A wealthy applicant’s family donating a building? That’s OK. Pretending to be a water polo player? Not so much.
There’s a much-viewed video on the internet showing how a capuchin monkey reacts when it gets rewarded for a task with a bit of boring cucumber while the capuchin in the next cage gets a grape for the same task. The wronged primate throws the cucumber back at the experimenter in rage and disgust, then reaches through a hole and pounds the counter before slamming the cage’s clear plastic wall with both fists. Unspoken: “Gimme a damn grape, lady.”
Parents of college-bound students are reacting with equally righteous indignation to a new adissions cheating scandal, in which Hollywood celebrities and CEOs are accused of paying bribes to help their kids cut in line to get into top universities. In a March 12 court filing, the federal government said clients paid a combined $25 million in bribes to sports coaches and college administrators from 2011 to 2018 to get their kids into such schools as Yale, Stanford, the University of California at Los Angeles, and Georgetown.
Unfairness triggers a part of the brain called the anterior insula that causes feelings of contempt or disgust. It’s the part of the brain that saved our ancestors’ lives by telling them not to eat rotten meat. Judging from the firestorm on social media, Americans seem far more disturbed by this scandal than by the preferential access given to, say, children of alumni or wealthy donors. That might be because people see those breaks as just part of the way the world works. Even if you don’t like it, you can sort of understand why a university would look favorably on an application from a young woman whose parents just gave $25 million for a new student union. Schools need money. In contrast, there’s no rough justice in this scandal. Those enriched were corrupt officials, not the schools.
Among the parents charged were Gordon Caplan, the co-chairman of the Willkie Farr & Gallagher law firm in New York; Manuel Henriquez, chief executive officer of Hercules Capital; and Douglas Hodge, the former CEO of Pacific Investment Management Co. All three declined to comment. William Singer, the founder of a California-based test prep business said to be at the heart of the scandal, has pleaded guilty.
一个有钱申请者家里捐了一栋楼？这可以被接受。假装水球运动员？不可以。
互联网有一段流传甚广的视频。视频中展示了一只卷尾猴完成任务得到奖励时的反应。第一个笼子任务奖励是不受待见的黄瓜，第二个笼子同样任务完成奖励是一颗葡萄。得到黄瓜的的猴子怒气冲冲地把黄瓜扔向实验人员，两只拳头从洞里伸过去，用力敲打笼子透明塑料墙前的柜台，潜台词是：“女士，抓紧拿葡萄来！”
大学生家长对于新一起招生作弊丑闻同样义愤填膺。在这起丑闻中，好莱坞明星及大公司CEO被指控行贿来让他们孩子进入顶尖大学。联邦政府在3月12日的法庭文件中表示，从2011年到2018年，这些人总共向体育教练和大学管理人员行贿2500万美元，以使他们的孩子进入耶鲁、斯坦福、加州大学洛杉矶分校、乔治敦等名校。
不公平会触发大脑中被称为“前脑岛”的部分，引起轻蔑或厌恶的感觉。前脑岛是大脑的一部分，它提醒我们的祖先想活命就不要食腐肉。从这件事在社交媒体上的火爆程度可以看出，美国人对这一丑闻本身的不安程度远远超过对校友或富有捐赠人子女被优待的不安。这或许是因为，人们把这些对于规则的突破当做世界运行规律的一部分。即使你不接受，你可以一定程度上理解为什么一所大学更录取一位年轻女性而这一切就是因为她的父母刚为一个新学生会捐款2500万美元。学校需要资金。但相比之下，这则丑闻并无公正可言，因收受贿赂的是贪官而非学校。
被指控的父母中，有纽约Willkie Farr & Gallagher律所联合主席Gordon Caplan、大力神资本CEO Manuel Henriquez 和太平洋投资管理公司前CEO Douglas Hodge。三人均拒绝表态。加州一家备考公司创始人William Singer，据说是此次丑闻的核心人物，他已认罪。
scandal 丑闻
rage 愤怒，激烈，大发脾气
disgust 反感，厌恶，嫌恶
righteous indignation 义愤填膺
be accused of 被起诉
federal government 联邦政府
administrator 管理者
trigger 引发，触发，扳机，启动装置
contempt 轻视，蔑视
rotten meat 腐肉
firestorm 大爆发
preferential 优先选择的，优先的，特惠的
alumni （男）校友，（男）毕业生
donor 捐赠者（拓展：donation 捐款，捐赠，捐献）
corrupt 堕落的，道德败坏的，贪污的，腐败的
chief executive officer 首席执行官，简称CEO
plead认罪，恳求，辩论，申辩
anterior insula 通过FMRI，对人在行为时进行了脑部扫描发现，当人们感到不公正时，“前脑岛 ”（anterior insula）部分被激活，而通常进行理性计算时，只有“额叶皮层”（prefrontal cortex）是活跃的。
19. Parents of college-bound students are reacting with equally righteous indignation to a new admissions cheating scandal, in which Hollywood celebrities and CEOs are accused of paying bribes to help their kids cut in line to get into top universities. in which用在定语从句中，等于where,在定语从句中作状语。如果先行词(指定语从句修饰的那个表地点的词)前已有前置词(介词)，关系副词就用where ；如果先行词前没有前置词，此时既可以用where，也可以用in which。
20.Even if you don’t like it, you can sort of understand why a university would look favorably on an application from a young woman whose parents just gave $25 million for a new student union. even if引导让步状语从句，往往是假设性的，相当于汉语的“即使”“纵然”“就算”“哪怕”，有时还可以用于虚拟语气，意思与if接近；口语中有时可以与even if相互替换的even though引导的从句内容往往是真实的，主要用于引出不利用于主句情况的信息，相当于汉语的“尽管”“虽然”，与 though，although意思接近。
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揭露美国顶尖大学招生史上特大舞弊丑闻,耶鲁,斯坦福卷入! mp.weixin.qq.com
发布于 12:40
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