Modern American Universities

　　Before the 1850's, the United States had a number of small colleges, most of them dating from colonial days. They were small, church connected institutions whose primary concern was to shape the moral character of their students.

　　Throughout Europe, institutions of higher learning had developed, bearing the ancient name of university. In Germany a different kind of university had developed. The German university was concerned primarily with creating and spreading knowledge, not morals. Between midcentury and the end of the 1800's, more than nine thousand young Americans, dissatisfied with their training at home, went to Germany for advanced study. Some of them returned to become presidents of venerable colleges -- Harvard, Yale, Columbia -- and transform them into modern universities. The new presidents broke all ties with the churches and brought in a new kind of faculty. Professors were hired for their knowledge of a subject, not because they were of the proper faith and had a strong arm for disciplining students. The new principle was that a university was to create knowledge as well as pass it on, and this called for a faculty composed of teacher-scholars. Drilling and learning by rote were replaced by the German method of lecturing, in which the professor's own research was presented in class. Graduate training leading to the Ph.D., an ancient German degree signifying the highest level of advanced scholarly attainment, was introduced. With the establishment of the seminar system, graduate students learned to question, analyze, and conduct their own research.

　　At the same time, the new university greatly expanded in size and course offerings, breaking completely out of the old, constricted curriculum of mathematics, classics, rhetoric, and music. The president of Harvard pioneered the elective system, by which students were able to choose their own courses of study. The notion of major fields of study emerged. The new

　　goal was to make the university relevant to the real pursuits of the world. Paying close heed to the practical needs of society, the new universities trained men and women to work at its tasks, with engineering students being the most characteristic of the new regime. Students were also trained as economists, architects, agriculturalists, social welfare workers, and teachers.

　　全文翻译：现代美国大学

　　19 世纪 50 年代以前美国有一些小的学院，大多数成立于殖民时期。 它们是与教会挂钩的小机构，主要目的是培养学生的道德品行。 当时在欧洲各地，高等教育机构已经发展 起来，用的是一个古老的名称--大学。

　　德国已经发展出一种不同类型的大学。 德国大学关 心的主要是创造知识和传播知识，而不是道德教育。 从世纪中叶到世纪末，有 9000 多名美 国青年因不满国内所受的教育而赴德深造。 他们中的一些人回国后成为一些知名学府--哈 佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚的校长并且把这些学府转变成了现代意义的大学。英语作文
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