A young woman goes to university and earns a degree in religious and women"s studies. In the process she piles up some $ 100,000 in student-loan debt. Upon graduation, she cannot find a job in her field and struggles to pay her bills. An example of unwise decision-making perhaps, but is it also proof of a long-debated bubble in American higher education? It is for Glenn Reynolds, the productive blogger, law professor and author of a new book, " The New School". With tuition costs rising much faster than inflation, Americans are taking on record amounts of debt over $ 1 trillion by 2013—to fund their education. Many are finding that their job prospects do not justify the investment. Whereas a university degree once meant automatic entry into the middle class, it now comes with no such guarantee. But is higher education as bad a deal as Mr Reynolds makes it out to be? "Some people are graduating with debts of $ 100,000 or more," he says, "sometimes much more. " Most are not, though. The average graduate holds student-loan debt of $ 29,400, a number not found in this book. College Board, a non-profit organisation, finds that the median earnings of university graduates emerging from four-year courses and without a further degree, such as a master"s, are 65% higher over their lifetimes than those of high-school graduates. Short on numbers, the book contributes little to the bubble debate. But Mr Reynolds puts forward criticism of American universities that will ring true to anyone who has attended one recently. Universities can help people make money in three ways: by teaching them skills, giving them credentials that employers want and providing access to a valuable social network. Some studies have shown that university students fail to learn much of anything. Acquiring skills, of course, can be quite expensive. Prices should not continue going up forever, so new thinking is needed. The web provides one way forward, and although Mr Reynolds is doubtful about the ability of colleges to reinvent themselves, some are catching on. Take the Georgia Institute of Technology, which has joined up with Udacity, an online educator, to offer a master"s degree in computer science for $ 7,000. "It"s a real, accredited degree," says Mr Reynolds, "just like the ones that cost six times as much if earned on campus. "

单选题 The example of a young woman in the opening paragraph is to show______.

单选题 Many Americans are finding that______.

单选题 We can learn from Paragraph 3 that______.

单选题 Mr Reynolds" attitude towards American universities seems______.

单选题 We can conclude from the last paragraph that______.