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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, Dartmouth, 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. 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.
参考答案：
州民学费，数十年来，这是大多州立大学所拥有的一大优势，各州立大学用此来吸引众多品质优良、天资聪慧的莘莘学子，在这方面，即使是长春藤盟校也无法与之比拼。但近期，情况已经不再是以前的局面。从今年九月起，部分学生会发现，从哈佛大学拿一个学位所需的费用比许多公立大学还要低。
去年十二月，哈佛大学的管理者们出台了一份详尽的助学政策，规定年总收入在18万美元以下的家庭，只需用其年总收入的10%作为自己孩子的学费，因此，除了那些来自极为富裕的家庭的学生以外，哈佛大学的学子每人每年所获的学费补贴可高达45600美元。这一政策变动在美国名校间引起一阵震惊。美国的名校近几年来竞相出台各种助学计划，并在资助幅度上相互比拼，哈佛这一政策不过是其中最新的一步。
哈佛的政策可算是至今为止最为慷慨的，不过普林斯顿、达特茅斯、耶鲁和斯坦福都启动了类似的助学计划，规定了来自中低收入家庭学生们的学费上限。事实上，由于过去五年中所推行的学费贷款减免计划，每个长春藤盟校的学生，如果他是接受学费资助的，都很有可能在毕业时无债一身轻。其他的高收费学校也纷纷效法。今年秋季更多的学校会加入减免学费贷款的行列。还有更多的学校已经采取措施逐步减轻家境困难的学生们学费贷款的压力。
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人们通常喜欢听好听的话，一听到拂耳之言就容易产生不悦甚至愠怒。一个人特别是身居要职的人要能够心悦诚服地倾听逆耳之良言并从中获得智慧，就需要一种容忍和大度的雅量，而这往往依赖于人们的心性修养和对人性缺陷的克制；否则，就会给那些善于运用花言巧语和投其所好的人提供可乘之机，并伤害那些直言不讳的忠诚之人。
在理智上，人们大概愿意接受“兼听则明，偏信则暗”、“忠言逆耳利于行”等一类古老的真理，或者乐于信服老子说的“美言不信，信言不美”的哲理。但在行为上，人们又时常背离这些古训，不愿意听或听不进“逆耳”之言，”最终犯下严重的过失。
We tend to hear words pleasant to the ear but have displeasure and resentment at words harsh to the ear. A man, especially one occupying an important position, needs tolerance and magnanimity to lend an ear to truthful yet offensive words with heartfelt admiration so as to gain wisdom from them, and those qualities can be only cultivated through the nurturing of the soul and the restraint in human weaknesses. Otherwise, opportunities are exploited to the advantage of those with sweet words on the lips to tickle the ear of others, only to hurt those loyal people outspoken in their remarks.
Intellectually, we are probably willing to believe in the ancient truths that we’ ll be enlightened if we listen to both sides and we will be benighted if we heed only one side, that honest advice, though unpleasant to the ear, benefits conduct. Also, we are delightfully convinced of Laotzu’s philosophy that true words are not embellished and the embellished words are not true. However, in our behaviours, we tend to depart from those established maxims, reluctant to accept and follow those uncomfortable truths until eventually grave errors are committed.