Questions 1-3
Some of Britain's leading universities are embroiled in a 'cash for degree course' row after accepting foreign students from a fee- paying tutorial college that claims to be in partnership with them . The foreign applicants pay & 15.000 for one –year 'foundation' courses at Beilerbys college. Which claims to guarantee a place at one of 33 British universities with which it is linked. These include highly ranked institutions such as Nottingham are Southampton. Universities confirmed they accepted Bellerbys students but denied they guaranteed places.
Bellerbys –which has campuses in Oxford, London. Cambridge and Hove in East Sussex-found undergraduate places for 400 foreign students last year . An undercover Sunday Times reporter was told by Bellerbys last week that he would have 'no problem' getting on the foundation course despite saying he performed badly at school . When Bellerbys was asked how it could guarantee a degree place. It said : 'Because there are partner universities. '
Cash –strapped universities are keen to take foreign students because they can charge them fees between & 6.000 and & 8.000 a year, almost double the sum received for teaching British undergraduates. The college's claim to guarantee students a university place is likely to anger students and schools struggling to win places at the top institutions, Trina Mawer, head of the independent Farlington school in Horsham, said : 'This is just amazing, Those students are not being judged by the same standards as ours. It is most unfair to students who have worked hard to get good A –levels. I understand the universities' need for extra money, but this scheme makes a mockery of our exam system and university admissions.
Last week the reporter, posing as a Bosnian student and speaking broken English, approached an admissions adviser at Bellerbys to ask about his chances of getting into the college and then joining a university engineering course . The adviser made it clear that the reporter would be given a place at Bellerbys if the college considered he had done well at high school in Bosnia or had shown potential . The adviser told the reporter "We can guarantee you entry to one of our 33 partner universities." a pledge that also appears on the college's website . When the reporter said : "My father tell me, my father wants me to go to school in England. . .my marks in high school are not very good ." the adviser replied :" We will look at your marks and I think that it won't be a problem" The university at which Bellerbys students win a place depends on their score in the foundation course, which is marked by the college's staff.
A second reporter, posing as the guardian of a Chinese student, was told a score of between 70% and 85% would be required by Nottingham and Southampton . An admissions officer added : "With [40%] you could get the University of Aston , Brighton or Buckingham ." The tutor said the student must have finished high school in China and have a score of 41/2 out of 9 in the IELTS . Universities usually require a score of at least 6 from foreign students applying directly.
Bellerbys defended its courses, claiming students studied elements of A – levels and worked at the "same degree of directly". Bellerbys in Hove's vice – principal Peter Corcut said : "Because it is shorter we take key topics from A –level courses. Every applicant's school grades are assessed before they come on the course."
Christine Humfrey, director of the international office at Nottingham. Said the university had accepted 20-30 foreign students from Bellerbys this year, some from the foundation programmed. All those accepted had been suitable candidates. "We wouldn't admit them if we thought they would not do well. " she said. Southampton also takes students from Bellerbys but denied guaranteeing places.
Stephen Miller, deputy vice-chancellor at City University , London , which appears as a "partner" university on the Bellerbys website. Denied there was a formal arrangement with the college. "We take their students, but we don't guarantee anyone a place," he said. "The foundation pressure is recognized by us as equivalent to our A-Level requirements . " The financial pressure on universities has been highlighted by lvor Crewe, vice –chancellor of Essex University , who has said the presence of foreign students "is simply what makes it possible for the academic enterprise to continue. "
1. What is the "cash for degree courses"row mentioned in the passage？
2. Give a brief introduction of Bellerbys college's enrollment of foreign students. What does the reporters investigation of the college tell us？
3. What can be concluded from the replies from the partner universities？
Questions 4-7
An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming . Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has leapt in a two- year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past. The findings will be discussed tomorrow by the government's chief scientist, Dr David King , at the annual Greenpeace lecture.
Measurements of CO2 have been continuous for 50 years at Mauna Loa Observatory. 12.000ft up a mountain in Hawaii, regarded as far enough away from any carbon dioxide source to be a reliable measuring point. In recent decades CO2 increased on average by 1.5 parts per million（ppm） a year because of the amount of oil, coal and gas burnt, but has now jumped to more than 2 ppm in 2002 and 2003. Above or below average rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been explained in the past by natural events. When the Pacific warms up during EI Nino, the amount of carbon dioxide rises dramatically as warm oceans emit CO2 rather than absorb it .
But scientists are Puzzled because over the past two years, when the increases have been 2. 08ppm and 2.5ppm respectively, there has been no EI Nino. Charles Keeling, the man who began the observations in 1958, is now 74 and still working in the field. He said yesterday : "The rise in the annual rate to above two parts per million for two consecutive years is a real phenomenon . It is possible that this is merely a reflection of natural events like previous peaks in the rate, but it is also possible that it is the beginning of a natural process unprecedented in the record. " Analysts stress that it is too early to draw any long-term conclusions. But the fear is that the greater than normal rises in CO2 emissions mean that instead of decades to bring global warming under control we may have only a few years. At worst, the figures could be the first sign of the breakdown in the Earth's NATURAL SYSTEM FOR ABSORBING THE GAS. That would herald the so-called"runaway greenhouse effect," where the planet's soaring temperature becomes impossible to contain.
One of the predictions made by climate scientists in the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is that as the Earth warms, the absorption of carbon dioxide by vegetation-known as "carbon sink " -is reduced. Dr Keeling said since there was no sign of a dramatic increase in the amount of fossil fuels being burnt in 2002 and 2003, the rise "could be a weakening of the Earth's carbon sinks, associated with the world warming, as part of a climate change feedback mechanism. It is a cause for concern."
Tom Burke, visiting professor at Imperial College London, and a former special adviser to the former Tory environment minister, warned: "We're watching the clock and the clock is beginning to tick faster, like it seems to before a bomb goes off. " Peter Cox, head of the Carbon Cycle Group at the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Change, said the increase in carbon dioxide was not uniform across the globe."My guess is that there were extra forest fires in the northern hemisphere, and particu-larly a very hot summer in Europe, "Dr Cox said."This led to a die-back in vegetation and an increase in release of carbon from the soil, rather than more growing plants taking carbon out of the atmosphere, which is usually the case in summer. "
Scientists have dubbed the two-year CO2 rise the Mauna Loa anomaly. Dr Cox said one its most interesting aspects was that the CO2 rises did not take place in EI Nino years. Previously the only figures that climbed higher than 2 ppm were EI Nino years. The heat wave of last year which claimed at least 30. 000 lives across the world was so out of the ordinary that many scientists believe it could only have been caused by global warming . But D r Cox is concerned that too much might be read into two years' figures. "5 or 6 years on the trot would be very difficult to explain, "he said.
Dr Piers Forster, senior research fellow of the University of Reading's Department of Meteorology, said: "if this is a rate change, of course it will be very significant. It will be of enormous concern, because it will imply that all our global warming predictions for the next hundred years or so will have to be redone."
David Hofmann of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration centre , which also studies CO2 , was more cautious. " I don't think an increase of 2 ppm for two years in a row is highly significant-there are climatic perturbations that can make this occur, "he said . "But the absence of a known climatic event does make these years unusual . Based on those two years alone I would say it was too soon to say that a new trend has been established, but it warrants close scrutiny."
4.Why has the change in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the past two years raised fear and concern among climate scientists？
5. What is "runaway greenhouse effect" （para.4）？ What is "carbon sink " （para.5）
6. Explain briefly Tom Burke's warning "We're watching the clock and the clock is beginning to tick faster, like it seems to before a bomb goes off. "（ para.6）
7. What are the major explanations for the change in CO2 over the past two years？
