Read the passages and choose the best answer to each question. Passage L It seems an appropriate moment to ask what lies ahead of students in Britain's rapidly changing universities. Will the experiences, the quality of education, and the job prospects of today's undergraduates be as good as those of their parents' generation? Thirty years ago, just about 25 percent of young people received higher education. Today more than 50 percent do so. This does not mean that the quality of a degree is necessarily lower, but it does mean a university degree is no longer a qualification as distinctive as it once was. On the other hand, the economy has moved on, and the demand for graduates has grown at the same time as the supply has increased. In the 1960s, just around 200,000 to 400,000 students studied at British universities. Today the figure is over 2.5 million. The British have seen a shift from a university system serving a small number of outstanding people to one that is now closer to the mass university systems of the USA and many European countries. At the same time, the university experience has gone from a five-star, luxury model to a mass-transit economy model. Nothing reveals this more obviously than the decreasing amount of public money spent on each student. The result is that most of today's students receive no grants to cover living costs, about half of them must pay for their tuition costs, and all face more crowded lecture theaters and less individual time with their teachers. Nevertheless, one effect of the growing cost of getting a degree has been boosting the popularity of vocational degree courses. According to a survey, the five most popular courses are business and management studies, computer science, law, psychology, and primary education. You have to go to sixth place to find the first purely academic subject, namely English. 1 What do we learn about today's British universities? A They are getting better than before. B They are experiencing rapid changes. C They are adopting lower academic standards. D They are enrolling fewer students than before.

2 There are three passages followed by several multiple choice questions. Read the passages and choose the best answer to each question. Passage L It seems an appropriate moment to ask what lies ahead of students in Britain's rapidly changing universities. Will the experiences, the quality of education, and the job prospects of today's undergraduates be as good as those of their parents' generation? Thirty years ago, just about 25 percent of young people received higher education. Today more than 50 percent do so. This does not mean that the quality of a degree is necessarily lower, but it does mean a university degree is no longer a qualification as distinctive as it once was. On the other hand, the economy has moved on, and the demand for graduates has grown at the same time as the supply has increased. In the 1960s, just around 200,000 to 400,000 students studied at British universities. Today the figure is over 2.5 million. The British have seen a shift from a university system serving a small number of outstanding people to one that is now closer to the mass university systems of the USA and many European countries. At the same time, the university experience has gone from a five-star, luxury model to a mass-transit economy model. Nothing reveals this more obviously than the decreasing amount of public money spent on each student. The result is that most of today's students receive no grants to cover living costs, about half of them must pay for their tuition costs, and all face more crowded lecture theaters and less individual time with their teachers. Nevertheless, one effect of the growing cost of getting a degree has been boosting the popularity of vocational degree courses. According to a survey, the five most popular courses are business and management studies, computer science, law, psychology, and primary education. You have to go to sixth place to find the first purely academic subject, namely English. 1 What do we learn about today's British universities? A They are getting better than before. B They are experiencing rapid changes. C They are adopting lower academic standards. D They are enrolling fewer students than before.