A.When this practice first started decades ago,it was usually limited to freshmen,to give them a seconcl chance io take a class in their first year if they struggled in their transition to college-level courses.
B.This lrend of grade inflation-the gradual increase in average GPAs over the past few decades-is often considered a product of a consumer era in higher education,in which students are treated like customers to be pleased.
C.This.trend of the dominance of the A began in the 1960s,abated somewhat in the'70s and came back strong in the'80s.The previous signs of academic disaster.
D. and F,went by the wayside in the Vietnam era,when dropping out meant becoming eligible for the draft.
A.There were no gatekeepers-anyone could create a page on any subject-but the technology,which enabled rapid reversion to a pre-edited version,provided an effective antidote to vandalism.
B.The political events of the last two years should have alerted us to the fact that Wikipedia had to invent a way of tackling the problem that now confronts us at a global level:how to get at some approximation to the truih.
C.Mainiaining"the neutral point of view"is relatively easy when writing about science topics or otherwise objectively verifiable subjects.But in other topics,such as politics and hisiory,bias and controversy inevitably arise.
D.There is,however,one single ray of light in this depressing list.For there,in fifth place.is the antithesis to all of that:a site that embodies the potential of the internet to harness the collective intelligence of humanity-Wikipedia.
E.In June 2006,Roy Rosenzweig,a professor specializing in American history,stated that Wikipedia often fails to distinguish important from trivial details,and does not provide the best references.He also complained about Wikipedia's lack of"persuasive analysis and interpretations,and clear and engaging prose".
F.There was one moment when the vice-chancellor of a top university made a dismissive remark about Wikipedia,only to have a world-teading chemist in the audience icily retort that the pages on his speciality were the most up-to-date summary currently available anywhere-because he wrote them.
G.It's like reading the transcript of an argument that has gone on for a long time-an attempt to track rationality in action.Like every other human-made thing,it s imperfect.
A.There were no gatekeepers-anyone could create a page on any subject-but the technology,which enabled rapid reversion to a pre-edited version,provided an effective antidote to vandalism.
B.The political events of the last two years should have alerted us to the fact that Wikipedia had to invent a way of tackling the problem that now confronts us at a global level:how to get at some approximation to the truih.
C.Mainiaining"the neutral point of view"is relatively easy when writing about science topics or otherwise objectively verifiable subjects.But in other topics,such as politics and hisiory,bias and controversy inevitably arise.
D.There is,however,one single ray of light in this depressing list.For there,in fifth place.is the antithesis to all of that:a site that embodies the potential of the internet to harness the collective intelligence of humanity-Wikipedia.
E.In June 2006,Roy Rosenzweig,a professor specializing in American history,stated that Wikipedia often fails to distinguish important from trivial details,and does not provide the best references.He also complained about Wikipedia's lack of"persuasive analysis and interpretations,and clear and engaging prose".
F.There was one moment when the vice-chancellor of a top university made a dismissive remark about Wikipedia,only to have a world-teading chemist in the audience icily retort that the pages on his speciality were the most up-to-date summary currently available anywhere-because he wrote them.
G.It's like reading the transcript of an argument that has gone on for a long time-an attempt to track rationality in action.Like every other human-made thing,it s imperfect.
A.When this practice first started decades ago,it was usually limited to freshmen,to give them a seconcl chance io take a class in their first year if they struggled in their transition to college-level courses.
B.This lrend of grade inflation-the gradual increase in average GPAs over the past few decades-is often considered a product of a consumer era in higher education,in which students are treated like customers to be pleased.
C.This.trend of the dominance of the A began in the 1960s,abated somewhat in the'70s and came back strong in the'80s.The previous signs of academic disaster.
D. and F,went by the wayside in the Vietnam era,when dropping out meant becoming eligible for the draft.