When people ask your children to "get an education", they tell you only half the truth. What they really mean is to get just enough education to give manpower for your society. Get a high school diploma, at least. Without that, you are occupationally dead, unless your name happens to be George Washington or Thomas Edison and you can successfully stop study in primary schools. Get a college degree, if possible. With a BA, you should start to find a job. You have to _ now. If you do go for a master's degree, make sure it is an MBA and only from a first - class university. Otherwise, the famous law of diminishing begins to work. Do you know, for example, that long - distance truck drivers make more money a year than full professors? Yes, each driver was paid $28,000 in 1997 while a full professor managed to get $27,930. A PhD is the highest degree you can get, but except in a few specialized fields such as physics or chemistry, where the degree can quickly be turned to industrial or commercial aim, you are facing a not very bright future. There are more PhDs unemployed in this country than in any other part of the world by far. If you became a PhD in English or history or political science or languages or - worst of all - in philosophy , you take the risk of becoming over - educated for our national demands. Thousands of PhDs are selling shoes, driving taxis, waiting on tables and filling out applications month after month, and then may be taking a job in some high school or college with the pay much less than a door-keeper makes. Long-distance truck drivers make more money a year than full professors because_. A) the famous law of diminishing functions B) long - distance truck drivers only get a high school diploma C) full professors are PhDs in English or history D) long - distance truck drivers work harder than full professors
A
Tonight, my piano concert was the most important thing in my family. My grandparents were coming by plane to hear me play. Even my busy Aunt Dianne who is on TV every night reading the news, was coming. But one thing was for sure. I would never win an award for my piano playing. And that's just because the more I practiced ,the more nervous I got. So there I was, on stage, in my beautiful dress, and I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play, I hit a wrong note. I told myself to start over. But then I hit the wrong note again. It was as if I hadn't practiced at all. Finally _ was over. I ran off the stage. I couldn't understand why people were applauding. But they were. My mom and my dad had flowers for me, and we were all supposed to go out for a nice dinner, but I couldn't. I just wanted to go home and cry and never go anywhere again. After we went back home, Aunt Dianne just came in and sat down on the side of my bed. "It was my first night on the air," she said."I had never been on television before, and I made a mistake. I mispronounced my name and the name of the news show. And you know what? No one even noticed but me. Just like tonight, no one noticed--just you". Aunt Dianne was right. I think we are harder on ourselves than anyone else is. Maybe I will leave my room. And maybe, I'll play the piano again. What did the author learn from her piano performance? A) Don't be too hard on yourself. B) Things seldom go as well as people expect. C) No one will care what others have done. D) Never think much of a matter.
A
Q: The origination of the "gap year" concept came in the decade following the Second World War when youth travel and cultural exchange was discussed among governments as a useful tool to create more of a global understanding to prevent future global wars. However, the first gap years actually started in the UK in the 1960s when the Baby-Boomer generation in the midst of the Swinging Sixties headed off to India on the infamous Hippie Trails ,inventing the independent travel market. Australian Graham "Screw" Turner, based in London in 1973, loaded a double-decker bus with the first paying customers and drove them to Kathmandu. They arrived three weeks late. Top Deck Travel, the company he founded, still exists today. In 1979 another Australian, Dick Porter, founded STA Travel to bring in the final piece of the puzzle. It was a high street travel agent for students and youth (those under 26) with which he was able to develop global youth travel as he opened student travel agencies around the world. In the UK in the 1980s the Baby-Boomers were accustomed to family life with their young children and so traveling less, and the next generation were influenced by the addiction to money, careers and wealth. The housing market crash meant fewer funds available for parents to fund youth travel. But steady UK and global growth continued as STA Travel opened up branches around the world. A combination of the Baby-Boomer's children reaching 18 (whose parents encouraged world travel as they did in their youth), the UK coming out of decline and new, exciting, color1ful media channels to bring gap year products to market resulted in an explosion of activity in the UK in the 1990s as gap year travel and gap year volunteering took off pre-, during, and post-university. Demand grew, prices for air travel fell, and the roots of it becoming a tradition of growth were set. The modern gap year pioneers came in the form of Tom Griffiths and Peter Pedrick who brought the gap year market onto the web in 1988 with the launch of... In the 1980s, the youth travel was in a period of _ . A) boom B) decline C) crash D) development
A: D
It's interesting to see how people make use of the time they spend on public transport in Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai. In crowded buses and trains people manage to take a short nap and some even reach the snoring stage. Or they spread out a newspaper over multiple knees and arms to read about the latest sport results or political crisis. Then there are the experienced travellers who have been playing cards with the same group over the last decade or so. They even have their specific seats so well-worn that you can make out the shape of their backsides. There is no doubt about it. Travelling by public transport is being in the thick of the seasons of life -- a sweaty life in summer where people, blissfully unaware of the rivers of sweat running down their brows and inside their clothes. At the first smell of a perfumed man or woman boarding the stuffy bus or train, most people feel they are reborn. During the rains you can't avoid getting wet or muddied. The windows, almost always, are not a perfect fit and if you're not drenched by a sudden, heavy rain shower then you are bound to catch a jet spray of muddy water caused by a fellow motorist driving fast through a puddle. Rains are a perfect time for people to switch their old umbrellas for new ones. Since there are so many that look alike, it's impossible to tell whose is whose. Winter is the time when it feels good -- or at least warm -- to be part of a crowd. It is amazing how much the collective breaths of a 100 or so people can raise the freezing temperature inside. Looking at the masses dressed in their bright red pullovers or green coats, it's fun to imagine what faces lie beneath their dark woolen hats. The cold winter passes, making way for spring. It is impossible not to see every little flower by the wayside blooming proudly. And the warm sun manages to transmit some of their pleasantness to the inside of a bus or train. Now, wouldn't it be perfect if we had a public transport worth the name in all our cities? We can infer from the passage that _ . A) Indian people don't mind switching umbrellas with others B) almost everyone in India wears perfume when they go out C) the buses and trains are old and in poor conditions D) Indian transport is the most crowded in the world
C