resorted to some almost comical end-runs around the spirit of the law. The university used to award a yearly scholarship to a Mexican-American student; now it goes to a student who speaks Spanish really well. Admissions officers no longer know an applicant's race. But a new essay question asks about each student's “background” and “cultural traditions.” When Rice officials read applications， they look for “diverse life experiences” and what they awkwardly call “overcome students，” who have triumphed over hardship.
Last spring， admissions readers came across a student whose SAT score was lower than 1，200 and who did not rank in the top 10% of her class. Numerically speaking， she lagged far behind most accepted applicants. But her essay and recommendations indicated a strong interest in civil rights and personal experience with racial discrimination. She was admitted. “All the newspapers say affirmative action is done，” says a veteran counselor at a large New York City high school. “But nothing has changed. I have a [minority] kid at Yale with an SAT score in the high 900s.”
While minority admissions at the University of California system overall have dipped only slightly since a ban on affirmative action took effect in 1998， they have plummeted at the most selective campuses. At Berkeley， for example， the class entering this fall included 608 Chicano students， vs. 1，013 in 1997. In response， the elite schools have moved aggressively to recruit at minority high schools——and even to improve the performance of students who are graduating from them. This year the U.C. system will spend $250 million on outreach， from installing tutors at low-income schools to inviting high school teachers to summer calculus seminars.
注(1)：本文选自Time;10/23/2000，? p77;
注(2)：本文习题命题模仿对象2001年真题text 2和2002年真题text 2第2题(5)
1. Affirmative action is something ___________.
[A] that guarantees students of different races to be admitted equally
[B] American citizens fight against because it discriminates minority students
[C] colleges take to give preference to minority students in college admission
[D] favored by American colleges yet unpopular with American public
2. Rice University sent two recruiters to find minority applicants because _________.
[A] Rice wanted to maintain minority enrollment
[B] minority students have better school performance
[C] Rice has a large minority population
[D] Rice is famous for admitting minority students
3. The writer mentioned Rice‘s some comic end-runs around the spirit of the law to show
that_____________.
[A] Rice abides by the law strictly
[B] Rice deals with students in a comic way
[C] Rice prefers minority students
[D] Rice has its own ways of dealing with the law
4. It seems that minority students _________.
[A] are still benefiting from affirmative action
[B] have lower SAT scores
[C] are often admitted by universities because they have unique racial experience
[D] lag far behind than other students in school performance
5. The word “plummeted” (Line 2， Paragraph 5) most probably means_________.?
[A] doubled
[B] risen
[C] stayed the same
[D] decreased
答案：C A D A D
篇章剖析
本文是一篇说明文，介绍了各大学是如何应对不允许在招生中照顾少数族裔的法律的。在第一段作者指出虽然一些州规定在大学招生中照顾某些种族的政策为非法，但学生的种族身份仍然很重要。第二段介绍了德克萨斯州公立大学的应对策略和私立大学莱斯大学对付这一情况的办法。第三段介绍了莱斯大学所采用的迂回策略。第四段以两个例子说明少数族裔的学生即使SAT成绩不高也能上名牌大学。最后一段介绍了加利福尼亚禁止平权措施带来的影响以及加利福尼亚大学为了克服这些不利影响所作的努力。
词汇注释
primp： v. 梳理(头发)，打扮
preen： v. 把(自己)打扮漂亮
wow： v. 激起热烈赞扬， 使惊叹， 使佩服
affirmative-action： 平权措施
counteract： v. 抵抗;抵制;消除，抵消
enrollment： n. 登记， 注册， 入学
counselor： n. 顾问
nominate： v. 提名， 推荐
predominantly： adv. 主要地，占优势地
Hispanic： adj. 西班牙的
literature： n. 印刷品
resort： v. 求助， 诉诸， 采取(某种手段等)
end-run： 迂回
diverse： adj. 不同的， 变化多的
SAT： 学术能力测验指代(美国)学术能力测试的一种标志
numerically： adv. 用数字， 在数字上
recommendation： n. 推荐信
discrimination： n. 歧视
veteran： n. 老手， 富有经验的人
dip： v. (短时间)降下一点，降低一些
plummet： v. 骤降，爆跌突然和大幅度地降低
Chicano： adj. n.奇卡诺人(指墨西哥裔美国人或在美国的讲西班牙语的拉丁美洲人后裔)
outreach： n. 扩大服务项目;有系统地尝试向一团体的特别部门提供超常规的服务
calculus： n. 微积分学
seminar： n. 研究会， 讨论发表会
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