托福阅读机经背景：美国很多大学陷入财政困境.docx

智课网TOEFL备考资料托福阅读机经背景：美国很多大学陷入财政困境 Higher education 高等教育 The college-cost calamity 如灾难一样的大学开销 Many American universities are in financial trouble 美国很多大学陷入财政困境 WITH its leafy avenues and Gothic buildings, the University of Chicago seems a sober, solid sort of place. John D. Rockefeller, whose money built it, said it was the “best investment I ever made”. Yet Chicago and other not-for-profit American universities have been piling on the debt as if they were high-tech start-ups. 有着林荫大道和哥特式建筑的芝加哥大学看起来有些庄严和奢华，它是由约翰·D·洛克菲勒出资建造而成，并且他本人认为它是“我做过的最成功的投资”。但是包括芝加哥大学和其他的美国非营利性大学已经债台高筑，他们就像刚成立的科技公司一样陷入了困境。 Long-term debt at not-for-profit universities in America has been growing at 12% a year, estimate Bain Company, a consultancy, and Sterling Partners, a private-equity firm (see chart 1). A new report looked at the balance-sheets and cashflow statements of 1,692 universities and colleges between 2006 and 2010, and found that one-third were significantly weaker than they had been several years previously. 根据贝恩咨询公司和Sterling Partners私募股权公司统计结果显示，美国的非盈利大学的长期债务一直以每年12%的速度增长。在2006年至2010年期间，通过研究1692所大学和学院的资产负债表和现金流报表发现其中有三分之一的学校的财务状况明显比前几年还要糟糕。 A crisis in higher education has been brewing for years. Universities have been spending like students in a bar who think a Rockefeller will pick up the tab. In the past two years the University of Chicago has built a spiffy new library (where the books are cleverly retrieved by robots), a new arts centre and a ten-storey hospital building. It has also opened a new campus in Beijing. 一场高等教育的金融危机已酝酿多年。大学长久以来花钱无度，像酒吧里的学生一样认为会有人替他们买单。在过去的两年中，芝加哥大学修建了一个的图书馆(可以通过机器人智能检索图书)、一个艺术中心和一幢十层楼的医院，并且它在北京还开设了一个新的校区。 And it is not alone. Universities hope that vast investments will help them attract the best staff and students, draw in research grants and donations, and ultimately boost their ranking in league tables, drawing in yet more talent and money. They have also increased the proportion of outlays gobbled up by adm