When you are advised to “get an education” if you want to raise your income, you are only told half the truth, what you should be told is to get just enough education to provide manpower for your society, but not too much education that would prove an embarrassment to your society. Get a high school diploma, at least. Without that, you are occupationally dead, unless your name happens to be George Bernard Shaw or Thomas Alva Edison and you can successfully drop out in grade school.
Get a college degree, if possible. With a BA, you are on the launching pad. But now you have to start to put on the brakes. If you go for a master’s degree, make sure it’s an MBA, and only from a first – rate university. Beyond this, the famous law of diminishing returns (报酬递减规律性) begins to take effect. Do you know, for instance, that heavy truck drivers earn more a year than full professors? Yes, the average 1977 salary for those truckers was $ 24,000, while the full professor managed to average just $ 23,930.
A Ph.D. is the highest degree you can get, but except for a few specialized fields such as physics or chemistry, where the degree can quickly be turned to industrial or commercial purposes, you are facing a dark future. There are more Ph. Ds unemployed or underemployed in this country than any other part of world by far.
If you become a doctor of Philosophy in English or History or Anthropology or Political Science or language or – worst of all – in Philosophy, you run the risk of becoming overeducated for our national demands.
Thousands of Ph. Ds are selling shoes, driving cars, waiting on tables and filling out fruitless applications month after month. And then maybe taking a job in some high school or lifeless college that pays much less than the doorkeeper earns.
Income and education are closely related. Far enough, that is, to make you useful to the gross national product, but not so far that nobody can turn much of a profit on you.
1．According to the writer, what the society expects of education is to turn out people who _______
A．will become loyal citizens to a nation
B．can always take good care of themselves
C．will not be a shame to society or their families
D．can meet the demands as a source of manpower
2．If you are as gifted as Bernard Shaw or Edison .
A．you can get a high school diploma without difficulty
B．you can be professionally successful without a diploma
C．the least you should do is to get a diploma
D．you will be successful in grade school
3．Many Ph. Ds are out of work because .
A．they are of little commercial value to the society
B．they prefer easy jobs with more money
C．there are fewer jobs in high schools
D．they are wrongly educated
4．According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A．The higher your education level is, the more money you’ll earn.
B．If you are too well – educated, you may make things difficult for the society.
C．One must think carefully before going for a master’s degree.
D．Bernard Shaw didn’t finish high school, nor did Edison.