第一題：
In-state tuition. For decades, it was the one advantage big state schools had that even the Ivy League couldn't match, in terms of recruiting the best and the brightest to their campuses. But these days, that's no longer necessarily the case. Starting this September, some students will find a Harvard degree cheaper than one from many public universities. Harvard officials sent shock waves through academia last December by detailing a new financial-aid policy that will charge families making up to $180,000 just 10% of their household income per year, substantially subsidizing the annual cost of more than $45,600 for all but its wealthiest students. The move was just the latest in what has amounted to a financial-aid bidding war in recent years among the U.S.'s élite universities.
Though Harvard's is the most generous to date, Princeton, Yale and Stanford have all launched similar plans to cap tuition contributions for students from low- and middle-income families. Indeed, students on financial aid at nearly every Ivy stand a good chance of graduating debt-free, thanks to loan-elimination programs introduced over the past five years. And other exclusive schools have followed their lead by replacing loans with grants and work-study aid. And several more schools are joining the no-loan club this fall. Even more schools have taken steps to reduce debt among their neediest students.
【參考譯文】
數十年來，州內學費是大型州立學校得天獨厚的優勢，連常春藤聯盟都無法匹敵，因爲這能爲學校招來最優秀、最聰明的學生。但是如今，情況卻未必如此。從今年九月起，一些學生會發現讀一個哈佛大學的學位比許多公立大學的還要便宜。去年十二月，哈佛官員詳細闡述了一項新的財政資助政策，對於年收入不高於180000美元的家庭，只收取其中的10%作爲學費。絕大多數學生的家庭經濟條件一般，本來每年要繳納45600多美元的學費，對他們而言，這可謂一份厚禮，整個學術界爲之震動。近年來，美國的精英大學紛紛出臺財政資助政策，相互之間打得不可開交，哈佛大學的這一舉措只是其中最新的一項。
儘管哈佛開出的條件是迄今最優厚的，普林斯頓、耶魯和斯坦福都出臺了類似的計劃，來降低中低收入家庭的學生所需支付的學費。而且，由於過去五年裏採用的免貸款計劃，如今幾乎每一所常春藤盟校裏接受資助的學生都很可能無債一身輕地畢業。其它收費昂貴的學校紛紛效仿，取消了貸款，發放助學金和勤工儉學補助。今年秋天，還有幾所學校會加入這個“無貸款俱樂部”。更多的學校都已採取措施，爲最需要資助的學生減少債務。
第二題：
There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard. He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew that his three sons despised the farm work, and were eager to make wealth, trough adventure.
When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, "My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."
The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden; but he would tell them nothing more.
After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold; since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.
They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing.
The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.
And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, "There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it."
從前有一個農民，他有一座漂亮的橄欖園。他非常勤勞，而且農場在他的照管下蒸蒸日上。可他知道自己的三個兒子瞧不起農活，都迫不及待的想通過冒險發家致富。
這個農民上了年歲，感到死期快要來臨時，將三個兒子叫到身邊說：“兒子們，橄欖園裏藏有一罐金子。你們想要，就去挖吧。”
兒子們想讓父親告訴他們金子藏在果園的那一塊地方，可他什麼也沒再給他們說。
那個農民死後，三個兒子就開始挖地，想找到那罐金子;因爲他們不知道金子藏在什麼地方，所以他們一致同意排成一行從果園的`一頭開始挖起，知道其中一人挖到金子爲止.
他們挖啊挖，從果園的一頭一直挖到了另一頭，果樹周圍和果樹之間也都挖到了，可還是沒有找到那罐金子。看來一定是有人已經把那罐金子頭走了，要麼就是他們的父親一直在異想天開。三個兒子對他們白乾了一場，感到大失所望。
到了第二年的橄欖季節，果園裏的橄欖樹接出的果子比以往的都多;賣完果子後，三個兒子賺了整整一罐金子。
他們從果園裏得到這麼多錢後，突然明白了聰明的父親所說的“果園裏藏有金子，想要就去挖吧”這句話的含義。
