【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Though simply completing high school improves earnings outlook, the average high school graduate will earn an estimated average annual income of $30,109 and $1.2 million in a lifetime.
The average college graduate stands to net nearly twice as much, with a $51,097 average annual income adding up over 40 years of earning potential to more than $2.04 million.
Lindner herself became a good example of how an education can help the bottom line. She ended up making a decent salary—$42,000—working as a field anthropologist in Thailand trying to help women find alternatives to prostitution. And, her compensation rose when she became an AIDS researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
She has since managed to parlay her field experience into a successful career at a New York City public relations firm where she earns approximately triple her starting salary.
"All the skills I learned out there—including trying to persuade married men to use condoms when they are with prostitutes—have helped a lot," she says. "When it really comes down to it, learning how to speak in another person"s language is what P. R. people do with their clients."
Today a college degree is as essential to a successful career as a high school diploma was years ago. Experts say a bachelor"s degree makes sense whether prospective students covet the corner office or just a comfortable life.
Ranking among the most popular, and most profitable undergraduate majors, would be any business, technology and health-related course of study—management, accounting, computer science, nursing and biology. The more liberal arts-based majors, like English, communications and education, are also in high demand, but tend to be harder to quantify.
Add an MBA, JD or MD into the mix, and an individual"s marketability rises. An MBA, for instance, can help the right person become even more successful by teaching a complete business vocabulary, offering access to new career opportunities, developing leadership skills and greatly enhancing professional networks.
A higher level of education not only tends to make finding a job easier, it helps retain a job, especially in trying economic times. Someone who finishes a degree is more likely to have job security and find jobs more easily.
In fact, EPF data shows that the demand for highly skilled personnel has grown by half a million people in 2001, despite the mild recession. And, the unemployment rate for all degree holders has stayed under 3 percent, far lower than the 5.9 percent national average.
If there are no jobs in banking, for instance, an MBA will also help a person get a job in government, non-profit work, etc. Moreover, it is reported that in good times and bad, MBA alums" professional and personal networks—often built while getting degrees—are key to finding jobs.
As important is the ability for students to get a taste of their career options through internships. An internship is a great way to figure out whether a person will be able to make a career out of his course of study. Think of how much time and money a person can save by finding out either that he loves his area of study, he should find a different interest or that he should go to graduate school to hone in his talents.