她笑着说：“Today， I want to talk about American colleges. Has anybody heard about my Alma Mater？ (今天，我想讲一讲美国的大学。有谁听说过我的母校？)”
平时是最铁杆托派的田凯回答说：“I think University of Pennsylvania is one of the Ivy League schools. (我想宾夕法尼亚大学是常春藤盟校之一。)”
她点点头说：“Pretty good. Can anyone name all the Ivy League schools？ (很不错，有谁能说出所有常春藤盟校的名字呢？)”
我们开始说我们知道的名校的名字："Harvard！" "Yale！" "Columbia！" "Cornell！" "Stanford！" "Princenton！" "MIT！"
她笑了笑说：“You are pretty close. A few schools like Stanford and MIT are top schools too， but they are not Ivy League member. In the order of the latest undergraduate school ranking， Ivy Schools are： Harvard， Princeton， Yale， University of Pennsylvania， Columbia， Cornell， Brown， and Dartmouth. I guess University of Pennsylvania， Brown and Dartmouth are less known in China. (你们挺接近的了。有两所学校像斯坦福和麻省理工也是最好的学校，但他们不是常春藤盟校的。以最近一年的大学本科排名，哈佛， 普林斯顿，耶鲁，宾夕法尼亚大学，哥伦比亚大学， 康乃尔大学， 布朗，和达特矛斯。我想，在中国，宾夕法尼亚大学，布朗，和达特矛斯的名气会小一点。”
"How come University of Pennsylvania is Ivy League member？ It sounds like a state university. I thought Ivy League schools are all private schools. (为什么宾夕法尼亚大学是常春藤盟校的呢？这名字听起来像个州立大学。我好像听说常春藤盟校都是私立学校。)”
一个同学问。
"Good question. It really sounds like a state university. In fact， I think it may be the only private university with a state name in it. Oh， New York University is another. I thought you guys are computer science major， you should know the school， the first computer was invented in Penn. (好问题。她是很像一个州立大学的名字。实际上，我觉得她是唯一一所用州名的私立大学。噢，对了，纽约大学是另一个。我觉得你们是计算机科学系的，你们应该知道我们学校啊？第一台计算机就是在那里发明的。)”
“Oh， really？(真的呀？)”我们都惊讶着。
她接着说：“Sometimes， its business school， Wharton， has better name recognition. Wharton is the oldest business school in the US， consistently ranked top three in the country. (她的华顿商学院可能名气比整个学校都响。华顿是最古老的商学院，一直在美国排前三名。)”
田凯大声说：“I knew Wharton before， I do not know it is part of the University of Pennsylvania though. Thanks for letting us know. (我以前就知道华顿，但不知道华顿是宾夕法尼亚大学的。谢谢。)”
她笑着说：“No problem. By the way， does anyone know what is the original mission for organizing Ivy League？ (不用谢。有谁知道当初为什么这些学校会组成常春藤盟校吗？)”
我们大家互相看着，都摇摇头。
她说：“In the US， college sport is very popular and a huge money generating machine. Lots of school， even top schools like Stanford， Duke， and Notre Dame accept top athletes purely based on their athletic ability without too much consideration on other merits. These eight schools got together， they decided to admit student athletes based on all the merits， not just athletic ability along. They formed their own league， called Ivy League to compete in sports with each other. Somehow， this became the perfect marketing and recruitment tools. By the way， IVY league schools normally offer full financial aid package based on need. Supposedly， the schools will not discriminate based on financial situation. In another word， if you got admitted， they will try to help you financially based on individual need to let you attend the school. (在美国，大学体育运动是特别受欢迎和赚钱的。很多学校，甚至一些最好的学校象斯坦福，杜克，和赖斯也只凭着运动水平而录取学生运动员。常春藤盟校的八所学校，组织在一起，决定对学生运动员也要综合考虑，择优录取。他们组成的了常春藤联盟，学生可以在一起互相比赛。不知道为什么，常春藤盟校这块招牌后来成了最好的招生和推销的工具。对了，常春藤盟校通常会根据学生的需要，给予财政资助。理论上说，常春藤盟校不会因为学生的财政状况来做录取决定。换句话来说，如果你被录取了，学校会尽量根据你的需要，帮助你上学的。)”
田凯又问：“How do Ivy League schools make money then？(那这些常春藤盟校怎么赚钱呢？)”
