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  3. Student loans are based on a simple idea: that a graduate’s future flow of earnings will more than cover the costs of doing a de

Student loans are based on a simple idea: that a graduate’s future flow of earnings will more than cover the costs of doing a de

admin2013-09-23  33
问题     Student loans are based on a simple idea: that a graduate’s future flow of earnings will more than cover the costs of doing a degree. But with unemployment rates in parts of the rich world at post-war highs, that may no longer hold true for many people. The consequences will be felt by everybody.
    All over the world student indebtedness is causing problems—witness this month’s violent protests in Chile. In Britain, according to a recent parliamentary report, rising university fees mean that student debt is likely to treble to ￡70 billion by 2015. But, partly because higher education there is so expensive, the scale of the problem is far greater in America. When the next official estimates of outstanding student debt there are published, it is expected to be close to $1 trillion, higher than credit-card borrowing. Credit quality in other classes of consumer debt has been improving; delinquency rates on student loans are rising.
    Many of the anti-Wall Street protesters push the idea of blanket debt forgiveness as a solution. But that is the wrong answer. Higher education is not a guarantee of employment, but it improves the odds immensely. Unemployment rates among university graduates stood at 4.4% on average across OECD countries in 2009. People who did not complete secondary school faced unemployment rates of 11.5%. Much of the debt that students are taking on is provided or guaranteed by the government. Imposing write-offs on all taxpayers to benefit those with the best job prospects is unfair; and ripping up contracts between borrowers and private lenders is usually a bad idea.
    That said, student-loan systems in America and elsewhere are often badly designed for an extended period of high unemployment. In contrast to the housing crash, the risk from student debt is not of a sudden explosion in losses but of gradual financial suffocation. The pressure needs to be eased.
    One option is to change the bankruptcy laws. In America, Britain and elsewhere, these treat student debt as a special case: unlike other forms of debt, it cannot be wiped out. If student debt is not to bound existing graduates and put off future ones, the rules could be changed so that it is dischargeable in bankruptcy. Yet the reasoning behind the current bankruptcy provisions is logical enough; education is an asset that cannot be repossessed and that keeps on benefiting the individual through his or her lifetime. Some worry that graduates would rush to declare bankruptcy, handing losses to taxpayers.
    So a second option is preferable. Many countries, America included, have designed student debt primarily as a mortgage-like obligation: it is repaid to a fixed schedule. Other places, like Britain and Australia, make student-loan repayments contingent(依情况而定的)on reaching an income threshold so that the prospect of taking on debt is more acceptable to people from poorer backgrounds. That approach makes sense, especially when jobs are scarce. Barack Obama this week proposed to limit loan payments for some struggling American graduates to 10% of discretionary(任意的)income and forgive outstanding debt after 20 years. Income-based repayment ought to become the norm.
    Both changes would lead to a repricing of student debt. That would be a bad thing for taxpayers, but a good thing overall. If such information were made public, other useful data would follow—on the average financial returns to graduates of specific subjects, for example. Those studying less profitable subjects would have to pay more, or be subsidised more. It would be a controversial approach, but a more educated one.
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
选项 A、Student Loan—a Financial Evil
B、The Future of Student Loans
C、Student Indebtedness and Its Causes
D、Solutions to Problems of Student Indebtedness
答案D
解析 主旨题。本文第一、二段陈述了目前由助学贷款引发的日益严重的学生债务问题，及其具体的表现；第三段阐述了解决该问题的措施，接下来分析了该措施的不可行性；第四段提到了解决助学贷款问题的必要性，并在第五、六段提出了两个解决方案，并一一进行分析，得出方案二更加合理和可行；最后一段，总结和预测了实施这两种方案的前景、得到的收益和可能存在的阻力等。综上所述，[D]“应对日益严重的学生债务问题的解决方案”最能概括本文主旨，故为正确答案。[A]“助学贷款——一个经济恶魔”、[B]“助学贷款的未来之路”和[C]“学生债务及其原因”都是文章提及的内容，但都不能概括主旨，故均排除。
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