The Excellence of Excellence

阅读之前

一篇评论文章批评某大学的创新奖，暗示这些奖项奖励的是已经通过审批的想法，而不是真正的新想法。

关键词

safely pre-approved: 在被评估之前就已经稳妥地通过审批
transparent criteria: 清晰、公开的标准（这里暗示它们其实并不公平）
irritating one's rivals: 惹恼竞争对手，即让对手生气
make preference look like principle: 把偏好伪装成原则，即用体面的理由掩盖偏袒

正文 · 第 1 部分，共 3 部分

The university has announced its new innovation awards, a scheme designed to celebrate ideas that demonstrate strategic alignment, stakeholder confidence, and, where possible, originality. Applicants are invited to submit work that has already been endorsed by the relevant committee, thereby ensuring that innovation arrives safely pre-approved. The vice-chancellor described the initiative as a bold departure from tradition, which is reassuring, since the announcement was circulated in the same template used for parking regulations.

问题

问题 1：

What is the primary irony in the requirement that innovation arrive “safely pre-approved”?

查看翻译

要求创新"safely pre-approved"地到来，其中最主要的讽刺是什么？

The university wants applicants to submit ideas before they are fully developed.

The institution presents controlled conformity as if it were genuine innovation.

The awards are intended only for ideas with financial benefits.

The committee has abandoned all traditional procedures.

正文 · 第 2 部分，共 3 部分

To preserve fairness, the panel will apply transparent criteria. These criteria will remain confidential until the awards have been made, at which point they will be published in a summary that confirms the panel’s wisdom. Members with a conflict of interest may recuse themselves, although the university has thoughtfully defined such a conflict as direct financial benefit, excluding the more ordinary pleasure of rewarding one’s allies and irritating one’s rivals.

问题

问题 2：

What does the discussion of “transparent criteria” most strongly imply?

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关于"transparent criteria"的讨论最强烈地暗示了什么？

The criteria are open, stable, and independently audited.

The criteria may be presented as fair while remaining manipulable or retrospective.

The panel has not yet decided whether applications are necessary.

The university is legally required to publish every deliberation.

问题

问题 3：

Which register shift most clearly intensifies the satire?

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哪种语体转换最明显地增强了讽刺效果？

The movement from formal managerial terminology to colloquial descriptions of rivalry.

The movement from scientific terminology to poetic descriptions of nature.

The movement from personal anecdotes to legal quotations.

The movement from historical analysis to technical instructions.

正文 · 第 3 部分，共 3 部分

The shortlist reportedly favours projects whose principal achievement is their compatibility with the institution’s current vocabulary. A laboratory that challenges policy is considered insufficiently collaborative; a committee that reproduces policy in a colourful diagram is a triumph of process. Several awkwardly independent researchers were quietly disinvited from the launch after asking whether the awards might recognise work that had not first received permission to exist.

None of this proves that the prizes are rigged. It merely suggests that the university has discovered a sophisticated way to make preference look like principle. The winners may indeed be deserving. Yet the ceremony’s language—excellence, inclusion, transformation—will invite readers to admire not only the recipients but also the machinery that selected them. That machinery, protected by institutional memory and defended for the sake of optics, may be practising administrative self-care: ensuring that everyone celebrates innovation, provided innovation knows whom to thank.

The Excellence of Excellence

阅读之前

关键词

正文 · 第 1 部分，共 3 部分

问题

正文 · 第 2 部分，共 3 部分

问题

问题

正文 · 第 3 部分，共 3 部分

你的学习路径

A Quieter Route

The Note on the Counter

Acoustic Audit of the Aldenham Guildhall

The Quiet-Hours Loophole

The Chair With a Past

A Thoughtful Way to Opt Out

喜欢阅读吗？继续读一本书吧

圣诞颂歌

波希米亚丑闻

爱丽丝梦游仙境

黛西蕾的婴孩

关键词

你的学习路径

更多英语C2级附近的活动

A Quieter Route

The Note on the Counter

Acoustic Audit of the Aldenham Guildhall

The Quiet-Hours Loophole

The Chair With a Past

A Thoughtful Way to Opt Out

喜欢阅读吗？继续读一本书吧

圣诞颂歌

波希米亚丑闻

爱丽丝梦游仙境

黛西蕾的婴孩