As the price of a college degree continues to rise, there's growing evidence that the monetary（货币的） payoff isn't quite as big as often advertised. The best estimate now is that a college degree is worth about $300,000 in today's dollars--nowhere near the million figure that is often quoted.
"That million number has driven me crazy!" says Sandy Baum, a Skidmore economist who studied the value of a college degree for the College Board last year.
Baum's research showed that college graduates earn, on average, about $20,000 a year more than those who finished their educations at high school. Add that up over a 40-year working life and the total differential is about $800,000, she figures. But since much of that bonus is earned many years from now, taking away the impact of inflation means that$800,000 in future dollars is worth only about $450,000 in today's dollars.
Then, if you remove the cost of a college degree--about ,$30,000 in tuition and books for students who get no aid and attend public in-state universities--and the money a student could have earned at a job instead of attending school, the real net value in today's dollars is somewhere in the $300,000 range, a number confirmed by other studies.
But, especially these days, that still makes a college degree one of the most lucrative investments a person can make, Baum notes.
Better yet, college graduates can go on to earn advanced degrees, which return even bigger payoffs. The average holder of a bachelor's degree earns about$51,000 a year, Baum calculates. But those who've gone on to earn MBAs, law degrees, or other professional degrees earn about $100,000 a year.
In addition, Baum found that there are plenty of other rewards for a degree. The quality of the jobs college graduates get is far better, for example. College graduates are more likely to get jobs with health insurance. And it is easier for them to find and hold jobs. The unemployment rate for college graduates was just 2.2 percent last year, half the unemployment level of those with only high school diplomas.
There are lots of other nonmonetary benefits as well. College graduates are healthier, contribute more to their communities, and raise kids who are better prepared academically, studies show.
Other researchers have found that the payoff of a degree is especially lucrative for students from low-income families, since the education and degrees give them a chance to break out of low-paying careers.
1.What can be inferred from Para 1 ?
A. The payoff of a college degree is still big enough to match the advertised.
B. It’s more and more difficult to get a college degree.
C. The return of a college degree is less than often quoted.
D. A college degree is worth about one million dollars.
2.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “lucrative” in Para.5?
A. attractive B. worthless C. approachable D. balanced
3.How can a college graduate increase his or her yearly income according to the passage?
A. By getting jobs with health insurance immediately.
B. By going on for higher degrees.
C. By breaking out of low-paying jobs.
D. By contributing more to his or her community.
4.Which of the following statements can be learned from the text ?
A. According to Baum's research, high school graduates earn more than those who have college degrees.
B. College education is enough to ensure you a good life.
C. Nonmonetary benefits from the degree attract students more than monetary ones.
D. Students from low-income families still think degrees are profitable to change their life.
No satisfactory way exists to explain how to form a good idea. You think about a problem until you're tired, forget it, maybe sleep on it, and then flash! When you aren't thinking about it, suddenly the answer arrives as a gift from the gods.
Of course, all ideas don't occur like that but so many do, particularly the most important ones. They burst into the mind, glowing with the heat of creation. How they do it is a mystery but they must come from somewhere. Let's assume they come from the "unconscious." This is reasonable, for psychologists use this term to describe mental processes which are unknown to the individual. Creative thought depends on what was unknown becoming known.
All of us have experienced this sudden arrival of a new idea, but it is easiest to examine it in the great creative personalities, many of whom experienced it in an intensified form and have written it down in their life stories and letters. One can draw examples from genius in any field, from religion, philosophy, and literature to art and music, even in mathematics, science, and technical invention, although these are often thought to depend only on logic and experiment. All truly creative activities depend in some degree on these signals from the unconscious, and the more highly insightful the person is, the sharper and more dramatic the signals become.
A type of creative experience is illustrated by the dreams which came to Descartes at the age of twenty-three and determined his life path. Descartes had unsuccessfully searched for certainty, first in the world of books, and then in the world of men. Then in a dream on November 10, 1619, he made the significant discovery that he could only find certainty in his own thoughts, cogito ergo sum ("I think; therefore, I exist"). This dream filled him with intense religious enthusiasm.
Descartes' experience is representative of countless others in every field of culture. The unconscious is certainly the source of instinctive activity. But in creative thought the unconscious is responsible for the production of new organized forms from relatively disorganized elements.
1.Good ideas come from ________according to the writer.
A. the unconscious B. creative activities C. dreams D. logic and experiments
2.The underlined word “these” (paragraph 3) probably refers to __________.
A. philosophy, music, mathematics and science
B. religion, philosophy, literature, art and music
C. mathematics, science, and technical invention
D. both B and C
3.What point can we see in the example of Descartes ?
A. Dreams are the sources of instinctive activities.
B. Dreams sometimes contribute to important discoveries.
C. Geniuses have creative thoughts in their dreams.
D. Important discoveries are always made in dreams.
4. The best title for this passage may be __________.
A. The Unknown Becoming Known B. The Role of Dreams
C. The Unconscious and Creative Activities D. Birth of Bright Ideas
NOT all memories are sweet. Some people spend all their lives trying to forget bad experiences. Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars. Often they relive experiences in nightmares.
Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a frightening experience. They hope it might reduce, or possibly wipe out, the effect of painful memories.
In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body releasing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are wiped out. They are not sure to what degree people's memories are affected.
The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it.
Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers' troubling memories after war. They say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories. “Some memories can ruin people's lives. They come back to you when you don't want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions,” said Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “This could relieve a lot of that suffering.”
But those who are against the research say that maybe the pills can change people's memories and changing memories is very dangerous because memories give us our identity. They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past.
“All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were terrible at the time but make us who we are. I'm not sure we want to wipe those memories out,” said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist.
1.The passage is mainly about .
