2. 考研
  3. Laura Strong, a 29-year-old in suburban Chicago, owes $245,000 on student loans for the psychology Ph. D. she finished in 2013.

Laura Strong, a 29-year-old in suburban Chicago, owes $245,000 on student loans for the psychology Ph. D. she finished in 2013.

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问题     Laura Strong, a 29-year-old in suburban Chicago, owes $245,000 on student loans for the psychology Ph. D. she finished in 2013. This year, she says she hopes to earn $ 35 ,000 working part-time jobs as a therapist and yoga teacher—not enough to manage a loan payment of about $ 2,000 a month. But Strong isn’t paying anything close to that. She’s one of at least 3. 8 million Americans who’ve qualified for federal programs that tie payments to income and eventually forgive debt for some struggling borrowers , leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab.
    President Obama has praised the programs for offering a lifeline to borrowers who’d otherwise default, scarring their credit. Strong pays about $ 100 a month on her federal loans, which she used to finance her graduate studies at Argosy University. " I wouldn’t know how I would pay it back otherwise, she says.
    Income-based repayment was introduced under President Clinton, but the programs weren’t heavily promoted until late 2013, when the Obama administration began sending e-mails to borrowers, telling them, " Your initial payment could be as low as $ 0 a month. " The number of people using these plans has quadrupled since 2012. About half of outstanding balances in the Department of Education’s Grad Plus loans, which finance advanced-degree studies, are in income-driven plans. Most borrowers in the programs have payments capped at 15 percent of income, with allowances for housing and other expenses. In December the Obama administration is expected to expand the number of borrowers eligible for a payment cap of 10 percent. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the plans protect people going into socially valuable but low-paying lines of work from crushing debt. " That’s good for them. That’s good for our economy. It’s good for our society," he said.
    Critics say the plans are a hidden subsidy to well-off students and colleges, which can justify tuition increases by reassuring students that they may not have to repay their debt. In a seminar at Georgetown Law, Charles Pruett, assistant dean for financial aid, was captured on video telling alumni they could "ignore" debt balances if they spent 10 years in government or nonprofit jobs, which would qualify them for early loan forgiveness. Pruett says Georgetown promotes the programs to encourage graduates to take public-service jobs. "It’s an earned benefit, not a giveaway," he says.
    Borrowers hold $1.2 trillion in federal student loans, the second-biggest category of consumer debt, after mortgages. For taxpayers the loans are " a slow-ticking time bomb," says Stephen Stanley, a former Federal Reserve economist.
The statement "a slow-ticking time bomb"(Para. 5)implies that______.
选项 A、federal student loans will have a long-term effect on taxpayers
B、federal student loans will exert a negative influence on the economy
C、taxpayers’ life will be ruined by federal student loans
D、taxpayers will pay a painful cost for federal student loans
答案D
解析 语义理解题。根据题干定位到第五段。a slow—ticking time bomb“一颗慢性定时炸弹”，说明联邦贷款对于纳税人来说是一个迟早都会爆发的隐患，但是短期来看不会出现问题，而且对他们的影响不小。[D]选项表述“贷款对于纳税人来说会是一个沉重的负担”符合原文。[A]选项的表述在原文中并未提及，可排除，同理可排除[B]选项。[C]选项“贷款会有长期的影响”，从原文中只能看出贷款的问题短期内不会爆发，但是无法推出其影响时间的长短，可排除。
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