I entered college in China in 1981. Many things seemed to remain the same. For many things are dominated by one thing: the national entrance examination to get into college. In my year, about 4% high school students went to college. Now the number is 22%, as compared to 40% in the US.
The significant increase in the entrance rate doesn't seem to have relieved the anxiety. As a parent to a freshman college student, I can prove that junior and senior years in high school are not much fun even for students in the US. Once a country has vastly increased the rate of college entrance, students will still want to get into "better" colleges. The rat race is on if you are a rat, no matter where you are.
The NYT Magazine article also mentioned the Soviet-style（苏联模式的） over-specialized（过于专业化的） education in Chinese colleges. My class in college had maybe 60 students specialized in compressors, another 60 students specialized in refrigeration, and yet another 60 students specialized in welding（焊接）. I was among the 60 specialized in mechanics. I cannot recall the numbers exactly, but you get the picture.
It really wasn't as terrible as it sounds. In order to specialize in mechanics, we had to study math, physics and chemistry. We studied electrical circuits, alloy treatment, mechanical drawing, Fortran. We even had a continuous stream of humanity courses: history of communist party, political economics... I'm not sure I enjoyed all the courses, but I cannot claim that these courses damaged my brain, either. I remember some of the humanity courses required writing, which turned out to be a useful skill.
As a consequence of specialization, we did learn a lot of mechanics. By the end of college, we had courses on analytical mechanics, strength of materials.
I often feel sorry for American students in my undergraduate class, knowing that strength of materials will be their first and last course in the mechanics of materials. So many beautiful sights unseen! But they also seem to turn out to be OK. A liberal and superficial eduction doesn't damage their brains, either.
All this high level debate about education makes me dizzy, and turns me off. So far as I can tell, both systems of eduction work fine, and have their own limitations. The bottom line is that the quantity of knowledge is too large to be crammed into 4 years, and you'd have to make choices, making it either narrow or shallow or perhaps both. You'll just have to be prepared to engage yourself in life-long learning.
why doesn’t the rising entrance rate seem to have relieved people’s anxiety?

A．The rate of college entrance is still not high in China.

B．There not enough colleges for students.

C．Students are not contented with “common”college.

D．Students want to receive further education after college.

What’s the meaning of the sentence “the rat race is on if you are a rat”?

A．You cannot conquer your rivals forever.

B．There are too many people with the same ideas as yours.

C．You cannot avoid competition as long as you are in the society.

D．You should take yourself as a rat and run on for an established goal.

What does the author intend to show by listing the specific majors his class specialized in?

A．To show how specific the education was classified.

B．To show he had more major choices in his year.

C．To show what is Soviet-style education.

D．To show how terrible his college life was.

What is the author’s attitude towards his courses?

A．He doesn’t like them at all.

B．He doesn’t think that all of them are necessary.

C．He is sick of the humanity courses.

D．He likes humanity courses just for the future writing.

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