四六级考试

【单选题】One of the most interesting paradoxes inAmerica today is that Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is now engaged in a serious debate about what a university should be, and whether it is measuring up (符合标准).
Like the RomanCatholicChurch and other ancient institutions, it is asking—still in private rather than in public—whether its past assumptions about faculty, authority, admissions, courses of study, are really relevant to the problems of our society.
Should Harvard—or any other university—be an intellectual sanctuary, apart from the political and social revolution of the age, or should it be a laboratory for experimentation with these political and social revolutions; or even an engine of the revolution This is what is being discussed privately in the big clapboard (楔形板) houses of faculty members around the Harvard YarD、
The issue was defined by Walter Lippmann, a distinguished Harvard graduate, many years ago.
"If the universities are to do their work," he said, "they must be independent and they must be disinteresteD、.. They are places to which men can turn for unbiased judgments. Obviously, the moment the universities fall under political control, or under the control of private interests, or the moment they themselves take a hand in politics and the leadership of government, their value as independent and disinterested sources of judgment is impaireD、.."
This is part of the argument that is going on at Harvard today.Another part is the argument of the militant and even many moderated students: that a university is the keeper of our ideals and morals, and should not be "disinterested" but activist in bringing the Nation’s ideals and actions together.
Harvard’s men of today seem more troubled and less sure about personal, political and academic purpose than they did at the beginning. They are not even clear about how they should debate and resolve their problems, but they are struggling with them privately, and how they come out is bound to influenceAmerican university and political life in the 21st century.

A、"paradox" (Line 1, Paragraph 1) is ______.

A、an unusual situation
B．a parenthetical expression
C．a difficult puzzle
D．a self-contradiction
网考网参考答案：D
网考网解析：
[解析] 根据题干信息词paradox可将答案定位到第一段第一句。 paradox意为"person, thing or situation displaying contradictory features(有矛盾特点的人、事物或情况)”。文章第一段提到：“美国现今最有趣的一个______是，作为美国高等教育历史最悠久的大学，哈佛大学正在进行一场严峻的争论，争论围绕的中心问题是大学究竟应该是什么样的，而哈佛大学又是否符合条件。”作为大学却对自身的合理性、存在的意义产生了疑问，不能不说是一种自相矛盾。故答案选D。 document.getElementById("warp").style.display="none"; document.getElementById("content").style.display="block"; 查看试题解析出处>>