The Ivy League

背景介绍

常春藤盟校是指美国东北部八所院校组成的体育赛事联盟。这八所院校包括：布朗大学、哥伦比亚大学、康奈尔大学、达特茅斯学院、哈佛大学、宾夕法尼亚大学、普林斯顿大学及耶鲁大学。它们都是私立大学，美国一流名校，其中七所是在英国殖民时期建立的。各校之间早在19世纪末期就有体育竞赛。1956年，各校订立体育竞赛规则，同时订立了常春藤盟校的规章。早期的常春藤盟校只有哈佛、耶鲁、哥伦比亚和普林斯顿4所大学。4的罗马数字为Ⅳ,加上一个词尾Y,就成了IVY,常春藤盟校的名称由此而来。后来这个联盟增加到8所学校。

情景对话

Jennifer:Have you heard back anything on your college APS?

Ollie:No,not yet...I’ve been sitting on the edge of my seat about it since February when I got the last paperwork in.If I don’t get into one of the Ivies,I just don’t know what I’ll do!

Jennifer:One of the Ivies?Really?Which one did you apply for?

Ollie:All eight of them!Brown,Columbia,Cornell,Dartmouth,Harvard,Princeton,Yale,and University of Pennsylvania.My first choice is Yale,but I’d go for any of the eight.I didn’t apply to any other schools.

Jennifer:Seriously?I don’t know what’s so special about those schools.Why do they call them Ivy League anyway?

Ollie:The ivy refers to the plant that grows on the buildings of course.In the 1800s,students would start the year with a tradition of planting ivy.The eight Ivies were the eight old schools that had this tradition.The Ivy League designation（名称）originally meant the collegiate（学院的）athletic conference of sports teams from those eight private schools,but now the term Ivy League means academic excellence,selec-tivity in admissions,and...

Jennifer:...elitism（精英统治）.

Ollie:Well,maybe it is a bit elite,but they are the oldest schools in the nation.Seven of the eight schools were started before the United States was even a country!Cornell was founded in 1865,but all the others were chartered（授权）before the American Revolution and are seven out of nine colonial colleges.Ivy League schools are the most prestigious（声誉很高的）and are always in the top in worldwide rankings.

Jennifer:So they really are better schools?

Ollie:I guess it depends on what you’re looking for in a school,but they get millions of dollars in research grants and other financial support from federal and state government.Harvard’s financial endowment（捐赠）is over$32 billion dollars,the largest financial endowment of any university in the world.

Jennifer:I don’t know if I’d like to be at such a big school...

Ollie:They aren’t really that big.Enrollment is a little bit larger than a typical liberal arts school,but smaller than a public state university.Anywhere from 4,000 to 14,000 students.There aren’t as many people enrolled as you think.

Jennifer:Guess that means it’s hard to get in!Best of luck to you!

译文助读

珍妮弗：你申请的大学给你回音了吗？

奥利：没，还没呢……从2月份我递交了最后一份书面材料后，我就一直坐着焦急地等消息呢。如果我进不了常春藤盟校的学校，我真不知道自己该怎么办！

珍妮弗：常春藤盟校的学校？真的吗？你申请了哪一所？

奥利：我申请了这个联盟里的全部八所高校！布朗大学、哥伦比亚大学、康奈尔大学、达特茅斯学院、哈佛大学、普林斯顿大学、耶鲁大学和宾夕法尼亚大学。我首选耶鲁大学，不过这八所中任意一所我都愿意去。

珍妮弗：真的吗？我不知道那些学校有什么特别之处。为什么它们被称作常春藤盟校呢？

奥利：常春藤当然是指生长在建筑物的墙壁上的一种植物。在19世纪，每年年初，学生们有种常春藤的传统。而这八所高校都是多年沿袭这一传统的学府。起初，常春藤盟校来自这八所高校的体育运动学院联盟。不过现在的常春藤盟校是指卓越的学术成就、选拔入学……

珍妮弗：……精英群体。

奥利：嗯，可能是比较精英化。不过它们是美国最古老的高校了，其中七所在美国建国以前就有了！康奈尔大学建于1865年，其余七所在美国独立战争以前就建立了。殖民时期的高校共九所，其中就包括这七所。常春藤盟校高校是声誉最高的，也一直是全世界顶尖的。

珍妮弗：所以它们真的比其他高校要好，对吗？

奥利：我想，这要看你想在高校里学什么。不过他们能从联邦政府和美国政府那里得到数百万美元的研究经费以及其他经济赞助。哈佛大学获得的经济赞助超过320亿美元，位列世界第一位。

珍妮弗：我也不知道自己想不想去这样大的学府……

奥利：它们实际上也没有那么大，招生人数比一般的文科院校多一点，但比公立的州立大学要少一点，4,000到14,000名学生不等。招生人数没有你想的那么多。

珍妮弗：我想，那意味着这些学校很不容易进入！祝你好运啦！

Reading check

Please write a composition with 150 words to introduce the Ivy League to your classmates.