high school students and families are increasingly questioning its value. Is investing in a college or university education still worth it? The answer is definitely "Yes".

　　From a financial point of view, a college education surely pays off. Students who graduate from college can expect to make about 60% more than those who do not, well over a million dollars over a lifetime. Completing college makes an even greater difference to the earning power of young women. A 25-34 year-old female with a bachelor's degree can expect to make 70% more than if she had only completed her high school diploma. But what about the benefits of college that are more difficult to measure?

　　College is a passport to different places, different times, and different ways of thinking - from learning new languages to considering the arc of human history to diving deep into the building blocks of matter. It gives students a chance to understand themselves differently, seeing how their lives are both like and unlike those who inhabited other eras and other lands.

　　College introduces students to people they've never met before? One of the most important ways in which students learn at college is by interacting with people who are different from themselves. I recall one student who was admitted to Harvard but wasn't sure he would fit in at a school in the Northeast. However, one night he found himself debating the characteristics that define a genuine hero with other admitted students from around the world. Not everyone agreed, but the differences were what made the conversation exciting, and he realized how much he could learn at a place full of engaging people with a wide range of viewpoints.

　　College teaches students the virtue of slowing down?No one denies the value of speed, connectivity and the virtual world in an economy that thrives on all three. But "thinking" is a word that is too often forgotten. College teaches students to slow down, to change information into insight and knowing into understanding. It nurtures critical thinking. The result is that students grow in knowledge and in wisdom for a lifetime.

　　To conclude, investing in a college or university education is well worth it. College opens opportunities reflected in earning and employment statistics. But more importantly, in college students have acquired a new way of transforming the world, through the power of learning, analyzing, changing to adapt to what they have come to understand.

College helps students dream of more than a salary

Introduction • An increasing number of students and families begin to (16) ▲ the value of college education.

• It is (17) ▲ to invest in a college or university education. Valid

(18) ▲ (19) ▲ aspect • Students with a college degree earn sixty to seventy percent more than those (20) ▲ from high schools. Horizontal aspects • Students are (21) ▲ to different places, times and ways of thinking and learn to understand themselves differently.

• Students also learn by (22) ▲ with engaging people having a wide range of viewpoints. Virtue aspect • Students learn to slow down and think (23) ▲ , making them grow knowledgeable and (24) ▲ . Conclusions • College not only helps to raise students' earnings but also equips them with a new way to

(25) ▲ the world.

参考答案

阅读理解 BCC AABB CCBA CDCD

任务型阅读

16. question/doubt 17. worthwhile 18. evidence/facts/information 19.Financial 20. graduating

21. exposed/introduced 22. interacting/communicating 23. critically 24. wise

25. transform/reform/remake/change