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Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten
statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of
the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is
derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a
letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet
2.
A University Degree No Longer Confers Financial Security
A.Millions of school-leavers in the rich world are about to bid a tearful
goodbye to their parents and start a new life at university. Some are inspired
by a pure love of learning. But most also believe that spending three or four
years at university--and accumulating huge debts in the process--will boost
their chances of landing a well-paid and secure job.
B.Their elders have always told them that education is the best way to
equip themselves to thrive in a globalised world. Blue-collar workers will see
their jobs outsourced and automated, the familiar argument goes. School dropouts
will have to cope with a life of cash-strapped (资金紧张的) insecurity. But the
graduate elite will have the world at its feet. There is some evidence to
support this view. A recent study from Georgetown University's Centre on
Education and the Workforce argues that"obtaining a post-secondary credential (
证书) is almost always worth it." Educational qualifications are tightly
correlated with earnings: an American with a professional degree can expect to
pocket $3.6m over a lifetime; one with merely a high- school diploma can expect
only $1.3m. The gap between more- and less-educated earners may be widening. A
study in 2002 found that someone with a bachelor's degree could expect to earn
75% more over a lifetime than someone with only a high-school diploma. Today the
disparity is even greater.
C.But is the past a reliable guide to the future? Or are we at the
beginning of a new phase in the relationship between jobs and education? There
are good reasons for thinking that old patterns are about to change--and that
the current recession-driven downturn (衰退) in the demand for Western graduates
will morph (改变) into something structural. The strong wind of creative
destruction that has shaken so many blue-collar workers over the past few
decades is beginning to shake the cognitive elite as well.
D.The supply of university graduates is increasing rapidly. The Chronicle
of Higher Education calculates that between 1990 and 2007 the number of students
going to university increased by 22% in North America, 74% in Europe, 144% in
Latin America and 203% in Asia. In 2007 150m people attended university around
the world, including 70m in Asia. Emerging economies—specially China--are
pouring resources into building universities that can compete with the elite of
America and Europe. They are also producing professional- services firms snch as
Tata Consulting Services and Infosys that take fresh graduates and turn them
into world-class computer programmers and consultants. The best and the
brightest of the rich world must increasingly compete with the best and the
brightest from poorer countries who are willing to work harder for less
money.
E. At the same time, the demand for educated labor is being reconfigured
(重新配置) by technology, in much the same way that the demand for agricultural
labor was reconfigured in the 19th century and that for factory labor in the
20th. Computers can not only perform repetitive mental tasks much faster than
human beings. They can also empower amateurs to do what professionals once did:
why hire a flesh-and-blood accountant to complete your tax return when Turbotax
(a software package ) will do the job at a fraction of the cost? And the variety
of jobs that computers can do is multiplying as programmers teach them to deal
with tone and linguistic ambiguity.
F.Several economists, including Paul Krugman, have begun to argue that
post-industrial societies will be characterized not by a relentless rise in
demand for the educated but by a great "hollowing out", as mid-level jobs are
destroyed by smart machines and high-level job growth slows. David Autor, of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), points out that the main effect of
automation in the computer era is not that it destroys blue-collar jobs but that
it destroys any job that can be reduced to a routine. Alan Blinder of Princeton
University, argues that the jobs graduates have traditionally performed are if
anything more "offshorable" than low-wage ones. A plumber or lorry-driver's job
cannot be outsourced to India. A computer programmer's can.
G. A university education is still a prerequisite for entering some of the
great industries, such as medicine, law and academia (学术界), that provide secure
and well-paying jobs. Over the 20th century these industries did a wonderful job
of raising barriers to entry--sometimes for good reasons (nobody wants to be
operated on by a barber) and sometimes for self-interested ones. But these
industries are beginning to bend the roles. Newspapers are fighting a losing
battle with the blogosphere. Universities are replacing tenure-track professors
with non-tenured staff. Law firms are contracting out routine work such
as"discovery" (digging up documents relevant to a lawsuit) to
computerized-search specialists such as Blackstone Discovery. Even doctors are
threatened, as patients find advice online and treatment in Walmart's new health
centers.
H.Thomas Malone of MIT argues that these changes--automation, globalizafion
and deregulation--may be part of a bigger change: the application of the
division of labor to brain-work. Adam Smith's factory managers broke the
production of pins into 18 components. In the same way, companies are
increasingly breaking the production of brain-work into ever tinier slices.
TopCoder chops up IT projects into bite-sized chunks and then serves them up to
a worldwide workforce of freelance coders.
I.These changes will undoubtedly improve the productivity of brain-workers.
They will allow consumers to sidestep (规避 ) the professional industries that
have extracted high rents for their services. And they will empower many
brain-workers to focus on what they are best at and contract out more tedious
tasks to others. But the reconfiguration of brain-work will also make life far
less cozy and predictable for the next generation of graduates.
46. The creative destruction that has happened to blue-collar workers in
the past also starts to affect the cognitive elite.
47. For the next generation of graduates, life will be far less comfortable
and predictable with brain-work reconfigured.
48. After computers are taught by programmers to deal with tone and
linguistic ambiguity, the variety of jobs they can do will increase
dramatically.
49. Most school-leavers believe that, despite the huge debts they owe,
going to university will increase their chances of getting secure jobs with high
salaries.
50. Modern companies are more likely to break the production of
intellectual work into ever tinier slices.
51. A scholar of Princeton University claims that the jobs traditionally
taken by graduates are more likely to be offshored than low-wage ones.
52. The income gap between an American professional degree holder and an
American high-school graduate shows income is closely related to educational
qualifications.
53. The changes in the division of brain-work will save consumers some high
service fees the professional organizations charge.
54. Some students have always been told that. to achieve success in a
globalised world, it is most advisable to equip themselves with education.
55. Emerging economies are providing a lot of resources to build
universities to compete with the elite of America and Europe.
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