单选题 There're currently 21.5 million students in America, and many will be funding their college on borrowed money. Given that there's now over $1.3 trillion in student loans on the books, it's pretty clear that many students are far from sensible. The average student's debt upon graduation now approaches $40,000, and as college becomes ever more expensive, calls to make it 'free' are multiplying. Even Hillary Clinton says that when it comes to college, 'Costs won't be a barrier.'
But the only way college could be free is if the faculty and staff donated their time, the buildings required no maintenance, and campuses required no utilities. As long as it's impossible to produce something from nothing, costs are absolutely a barrier.
The actual question we debate is who should pay for people to go to college. If taxpayers are to bear the cost of forgiving student loans, shouldn't they have a say in how their money is used?
At least taxpayers should be able to decide what students will study on the public dime. If we're going to force taxpayers to foot the bill for college degrees, students' should only study those subjects that're of greatest benefit to taxpayers. After all, students making their own choices in this respect is what caused the problem in the first place. We simply don't need more poetry, gender studies, or sociology majors. How do we know which subjects benefit society? Easy.
Average starting salaries give a clear indication of what type of training society needs its new workers to have. Certainly, there're benefits to a college major beyond the job a student can perform. But if we're talking about the benefits to society, the only thing that matters is what the major enables the student to produce for society. And the value of what the student can produce is reflected in the wage employers are willing to pay the student to produce it.
A low wage for elementary school teachers, however, doesn't mean elementary education isn't important. It simply means there're too many elementary school teachers already.
Meanwhile, there're few who're willing and able to perform jobs requiring a petroleum engineering major, so the value of one more of those people is very high.
So we can have taxpayers pick up students' tuition in exchange for dictating what those students will study. Or we can allow students both to choose their majors and pay for their education themselves. But in the end, one of two things is true:
Either a college major is worth its cost or it isn't. If yes, taxpayer financing isn't needed. If not, taxpayer financing isn't desirable. Either way, taxpayers have no business paying for students' college education.

单选题 What does the author think of college students funding their education through loans?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】根据题干的信息词students funding their education through loans，可以将答案线索定位到文章第一段。文章第一段第一句话提到：“目前美国有2150万学生，许多学生将靠贷款来支付大学学费。”紧接着第二句话又指出：“考虑到目前有超过1.3万亿美元的学生贷款记录在册，很多学生显然不是很明智。”显然，记录在册的学生贷款数额非常巨大，通过贷款的方式去支付学费的做法是不明智的。选项B是对该部分内容的总结概括，其中irrational和原文中的far from sensible是同义转述，故选项B为正确答案。选项A和D在文中均未提及，很容易排除。选项C的干扰源来自下文中多次提到的taxpayers，虽然下文都在围绕纳税人承担大学生的大学教育费用展开，但并没有提到大学生会从纳税人的花费中获益，故该项排除。

单选题 In the author's opinion, free college education is ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】根据题干的信息词free college education，可以将答案线索定位到文章第二段。文章第一段提到“免费”上大学的呼声越来越高，甚至连希拉里都认为学费将不再是人们上大学的障碍。第二段承接第一段内容，指出“大学可能免费的唯一前提是，教职工自愿奉献自己的时间，建筑大楼不需要维修，校园不需要公共设施。”显然“无投入，有产出”是不可能的，因此费用绝对是上大学的一个障碍，免费上大学是不切实际的。选项A正是对第二段内容的总结概括，因此为正确答案。其他选项在文章中都没有体现，均可排除。

单选题 What should students do if taxpayers are to bear their college costs?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词students do和if taxpayers are to bear their college costs，答案线索可以定位到文章第四段。文章第三段结尾处以反问句的形式提出：“如果纳税人将要承担免除学生贷款费用的成本，那么他们不应该在自己的钱如何使用上有话语权吗?”第四段承接上文指出：“至少纳税人应该可以决定大学生利用这笔公款学什么。如果我们要强迫纳税人承担大学生获取大学学位的费甩，那么大学生应该只学习那些对纳税人最有益处的科目。”第四段结尾又以问句的形式提出：“我们怎么知道哪些科目对社会有用呢?”第五段进一步指出：“但是如果我们谈论的是对社会的益处，那么唯一重要的事情就是这个专业可以使大学生为社会产出什么。”由此可知，如果纳税人承担大学生的教育费用，大学生应该选择对社会有用的专业，也就是选项C所说的“选择能满足社会实际需求的专业”，由此可知选项C为正确答案。选项A和B在文中没有提及，很容易排除。选项D是强干扰项，文章虽然提到让纳税人承担大学生的学费，作为交换，他们有权要求大学生学习什么内容，但并没有说他们可以参与大学管理，这是两个不同的概念，不可混为一谈，故排除选项D。

单选题 What does the author say about the value of a student's college education?

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】根据题干中的信息词the value of a student's college education，答案线索可以定位到文章第五段。文章第四段末尾提问：“我们怎么知道哪些科目对社会有用呢?”第五段第一句就指出：“平均起薪清楚地表明了哪类培训是社会需要新员工接受的。”该段最后一句也指出：“大学生产出的价值反映在雇主愿意给带来产出的大学生开出的工资上。”由此可知，平均起薪反映了大学生产出的价值，也就是大学教育的价值，选项C中的average starting salary属于原词复现，is well reflected和原文中的give a clear indication属于同义转述，故为正确答案。其余三个选项在文中没有提及，故均排除。

单选题 What message does the author want to convey in the passage?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】本题属于主旨题，题干没有关键信息词，所以无法精确定位答案线索所在段落。这时我们可以逐一分析选项，采用排除法，最终锁定答案。选项A的关键词是whether to go to college，全文都是围绕大学教育费用展开的，没有提及任何有关学生是否应该上大学的内容，所以该选项很容易排除。选项B的关键信息是finance the most gifted students，该选项中关于纳税人资助大学生的问题与本文的主旨高度相关，但是全文并没有提到有关the most gifted students的内容，故该选项也排除。选项C的关键词是the worth of a college education，文章第四、五段提到了大学教育的价值问题，但这只是文章的一部分内容，而且作者并未传达该问题是否有待讨论的信息，故该选项也排除。选项D的关键词是fun their own education，文章结尾部分作者明确指出，无论一个大学专业是否值得所收的学费，纳税人都没有理由为大学生的大学教育费用买单。言外之意，大学生应该支付自己的教育费用。所以选项D是正确答案。