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Nobody ever went into academic circles to make a fast fortune. Professors, especially those in medical-and technology-related fields, typically earn a fraction of what their colleagues in industry do. But suddenly, big money is starting to flow into the ivory tower, as university administrators make up to the commercial potential of academic research. And the institutions are wrestling with a whole new set of issues.

　　The profits are impressive: the Association of University Technology Managers surveyed 132 universities and found that they earned a combined $576 million from patent royalties in 1998, a number that promises to keep rising dramatically. Schools like Columbia University in New York have aggressively marketed their inventions to corporations, particularly pharmaceutical and high-tech companies.

　　Now Columbia is going retail—on the Web. It plans to go beyond the typical “dot. edu” model, free sites listing courses and professors’ research interests. Instead, it will offer the expertise of its faculty on a new for-profit site which will be spun off as an independent company. The site will provide free access to educational and research content, say administrators, as well as advanced features that are already available to Columbia students, such as a simulation of the construction and architecture of a French cathedral and interactive 3-D models of organic chemicals. Free pages will feed into profit-generating areas, such as online courses and seminars, and related books and tapes. Columbia executive vice president Michael Crow imagines “millions of visitors” to the new site, including retirees and students willing to pay to tap into this educational resource. “We can offer the best of what’s thought and written and researched,” says Ann Kirschner, who heads the project. Columbia also is anxious not be beaten by some of the other for-profit “knowledge sites,” such as About.com and Hungry Minds. “If they capture this space,” says Crow, “th

A.that they’ll not beat other educational “knowledge sites”
B.that the spun-off company will remain independent
C.that their educational resource will be tapped into
D.that their faculty’s brains will be picked by their competitors

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答案： D

本题解析：

细节题。从文中第三段中的“Columbia also is anxious not be beaten by some of the other for-profit ‘knowledge sites’”可知，哥伦比亚大学担心被其他提供知识的收费网站打垮，害怕学校教师的劳动成果被窃取，故D项符合题意。