【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[听力原文]
The news of more than 10 percent of China"s high school graduates choosing not to sit for the National College Entrance Exam this year made me think, and not ironically so, that it was good for the country.
The limited number of seats—fewer than 3 million—in the country"s universities means that only three in every 10 candidates can be admitted. Besides, not all of them will earn a diploma four years later.
A diploma may not be more than a piece of paper, but Chinese society is such that very few doors open for people who don"t have one. Many parents start dreaming about their children earning a diploma even before they are born. The pressure on kids begins before they start going to schoo1. Students aim to take the National College Enhance Exam right from the beginning of their 12-year primary, middle and high school. They have had no other choice, but things may have started to change now.
Can"t a candidate have knowledge and even the indispensable ability to do a job without possessing that "piece of paper"? After all, a diploma does not recognize all the skills a person can have. Are people who don"t pass the entrance exam necessarily bad? No, because it"s not an educational problem, but a social problem: lack of enough seats in universities to accommodate all students.

[解析] 本题的出题点在数字处。新闻提到，高校只能招收不到300万的毕业生，这只是毕业生总数的3/10，由此可以计算出高中毕业总人数应略少于1000万，故选D。