Most people look forward to retirement as a time when they can finally take up activities that they never had the time or energy to pursue before. Bust some recent studies on people in their golden years are disturbing: they suggest that retirees are more likely to suffer from depression and possibly higher rates of other diseases such as heart disease and high blood pressure. That’s why a new study of French workers is welcome news.

Led by Hugo Westerlund, a professor of psychology at Stockholm University, the study of more than 14,000 workers found lower rates of depression and fatigue(疲劳) in people after they got tired while they were still employed.

The scientists followed the employees of the French national gas and electric company for 14 years. They found in the year immediately after retirement, the volunteers reported 40% fewer depressive symptoms than they had in the year before their retirement. The researchers also found an 81% drop in reports of both mental and physical fatigue over the same time period.

Clearly, said Westerlund, much of these decrease in physical and mental fatigue can be traced back to relief from the stresses of work. The decline in depressive symptoms suggests that retirement may be having a positive mental effect, too, which may have a lot to do with the generous pensions(养老金) that French workers enjoy. Most retirees in that country still benefit from about 80% of their yearly salaries.

“The economic or financial situation in retirement is very important,” Westerlund says. “We don’t know if the decrease in fatigue and depressive symptoms is because of the removal of something bad while in work or the addition of something good while in retirement. But no matter the reason, if life in retirement is not comfortable, then we won’t see the improvements we did.”

However, in European nations like France, governments are considering changes to pension plans, which may affect retirees’ health after they leave their jobs—with less of a financial safety net, workers may no longer seem so mentally and physically happy to be out of work.

(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS)

1.According to some recent studies, retired people may have depression and higher rates of other disease like ____________________________________.

2.Westerlund’s group found that in the year just after the retirement most retired French workers felt much less tired both __________________________________.

3.What dies the word “improvements” in paragraph 5 refer to?

_______________________________________________________________

4.Retirement may make people happier with ___________________________________

If you know exactly what you want, the best way to get a job is to get specialized training．A recent report shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training．

    That’s especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers．At Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor's degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high teens to the low 20s and plenty of chances for rapid advancement．Large companies especially like a background of formal education coupled with work experience．But in the long run, too much specialization does not pay off．Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval．The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the impact of a degree washes out after five years．

       As further evidence of the corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State’s Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices．Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management．This sounds like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts（文科） graduate．Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems．David Birch, manager of the Boston Red Sox, says that he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree．“I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things,” says Birch．

       For a liberal – arts degree, students focus on some basic courses that include literature history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior and a computer course or two．With these useful and important courses, you can feel free to specialize, “A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace,” says Scheetz．

The job market is in great need of people with          ．

       A．special training in special fields          B．a bachelor’s degree in education

       C．formal schooling and work experience   D．an MBA degree from top universities

The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 means         ．

       A．an MBA degree does not help in future promotion

       B．MBA programs will not be as popular as they are now

       C．people will not forget the degree the MBA graduates have got

       D．most MBA programs fail to provide students with a foundation

David Birch says that he only hires liberal – arts people because          ．

       A．they will follow others’ ways of solving problems

       B．they can do better in handling changing situations

       C．they are well trained in a variety of specialized fields

       D．they have attended special programs in management

The author supports the idea that          ．

       A．on – the – job training is less costly in the long run

       B．formal schooling is less important than job training

       C．specialists are more expensive to hire than generalists

       D．generalists will do better than specialists in management

For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D．Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

Is there a job for you after college? What does the world of work keep in store for you? That   50   in large measure on who you are.

If you’ve enjoyed your studies in English and history,   50  , you’ll be glad to know that in a recent survey by Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York State, a majority of CEOs said that the liberal arts (文科) are essential for   52   critical thinking and problem-solving skills．If you thought college was for acquiring specific work skills, only 37 percent of the CEOs in the survey agree with you.

If you plan to start your career as a secretary, be aware that this job is undergoing tremendous   53  ．In offices where secretaries have not already been eliminated, the

  54   role of a clerk is now unrecognizable．Most bosses   55   their own mails and meetings and travel plans, thanks to e-mail and the Internet, so secretaries are   56   taking on higher-level tasks such as drafting contracts and handling customer service problems．Those willing to expand their   57   should do well.

If you are a woman interested in law enforcement (执法), note that some states and cities are working hard to reach   58   standards for female applicants．Although most small suburban police departments are deeply traditional, and some are   59   even to employ woman, among the nation’s largest forces about 15 percent of the officers are female, five times as many as a generation ago.

Degrees in sports management are also   60  ．Two hundred U.S colleges and universities, 10 times as many in 1985, now   61   undergraduate courses in sports management, and some have advanced degree programs．At some school you can also combine an MBA in sports management with a law degree.

  62  , if you’ve set your sights on a traditional MBA, take heart．MBA recruitment (招聘) is way up, and salaries are   63  ．But money isn’t all today’s MBAs are looking for．A recent study of nearly 1,800 MBA students in the United States and Canada found that 68 percent   64   the statement, “My family will always be more important than my career.”