A. a new medical invention
B. a new research on the pill
C. a way of wiping out painful memories
D. an argument about the research on the pill
2.The drug tested on people can .
A. cause the brain to fix memories
B. stop people remembering bad experiences
C. prevent body producing certain chemicals
D. wipe out the emotional effects of memories
3.We can infer from the passage that .
A. experts are not sure about the effects of the pills
B. the pill will certainly stop people's emotional memories
C. taking the pill will do harm to people's physical health
D. the pill has already been produced and used by the American public
4.Which of the following does Rebecca Dresser agree with in the last paragraph?
A. Some memories can ruin people's lives.
B. People want to get rid of bad memories.
C. Experiencing bad events makes us different from others.
D. The pill will reduce people's sufferings from bad memories.
Below is adapted from an English dictionary.
1.What does the phrase “green shoots” mean in “Green shoots have begun to appear in different markets”?
A. Change in policy. B. High prices.
C. Environmental protection. D. Signs of recovery.
2.Fill in the blank in the sentence “I can’t believe this is Joshua — he’s ________ since we last met!”
A. shot out B. shot up C. shot through D. shot down
3.When you are talking about unimportant things, we say you are ________.
A. shooting the breeze B. shooting yourself in the foot
C. shooting your mouth off D. shooting questions at somebody
4.Choose a word to complete the sentence “The ________, which killed a policeman and wounded a passer-by, was reported to have lasted only 13 seconds.”
A. shooter B. shoot C. shooting D. shot
A woman named Emily renewing her driver’s license at the County Clerk’s office was asked to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.
“What I mean is,” explained the recorder, “do you have a job, or are you just a …”
“Of course I have a job,” said Emily. “I’m a mother.”
“We don’t list ‘mother’ as an occupation… ‘housewife’ covers it,” said the recorder.
One day I found myself in the same situation. The clerk was obviously a career woman, confident and possessed of a high sounding title. “What is your occupation?” she asked.
The words simply popped out. “I’m a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”
The clerk paused, ballpoint pen frozen in midair.
I repeated the title slowly, then I stared with wonder as my statement was written in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
“Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “Just what you do in this field?”
Coolly, without any trace of panic in my voice, I heard myself reply, “I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn’t), in the lab and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?), and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most careers and rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.”
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she completed the form, stood up, and showed me out.
As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up (受鼓舞) by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants---ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model (a 6 month old baby), in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.
I felt proud! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable (不可缺少的) to mankind than “just another mother.”
Motherhood…What a glorious career! Especially when there’s a title on the door.
1.What can we infer from the conversation between the woman and the recorder at the beginning of the passage?
A. The recorder was impatient and rude.
B. The woman felt ashamed to admit what her job was.
C. The author was upset about the situation that mothers faced.
D. Motherhood was not recognized and respected as a job by society.
2.How did the female clerk feel at first when the author told her occupation?
A. curious B. indifferent C. puzzled D. interested
3.Why did the woman clerk show more respect for the author?
A. Because the author cared little about rewards.
B. Because she thought the author did admirable work.
C. Because she admired the author’s research work in the lab.
D. Because the writer did something she had little knowledge of.
4.What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
A. To show how you describe your job affects your feelings toward it.
B. To argue that motherhood is a worthy career and deserves respect.
C. To show that the author had a greater job than Emily.
D. To show that being a mother is hard and boring work.
What is intelligence anyway? When I was in the army I 21 an intelligence test that all soldiers took, and, against 22 of 100, scored 160．No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me.
All my life I've been registering scores like that, 23 I have the complacent(洋洋自得的) feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who 24 the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents(天分) similar to mine?
For instance, I once had an auto-repair man, who, on these intelligence tests, could not 25 have scored more than 80,by my estimate. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hurried to him—and he always fixed it.
Well，then，suppose my auto—repair man 26 questions for some intelligence tests．By doing every one of them I'd prove myself a 27 ．In a world where I have to work with my 28 ，I'd do poorly．
Consider my auto—repair man 29 ．He had a habit of telling 30 ．One time he said. “Doc, a deaf and dumb man 31 some nails．Having entered a store，he put two fingers together on the counter and made 32 movements with the other hand．The clerk brought him a hammer．He 33 his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering．The clerk 34 him some nails．He picked out the right size and left．Well，Doc，the 35 man who came in was blind．He wanted scissors． 36 do you suppose he asked for them?" I lifted my right hand and made scissoring movements with my first two fingers．He burst out laughing and said，“Why, you fool，he used his 37 and asked for them.” Then he said smugly, "I've been 38 that on all my customers today." "Did you catch many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew 39 I'd catch you." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, Doc, I knew you couldn't be very 40 ." And I have an uneasy feeling that he had something there．
1.A. failed B. wrote C. received D. chose
2.A. an average B. a total C. an amount D. a number
3.A. then B. but C. so that D. because
4. A. join in B. make up C. go over D. look through
5.A. approximately B. possibly C. certainly D. frequently
6.A. answered B. practiced C. designed D. tried
7.A. teacher B. doctor C. winner D. fool
8.A. brains B. efforts C. hands D. abilities
9.A. again B. as usual C. too D. as well
10.A. lies B. jokes C. news D. tales
11.A. bought B. tested C. found D. needed
12.A. cutting B. hammering C. scissoring D. circling
13.A. nodded B. raised C. shook D. turned
14.A. brought B. packed C. sent D. sold
15.A. clever B. other C. right D. next
16.A. What B. How C. Who D. Which
17.A. imagination B. hand C. voice D. information
18. A. trying B. proving C. practicing D. examining
19. A. with wisdom B. at once C. in reality D. for sure
20. A. clear B. silly C. slow D. smart
