标题: Economist, Mar 23, 2019 [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 4-20-2019 12:39 标题: Economist, Mar 23, 2019 There is no need to read the rest.
(1) College admissions | Exorbitant Privilege; The argument that universities need to give preference to the children of alumni in order to pay for places for the poor doesn't wash. https://www.economist.com/united ... should-be-abolished
Quote:
"A survey by the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper, found that 29% of the class of 2021 has a close relation who had been at the university; 18% has at least one parent there. Nor is the practice confined to top institutions. A survey of 499 admission directors by Inside Higher Ed found that 42% of those at private universities used legacy preference.
"Legacy preference is, as Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and editor of 'Affirmative Action for the Rich.' points out, both entirely un-American and uniquely American. It flies in the face of the ideas on which America was founded -- the rejection, as Thomas Jefferson pit it, of the 'artificial aristocracy' based on birth, which had corrupted Britain, in favour of a 'natural aristocracy' based on 'virtue and talents.' No other serious university system permits it. Universities in Britain, the only country represented in the Times Higher Education league of the world's top ten universities, use test scores supplemented , in some institutions, with an interview.
"In the 1920s, Ivy League college administrators feared that relying too much on exams to screen applicants would yield a high numbers of Jewish students. They set up admission systems which embedded legacy preference. * * *
" * * * University administrators point out that legacy applicants' SAT scores tend to be higher than average -- not surprising, since they tend to be richer and therefore better-prepared. * * *
"More than two-thirds of Americans are against it. * * *
"MIT, which does not favour legacies, has need-blind admissions. * * *
Note:
(a) wash (vi):
"6 b (1) : to undergo testing successfully : WORK <an interesting theory, but it just won't wash>
(2) : to gain acceptance : inspire belief <the story didn't wash with me>' https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wash
(b) paragraph 2: "a case in the Supreme Court in which Asian-American plaintiffs allege that Harvard's admissions system is racially biased has thrown a light on preference given to different groups, including “legacies”—the children of alumni. Their parents do not have to fork out for them to be favoured, but since alumni are universities' principal source of donations after foundations, institutions that practice legacy preference defend it as essential."
The case is not in "Supreme Court," but rather in United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts" (based in Boston). 作者: choi 时间: 4-20-2019 12:40
(2) Personal seals in Japan | For the Chop; Will digitisation stamp out a national icon? https://www.economist.com/asia/2 ... al-seals-endangered
Paragraph 3: "All this paperwork makes Japanese offices among the least efficient in the rich world. Doggrf nu low productivity and hence poor profitability, Japan's three biggest banks have begun allowing customers to open accounts without hanko. * * * [in paragraph 5 or the last paragraph:] The use of signatures has been spreading * **
Note:
(a) for the chop
(i)
(A) for the chop (idiom): "British, informal —used to say that someone is going to lose a job or that something is being stopped or canceled or eliminated" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/for%20the%20chop
(B) chop: "Phrase: the chop:
1 informal dismissal from employment <hundreds more workers have been given the chop>
1.1 cancellation or abolition <all these projects are destined for the chop>" https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chop
(ii) chop (n; First Known Use 1614; from Hindi chāp & Urdu chhāp stamp): "a seal or official stamp or its impression" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chop
(b) "DUST SETTLES over the shelves in Fujio Kawasaki's shop. Customers once sought out this corner of Tokyo for quality hanko [判子; it is an ateji, meaning Japanese had pronunciation first and then search kanji with the same pronunciation while ignoring the meaning (of kanji); = 印鑑 in Japan], the personal seals Japanese use as signatures."