A．concentrates        B．depends        C．takes            D．passes

A．by comparison      B．as a result        C．for instance      D．in return

A．developing        B．discouraging    C．confirming       D．appreciating

A．troubles           B．pains         C．tests            D．changes

A．active             B．small           C．useful           D．traditional

A．await              B．handle         C．transfer         D．classify

A．increasingly       B．unwillingly      C．diligently        D．intentionally

A．horizons          B．activities       C．organizations    D．operations

A．medium           B．high            C．fair           D．legal

A．keen              B．resolved        C．reluctant         D．qualified

A．on display          B．at an end        C．at rest           D．on the rise

A．cancel             B．offer            C．register          D．drop

A．Contrarily         B．Consequently   C．Finally         D．Strictly

A．competitive         B．moderate        C．fixed         D．regular

A．give out           B．agree with       C．wonder about   D．focus on

The Cost of Higher Education

       Individuals (个人) should pay for their higher education.

       A university education is of huge and direct benefit to the individual. Graduates earn more than non-graduates. Meanwhile, social mobility is ever more dependent on having a degree. However, only some people have it. So the individual, not the taxpayers, should pay for it. There are pressing calls on the resources (资源) of the government. Using taxpayers' money to help a small number of people to earn high incomes in the future is not one of them.

       Full government funding (资助) is not very good for universities. Adam Smith worked in a Scottish university whose teachers lived off student fees. He knew and looked down upon 18th-century Oxford, where the academics lived comfortably off the income received from the government. Guaranteed salaries, Smith argued, were the enemy of hard work; and when the academics were lazy and incompetent, the students were similarly lazy.

       If students have to pay for their education, they not only work harder, but also demand more from their teachers. And their teachers have to keep them satisfied. If that means taking teaching seriously, and giving less time to their own research interests, that is surely something to celebrate.

       Many people believe that higher education should be free because it is good for the economy (经济). Many graduates clearly do contribute to national wealth, but so do all the businesses that invest (投资) and create jobs. If you believe that the government should pay for higher education because graduates are economically productive, you should also believe that the government should pay part of business costs. Anyone promising to create jobs should receive a gift of capital from the government to invest. Therefore, it is the individual, not the government, who should pay for their university education.

1. The underlined word "them" in Paragraph 2 refers to____________

      A. taxpayers                     B. pressing calls

      C. college graduates              D. government resources

2. The author thinks that with full government funding____________

      A. teachers are less satisfied

      B. students are more demanding

      C. students will become more competent

      D. teachers will spend less time on teaching

3. The author mentions businesses in Paragraph 5 in order to ____________

      A. argue against free university education

      B. call on them to finance students' studies

C. encourage graduates to go into business

D. show their contribution to higher education

Most Americans get what money they have from their work; that is, they earn an income from wages or salaries. The richest Americans, however, get most of their money from what they own — their stocks, bonds, real estate, and other forms of property, or wealth. Although there are few accurate statistics to go by, wealth in American society appears to be concentrated in very few hands. More than 20 percent of everything that can be privately owned is held by less than one percent of the adult population and more than 75 percent of all wealth is owned by 20 percent of American adults. The plain fact is that most Americans have no wealth at all aside from their homes, automobiles, and a small amount of savings.

Income in the United States is not as highly concentrated as wealth. In 1917 the richest 10 percent of American families received 26.1 percent of all income, while the poorest 10 percent received 17 percent, mainly from Social Security and other government payments. The most striking aspect of income distribution is that it has not changed significantly since the end of World War II. Although economic growth has roughly doubled real disposable (可自由使用的) family income (the money left after taxes and adjusted for inflation) over the last generation, the size of the shares given to the rich and the poor is about the same. By any measure economic inequality is great in the United States.

The reality behind these statistics is that a large number of Americans are poor. In 1918, 14 percent of the population was living below the federal government’s poverty line, which at that time was an annual income of $ 9 287 for a nonfarm family of two adults and two children. In other words, about one out of seven Americans over 31 million people was officially considered unable to buy the basic necessities of food, clothes, and shelter. The suggested poverty line in 1981 would have been an income of about $11 200 for a family of four. By this relative definition, about 20 percent of the population or more than 45 million Americans are poor.

1. What does the majority of the Americans have in terms of wealth?

A. Their income and savings.

B. Everything they own in their homes.

C. Actually, they have no wealth at all.

D. Their house, cars and small amounts of savings.

2. What is the percentage of wealth that is in the hands of most Americans?

A. More than 25%.               B. Less than 25%.

C. More than 75%.         D. Less than 20%.

3. Why is economic inequality still great in the US in spite of the economic growth?

A. Because the proportion of income received by the rich and the poor remains almost the same as in 1917.

B. Because the economic growth has widened the gap of the family income between the rich and the poor.

C. Because income in the US is still concentrated in the hands of the richest 10% of American families.

D. Because some Americans made great fortunes during the Second World War.

4. What can we learn from comparison of the two poverty lines in the last paragraph?

A. The poverty line of 1918 is more favorable to the poor than that of 1981.

B. The 1981 line didn’t leave much to the poor.

C. There were more Americans who were officially poor by the 1981 line.

D. There were more Americans who were officially poor by the 1918 line.

5. From the last two sentences we can see that 1981 government’s poverty line _______.

A. was of no good for the poor     B. was not put into operation then

C. was officially approved           D. was not helpful to the poor