贵州省遵义市2013高考英语 阅读理解训练（20）.docVIP

PAGE 2013高考英语（遵义市）阅读理解（20）（答案） 文化教育类 [2012·湖北卷] It was a simple letter asking for a place to study at Scotlands oldest university which helped start a revolution in higher education. A 140-year-old letter written by a lady calling for her to be allowed to study medicine at St Andrews University has been discovered by researchers. Written by Sophia Jex-Blake in 1873, the sevendocument, which urged the university to allow women to study medicine at the institution, was released yesterday on International Womens Day. The document was discovered buried in the university archives (档案)by part-time history student Lis Smith, who is completing her PhD at St Andrews Institute of Scottish Historical Research. She said: “We knew that Sophia Jex-Blake and her supporters, in their effort to open up university medical education for women, had written to the Senates Academicus (校评议委员会)at St Andrews in an attempt to gain permission to attend classes there, but we didnt know documentary evidence existed. While searching the archives for information about the universitys higher certificate for women, I was astonished to come across what must be the very letter Jex-Blake wrote. ” In the letter, Sophia and her supporters offered to hire teachers or build suitable buildings for a medical school and to arrange for lectures to be delivered in the subjects not already covered at St Andrews. Although her letter was not successful, it eventually led to the establishment of the Ladies Literate in Arts at St Andrews, a distance-learning degree for women. The qualification, which ran from 1877 until the 1930s, gave women access to university education in the days before they were admitted as students. It was so popular that it survived long after women were admitted as full students to St Andrews in 1892. Ms Jex-Blake went on to help establish the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874. She was accepted by the University of Berne, where she was awarded a medical degree in January 1877.