【一起闲话英语】英国大学教育问题-Problems with British Universities

Passage Transcript¹

um, generally i, i have found with my studies that, um, historians as a sort of breed of academic. were particularly conservative in their sort of, um, outlook. um, perhaps... tendency, um, and i don’t know, i, i felt talking to other friends and, sort of getting a, a, knowledge of the way other degrees are, and the way, um, courses are organised, that it was a more general problem. um, even in you know, subjects which might seem more, uh, more inclined to be direct and contemporary and relevant. like, um, politics or economics. that, um, there was a sort of... tendency of universities in, in Britain to be conservative.

um... partly i think, it is the sort of inbuilt nature of any institution, um, to_ there is a tendency to ossify² and unless there's forces for, um, change which stir things up and move on a bit. it, it can tend to stick. um, i think in Britain you have a particular problem with, uh, certain universities, Oxford³ and Cambridge most notably⁴, are known to be good, and known to be old and are presumed that, um, well this is the way things_ they are. we have always taught this way. that the course has always been like this and that we should stick with the, the way things are. and that, um, there is a terrible difficulty to sort of integrate, um, intellectual advances. um, i think it is particularly bad in, in Oxford as a university. Cambridge has always had a, a slightly better, um, reputation for, um, being advanced.

its_ as i say it is particularly bad in, in certain subjects, it seems to me. i think it is my misfortune to have done history. in that it, it is one of the more conservative ones. but even in a subject like English literature, um, you would have an undergraduate degree in Ox_ in Oxford, um, hugely based on sort of, taking courses in Yates and Elliot. and then you have after the whole three years, um, you, you have six weeks doing literary theory. and i- in this you are supposed to encompass⁵, you know the... basically the sort of intellectual history of the last thirty years. um, and the rest of the time you are dealing⁶ with the texts of, of Yates, Elliott, Milton, you know, Shakespeare in a sort of workman like, common sense, uh, analysis. and, um, really this_ i, it doesn’t seem to me to reflect, um, a lot of the sort of scholarship that might be, going on in, um, America or France, or, or elsewhere or_ certainly in Britain. it doesn’t, in a way, reflect, um, what the people who'd be regarded as, as the, um, uh, leading, um, authors. people like Terry Eagleton and, um, Anthony Easthope, and um, what not. it doesn’t really reflect the sort of things that they're writing about.

um, so it’s, it, it does seem unfortunate. and in, in a way the un- the universities that are new and, you know, where there is a dynamic for change. um, it is very interesting that, that what used to be called the polytechnics⁷ which is about half the universities in Britain, that were set up in the 1960’s. they're, um, they're obviously much more open to, to, um, changing their curriculum and, incorporating new ideas and, the sort of what's the discipline o- of what is now called cultural studies. um, most of the polytechnics have a department of cultural studies. where as in the, the older universities sort of_ that some of the most_ um, in the newer universities, um, oh sorry. in the older universities, um, sort of cultural studies is done by the sort of back door in departments of sociology and departments of English. and, um, it, it is sort of, almost absurd in the way you, uh, could go to Oxford and you, you, you couldn’t almost directly study, um, the way the media works, how media texts work, how film works. um, yet, so much of, of contemporary culture is, is, is in those formats⁸. and that you have to do it by a back door through, you know, reading the, the works of, um, people who are in English departments and supposedly doing English literature.

um, and it, it can be, sort of depressing that, um, there is so little change and so little regard for, um, the contemporary world

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 ossify   

v.硬化，骨化

参考例句：

• It is easy for the mind to ossify.脑筋是易于僵化的。
• It reckons that rationing would ossify the farm industry.人们认为实行配给制会使农业失去活力。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

5 encompass   

vt.围绕，包围；包含，包括；完成

参考例句：

• The course will encompass physics,chemistry and biology.课程将包括物理、化学和生物学。
• The project will encompass rural and underdeveloped areas in China.这项工程将覆盖中国的农村和不发达地区。

6 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

7 polytechnics   

理工学院( polytechnic的名词复数 )； 工艺的，综合技术的

参考例句：

• I am a graduated of Shanghai Polytechnics. 我是上海理工大学毕业生。
• Polytechnics present golden opportunities to bright young men. 工艺学为大有作为的年轻人提供了绝好的机会。

8 formats   

n.（出版物的）版式( format的名词复数 )；[电视]电视节目的总安排（或计划）

参考例句：

• They are producing books in all kinds of different formats. 他们出版各种不同开本的书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A true GUI includes standard formats for representing text and graphics. 真正的图形用户界面包括表示文字和图形的标准格式。 来自互联网