2017年06月六级第1套选词填空原文翻译及答案解析

After becoming president of Purdue University in 2013, Mitch Daniels asked the faculty to prove that their students have actually achieved one of higher education's most important goals: critical thinking skills. Two years before, a nationwide study of college graduates had shown that more than a third had made no __26__ gains in such mental abilities during their school years. Mr. Daniels needed to __27__ the high cost of attending Purdue to its students and their families. After all, the percentage of Americans who say a college degree is "very important" has fallen __28__ in the last 5-6 years.

在2013年成为普渡大学校长后，米奇·丹尼尔斯要求教职员工证明他们的学生确实实现了高等教育最重要的目标之一：批判性思维技能。两年前，一项针对大学毕业生的全国性研究表明，超过三分之一的人在在校期间没有在这种心智能力上取得显著提高。丹尼尔斯先生需要向学生及其家庭证明普渡大学高昂学费的合理性。毕竟，认为大学学位“非常重要”的美国人比例在过去5-6年里急剧下降。

Purdue now has a pilot test to assess students' critical thinking skills. Yet like many college teachers around the U.S., the faculty remain __29__ that their work as educators can be measured by a "learning __30__ " such as a graduate's ability to investigate and reason. However, the professors need not worry so much. The results of a recent experiment showed that professors can use __31__ metrics to measure how well students do in three key areas: critical thinking, written communication, and quantitative literacy.

普渡大学现在有一个试点测试来评估学生的批判性思维技能。然而，像美国许多大学教师一样，教职员工仍然怀疑他们的教育工作者工作是否能通过“学习成果”来衡量，比如毕业生的调查和推理能力。不过，教授们不必过于担心。最近的一项实验结果表明，教授们可以使用标准化指标来衡量学生在三个关键领域的表现：批判性思维、书面沟通和定量素养。

Despite the success of the experiment, the actual results are worrisome, and mostly __32__ earlier studies. The organizers of the experiment concluded that far fewer students were achieving at high levels on critical thinking than they were doing for written communication or quantitative literacy. And that conclusion is based only on students nearing graduation.

尽管实验取得了成功，但实际结果令人担忧，并且大多证实了早期的研究。实验组织者得出结论，在批判性思维方面达到高水平的学生远少于在书面沟通或定量素养方面达到高水平的学生。而这一结论仅基于临近毕业的学生。

American universities, despite their global __33__ for excellence in teaching, have only begun to demonstrate what they can produce in real-world learning. Knowledge-based degrees are still important, but employers are __34__ advanced thinking skills from college graduates. If the intellectual worth of a college degree can be __35__ measured, more people will seek higher education—and come out better thinkers.

美国大学尽管在全球范围内享有卓越的教学声誉，但仅刚开始展示它们能在现实世界学习中产生什么。基于知识的学位仍然重要，但雇主正在要求大学毕业生具备高级思维技能。如果大学学位的智力价值能够被准确衡量，更多的人将寻求高等教育——并成为更好的思考者。