Rebuilding the American dream machine译文.docx

Rebuilding the American dream machine重建美国梦机器From The Economist print editionFOR Americas colleges, January is a month of reckoning. Most applications for the next academic year beginning in the autumn have to be made by the end of December, so a universitys popularity is put to an objective standard: how many people want to attend. One of the more unlikely offices to have been flooded with mail is that of the City University of New York (CUNY), a public college that lacks, among other things, a famous sports team, bucolic campuses and raucous parties (it doesnt even have dorms), and, until recently, academic credibility. 对美国的大学而言，一月是一个清算的月份。大多数要进入将于秋季开学的下一学年学习的申请必须在12月底前完成，因此一所大学的声望就有了客观依据：申请人的多少。纽约城市大学，一所公立学院，与其他学校相比，它没有一支声名显赫的运动队，没有田园诗一般的校园，也没有喧嚣嘈杂的派对——甚至连宿舍都没有，而且，直到最近也没取得学术上的可信度，可就是这所大学的办公室塞满了学生们寄来的申请函，这简直有些令人难以置信。?A primary draw at CUNY is a programme for particularly clever students, launched in 2001. Some 1,100 of the 60,000 students at CUNYs five top schools receive a rare thing in the costly world of American colleges: free education. Those accepted by CUNYs honours programme pay no tuition fees; instead they receive a stipend of $7,500 (to help with general expenses) and a laptop computer. Applications for early admissions into next years programme are up 70%.城市大学主要吸引人的地方在于它为从2001年开始为聪明过人的学生所设立的培养计划。6万名城市大学的五所顶尖学院学生中，约有1100人能得到“免费教育”，这在花费巨大的美国大学界可是一件稀罕事。被纳入城市大学荣誉计划的学生无需支付学费，相反，他们还获得一份7500美元的定期生活津贴（用于补助日常开销）以及一本笔记本电脑。这所学校申请尽早被批准进入下一学年计划的学生达到了70%。?Admission has nothing to do with being an athlete, or a child of an alumnus, or having an influential sponsor, or being a member of a particularly aggrieved ethnic group—criteria that are increasingly important at Americas elite colleges. Most of the students who apply to the honours programme come from relatively poor families, many of them immigrant ones. All that CUNY demands is that these students be diligent and clever.批准与否跟学生是不是一名运动员，或者是不是校友子弟，或者有没有颇具影响力的后台，或者是不是某个爱打抱不平的民族社团成员，都毫无干系——而这些在美国的知名学府中已经日益成为重要标准。申请加