阅读理解
What are the roads not taken because students must take out loans for college? For one thing, it appears that people with student loans are less likely to start businesses of their own. A new study has found that areas with higher relative growth in student debt show lower growth in the formation of small businesses.
The correlation makes sense. People normally have only a certain amount of "debt capacity" . When students use up their "debt capacity" on student loans, they can't commit it elsewhere. Given the importance of an entrepreneur's personal debt capacity in financing a startup business, student loan debt, which cannot be discharged via bankruptcy, can have lasting effects later in life and may impact the ability of future small-business owners to raise capital. Considering that 60 percent of jobs are created by small business, "if you shut down the ability to create new businesses, you're going to harm the economy," said Brent Ambrose, a professor of risk management at Pennsylvania State University.
Student loan debt also appears to be affecting homeownership trends. According to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, fewer 30-year-olds in general have bought homes since the recession, but the decline has been steeper for people with a history of student loan debt and has continued even as the housing market has recovered.
Student loan debt may also affect career choices. Having a college loan appears to reduce the likelihood that people will choose a low-paying public-interest job, according to a 2011 study by Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley, and Cecilia Elena Rouse of Princeton.
They arrived at their conclusion by studying a well-off university that began meeting students' financial needs through a combination of work-study money and grants, and dispensing with loans altogether.
Before the new policy started in the early 2000s, students were more likely to choose well-paid professions like investment banking and consulting. After the policy took effect, more students chose jobs in areas like teaching and the nonprofit sector.
In many cases, the choices that student borrowers make are just common sense, based on the financial realities they face. If society wants to change the skewing effect of student loans, some tough decisions about allocating educational resources may well lie ahead.
The correlation makes sense. People normally have only a certain amount of "debt capacity" . When students use up their "debt capacity" on student loans, they can't commit it elsewhere. Given the importance of an entrepreneur's personal debt capacity in financing a startup business, student loan debt, which cannot be discharged via bankruptcy, can have lasting effects later in life and may impact the ability of future small-business owners to raise capital. Considering that 60 percent of jobs are created by small business, "if you shut down the ability to create new businesses, you're going to harm the economy," said Brent Ambrose, a professor of risk management at Pennsylvania State University.
Student loan debt also appears to be affecting homeownership trends. According to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, fewer 30-year-olds in general have bought homes since the recession, but the decline has been steeper for people with a history of student loan debt and has continued even as the housing market has recovered.
Student loan debt may also affect career choices. Having a college loan appears to reduce the likelihood that people will choose a low-paying public-interest job, according to a 2011 study by Jesse Rothstein of the University of California, Berkeley, and Cecilia Elena Rouse of Princeton.
They arrived at their conclusion by studying a well-off university that began meeting students' financial needs through a combination of work-study money and grants, and dispensing with loans altogether.
Before the new policy started in the early 2000s, students were more likely to choose well-paid professions like investment banking and consulting. After the policy took effect, more students chose jobs in areas like teaching and the nonprofit sector.
In many cases, the choices that student borrowers make are just common sense, based on the financial realities they face. If society wants to change the skewing effect of student loans, some tough decisions about allocating educational resources may well lie ahead.
单选题
16.Which of the following is NOT true about "debt capacity"?
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】推断题。由文章第一段的最后一句话“一项新研究发现，在学生贷款增长率相对较高的地区，小公司的创办率较低”以及第二段中提到的“如果学生在学生贷款上用完了自己的‘借债能力’，他们就无法再去别处借债了”，可以推断A项所表达的意思是正确的，即“一般来说，那些承担着学生贷款的人都把自己的‘借债能力’消耗得差不多了”。
单选题
17.The quotation in Paragraph 2 implies that______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干关键词定位到第二段。原文第二段第四、五句可概括为“小企业的发展会受到学生贷款的影响，而且鉴于60％的工作岗位是由小型企业提供的，那么经济发展也必将受到负面影响”，可知A项与B项中有一个是正确答案。但是A项的信息表述是进行时态，即工作机会正在大量减少。这与原文冲突，原文表达是对未来的一种担忧，因此排除A项，正确答案为B项。
单选题
18.We can infer from Rothstein and Elena's research that______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干可定位到文章的第四、五、六段，文中提到当学生们背负着贷款的压力时，他们倾向于选择那些与金融或者咨询等有关的薪水高的工作，但是当他们受惠于学校的免贷款制度时，则会有相当一部分人选择非营利性工作。由此可以推断，C项表述的是实验的结果。
单选题
19.Be a person with student loans, one would like to______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】推断题。题干的问题是“当一个人背负着学生贷款的负担时，他更喜欢怎么做?”D项信息对应文中第六段首句“这项举措于21世纪初期开始实施，在它实施以前，学生们更倾向于选择去投资银行和咨询公司等报酬丰厚的行业工作”，故D项为正确答案。
单选题
20.What's the focus of the passage?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】主旨题。本题考查文章主旨。文章一开始就讲到学生贷款会影响小企业的发展，然后又讲到学生贷款还会影响到购房率，接着用一个实验研究来表明，学生贷款与学生就业选择之间有着密切联系，即背负贷款压力的人会选择收人高的职业，而当这种压力移除后，有相当一部分人会选择非营利性的职业。由此可知，文章的主旨是要说明学生贷款带给人们和社会的各种影响。B项“学生贷款的涟漪反应”是对文章主旨最全面的总结，因此B项为正确答案。