VOA慢速英语20060921a

EDUCATION REPORT - Choosing Between a College or a UniversityBy Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, September 21, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

What is the difference between a college and a university? This is the subject of part three in our series for students who want to attend a college or university in the United States.


Mount¹ Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts

Colleges and universities have many things in common. Both provide a greater understanding of the world and its past. Both provide education in the arts and sciences. And both can help prepare young people to earn a living.

Students who complete their undergraduate² studies either at a four-year college or a university receive a bachelor's degree. One difference is that many colleges do not offer graduate studies.

Universities are generally bigger, offer more programs and do more research.

Modern universities developed from those of the Middle Ages in Europe. The word university came from the Latin³ universitas. This described a group of people organized for a common purpose.

The word college came from a Latin word with a similar meaning, collegium. In England, colleges were formed to provide students with places to live. Usually each group was studying the same thing. So college came to mean an area of study.

But a college can also be a part of a university. The first American universities divided their studies into a number of areas and called each one a college. This is still true.

Programs in higher learning⁴ may also be called schools. The University of Arizona in Tucson, for example, has eighteen colleges and ten schools. They include the colleges of pharmacy⁵, education, engineering⁶ and law. They also include the schools of architecture, dance and public administration⁷.

College is also used as a general term for higher education. A news report might talk about college students even if they include students at universities. Or someone might ask, Where do you go to college?

Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal⁸ arts. These are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They include language, philosophy and mathematics. The purpose was to train a person's mind instead of teaching⁹ job skills.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with a report about online education. You can find our reports at www.unsv.com. And international students can learn more about higher education in the United States at educationusa.state.gov. I'm Steve Ember.

1 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

2 undergraduate   

n.大学生，大学肆业生

参考例句：

• Mr. Stone spent his undergraduate days in Columbia University,majoring in economics.斯通先生在哥伦比亚大学度过了他四年的大学生活，主修经济学。
• During this time,they are called undergraduate students.在此期间，他们被称为大学本科生。

3 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

4 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

5 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

6 engineering   

n.工程，工程学，管理，操纵

参考例句：

• The science of engineering began as soon as man learned to use tools. 人类一学会使用工具,工程科学就开始了。
• It was the first great engineering works in the world. 这是世界上第一家大型的工程工厂。

7 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

8 liberal   

adj.心胸宽阔的；自由(主义)的；慷慨的

参考例句：

• He has a liberal attitude to divorce and remarriage.他对离婚和再婚看得很开。
• This country adopts a liberal foreign policy.该国采用的是开放的外交政策。

9 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。