VOA慢速英语 2008 0110a

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A recent decision by Harvard University to expand financial aid is putting pressure on other schools to do the same.

 
Graduation ceremonies at Harvard in June
The full price for one year at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is more than forty-five thousand dollars. Many other private colleges cost just as much. But Harvard is much wealthier than any other American university, so it has more to give.

Harvard already offers a free education to students from families that earn up to sixty thousand dollars a year. This has helped increase the numbers of lower¹ income and minority students.

Now, the aim is to help all but the wealthiest American families pay for a Harvard education. The new policies² announced last month will assist³ families that earn as much as one hundred eighty thousand dollars. These families will be asked to pay no more than ten percent of their income for college.

For example, a family earning one hundred twenty thousand dollars would pay about twelve thousand a year. Under existing student aid policies the amount is more than nineteen thousand.

What Harvard has done is change the way it offers financial aid. Undergraduates⁴ will not be expected to take out loans⁵. Increases in grant⁶ aid will replace loans. Also, Harvard officials will no longer consider the value of a family's home when deciding how much aid to give.

Harvard says it expects to spend up to twenty-two million dollars more a year in financial aid. This will come from its endowment. A college endowment is money given by former students and others as gifts. Schools invest⁷ the money to earn more. Harvard’s endowment is valued at thirty-five billion dollars.

Other universities with large endowments are also changing their financial aid policies. Examples include Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

Yale’s endowment is the second largest after Harvard, at twenty-two and a half billion dollars. This week, Yale in New Haven⁸, Connecticut, announced it will use more of that money for financial aid as well as scientific research. Yale may also admit more students.

But some colleges say they simply do not have enough money to compete with the new policies that are being announced.

Critics⁹ of the rising costs of a college education say schools are making these changes in an attempt to avoid action by Congress¹⁰. Some lawmakers have criticized¹¹ universities for raising their prices even as their endowments grow larger and larger.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach.

1 lower   

adj.较低的；地位较低的，低等的；低年级的；下游的；vt.放下，降下，放低；减低

参考例句：

• Society is divided into upper,middle and lower classes.社会分为上层、中层和下层阶级。
• This price is his minimum;he refuses to lower it any further.这个价格是他开的最低价，他拒绝再作任何降价。

2 policies   

n.政策( policy的名词复数 )；策略；政府；策略性

参考例句：

• The Chancellor was forced into a humiliating climbdown on his economic policies. 财政大臣被迫狼狈地承认他的经济政策存在失误。
• an angry denunciation of the government's policies 愤怒谴责政府的政策

3 assist   

vt.协助，帮助，促进；vi.帮忙，参加

参考例句：

• He asked us to assist him in carrying through their plan.他要我们帮助他实施他们的计划。
• We'll assist at your wedding.我们将出席你们的婚礼。

4 undergraduates   

（未获学士学位的）大学生，大学肄业生( undergraduate的名词复数 )； 本科生

参考例句：

• All undergraduates reading English attend a turtorial group each week. 所有攻读英语的本科生每周上一次导师辅导课。
• This is a course for undergraduates. 这是为本科生开的一门课。

5 loans   

n.借出物，借款( loan的名词复数 )v.借出，贷与（尤指钱）( loan的第三人称单数 )；出借（贵重物品给博物馆等）

参考例句：

• They are offering loans at extortionate rates of interest. 他们在放高利贷。
• Government loans have been the salvation of several shaky business companies. 政府的贷款救活了几家濒临倒闭的公司。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 grant   

vt.同意给予，授予，承认；n.拨款；补助款

参考例句：

• If you grant my request, you will earn my thanks.如果你答应我的要求，就会得到我的感谢。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

7 invest   

v.投资；投入(时间等)；授予，赋予

参考例句：

• I have decided to invest in a new car.我已经决定买一辆新汽车。
• The best time to invest is now.现在是投资的最佳时机。

8 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

9 critics   

n.批评家( critic的名词复数 )；评论员；批评者；挑剔的人

参考例句：

• He felt no animosity towards his critics. 他对批评他的人并不心怀怨恨。
• The move was widely seen as an attempt to appease critics of the regime. 普遍认为，这一举措是试图安抚批评政权的人。

10 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。

11 criticized   

vt.批评(criticize的过去式)v.评论，批评( criticize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The decision was criticized by environmental groups. 这个决定受到了环保团体的批评。
• The movie has been criticized for apparently legitimizing violence. 这部电影因明显地美化暴力而受到了指责。