2018年6月英语四级听力美文第20篇:Modern American University思维导图

英语四级听力美文第20篇:ModernAmericanUniversity

Beforethe1850s,theUnitedStateshadanumberofsmallcolleges,mostofthemdatingfromcolonialdays.Theyweresmall,churchconnectedinstitutionswhoseprimaryconcernwastoshapethemoralcharacteroftheirstudents.Meanwhile,throughoutEurope,institutionsofhigherlearninghaddeveloped.

InGermanuniversitywasconcernedprimarilywithcreatingandspreadingknowledge,notmorals.

Betweenmid-centuryandtheendofthe1800s,morethanninethousandyoungAmericans,dissatisfiedwiththeirtrainingathome,wenttoGermanyforadvancedstudy.Someofthemreturntobecomepresidentsofvenerablecolleges—Harvard,Yale,Columbia—andtransformthemintomodernuniversities.Thenewpresidentsbrokealltieswiththechurchesandbroughtinanewkindoffaculty.

Professorswerehiredfortheirknowledgeofasubject,notbecausetheywereoftheproperfaithandhadastrongarmfordiscipliningstudents.DrillingandmemorizingwerereplacedbytheGermanmethodoflecturing,inwhichtheprofessorsownresearchwaspresentedinclass.Withtheestablishmentoftheseminarsystem,graduatestudentlearnedtoquestion,analyze,andconducttheirownresearch.

Atthesametime,thenewuniversitygreatlyexpandedinsizeandcourseofferings,breakingcompletelyoutoftheold,constrictedcurriculumofmathematics,classics,rhetoric,andmusic.ThepresidentofHarvardpioneeredtheselectivesystem,bywhichstudentswereabletochoosetheirowncourseofstudy.Thenotionofmajorfieldsofstudyemerged.Thenewgoalwastomaketheuniversityrelevanttotherealpursuitsoftheworld.Payingcloseattentiontothepracticalneedsofsociety,thenewuniversitiestrainedmenandwomentoworkatitstasks,withengineeringstudentsbeingthemostcharacteristicofthenewsystem.Studentswerealsotrainedaseconomists,architects,agriculturalists,socialwelfareworkers,andteachers.