It would be interesting to discover how many young people go to university without any clear idea of what they are going to do afterwards. If one considers the enormous variety of courses offered, it is not hard to see how difficult it is to select the course most suited to his interests and abilities. If a student goes to acquire a broader perspective of life, to enlarge his ideas and to learn to think for himself, he will undoubtedly benefit, since school often has too restricting an atmosphere, with its timetables and disciplines, to allow him much time for independent assessment of the work he is asked to do. Most students would, I believe, profit by a year or so’s exploration of different academic studies, especially those “all-rounders” with no particular bent. They should have longer time to decide in what subject they want to take their degree, so that in later life they do not look back and say, “I should like to have been an archaeologist. If I hadn’t taken a degree in Modern Languages, I shouldn’t have ended up as an interpreter, but it’s too late now. I couldn’t go back and begin all over again, even if I had the chance.”
There is, of course, another side to the question of how to make the best use of one’s time at university. This is the case of the student who excels in a particular branch of learning, is a first-rate mathematician, scientist, linguist and what you have. He is immediately accepted by the university of his choice, and spends his three or four years becoming a specialist, emerging with a first-class Honors Degree and very little knowledge of what the rest of the world is all about. It therefore becomes more and more important that, if students are not to waste their opportunities and, incidentally, the taxpayers’ money, there will have to be much more detailed information about courses, more advice from Career Masters and Course Tutors if we are not to bring up, on one hand, a band of specialists ignorant of anything outside their own subject, and on the other hand, an ever-increasing number of graduates qualified in subjects for which there is little or no demand in the working world.
50. According to the passage, university students should avoid .
A. acquiring a broad perspective of life
B. allowing themselves the independence of thinking
C. becoming specialists ignorant of what the rest of the world is
D. wasting their opportunities and the taxpayers’ money
51. Some students look back and say: “…but it’s too late now” because .
A. they have no time to make another choice
B. they don’t have the chance to go back and restart
C. they decide not to waste taxpayers’ money any more
D. they could afford no more time to take their degree in another subject
52. At the end of the passage, the word “we” can best be replaced by .
A. people in the working world
B. university graduates
C. career Masters and Course Tutors
D. university people