Passage 3

The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence.

This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration, transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a burden on the memory, it is energizing as the poet of our dreams and as the architect of our purposes.

Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating the facts. It works by eliciting the general principles which apply to the facts, as they exist, and then by an intellectual survey of alternative possibilities which are consistent with those principles. It enables men to construct an intellectual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest of life by the suggestion of satisfying purposes.

Youth is imaginative, and if the imagination be strengthened by discipline, this energy of imagination can in great measure be preserved through life. The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imagination. Fools act on imagination without knowledge; pedants(学究) act on knowledge without imagination. The task of university is to weld together imagination and experience.

11. The main theme of the passage is .

A. the access to knowledge in university

B. the function of universities

C. the role of imagination in our lives

D. the relationship between imagination and experience

12. According to the passage, the justification for a university is that .

A. it presents facts and experience to young and old

B. it imparts knowledge to imaginative people

C. it combines imagination with knowledge and experience

D. it enables men to construct an intellectual vision of the world

13. The underlined word “eliciting” in paragraph 3 probably means .

A. applying

B. challenging

C. drawing forth

D. preserving

14. Which of the following is NOT discussed as one of the things imagination can do?

A. It makes our life exciting and worthwhile.

B. It helps us to understand the world.

C. It helps us to formulate Laws about the facts.

D. It provides inspiration to the artists.

15. According to the author, the tragedy of the world is that .

A. our energy of imagination cannot be preserved

B. our imagination is seldom disciplined

C. we grow old inevitably

D. too many people are either fools or pedants

参考答案见下页