考研英语阅读理解中的文章，很多来自一些外刊杂志方面的题材。接下来，北京文都考研网为扩宽2020考研学子的知识面，整理了考研英语经济学人外刊:选专业还是选学校?供考生参考。
2020考研英语经济学人外刊:选专业还是选学校?
The cost of studying the arts at Oxbridge
在牛津和剑桥学习文科的代价
High-scoring students leave £500,000 on the table by eschewing economics
高分学生不学经济学，无异于丢掉了50万英镑
Sceptics of higher education often complain that universities offer too many frivolous degrees with little value in the workplace.
对高等教育持怀疑态度的人经常抱怨说，大学提供了太多在职场上没有实用价值的无用学位。
Since elite universities tend to produce higher-earning graduates than less selective institutions do, you might expect them to teach more practical courses. Yet data from Britain’s department for education show the opposite.
由于名牌大学比普通院校更倾向于培养高收入的毕业生，因此你可能以为名牌大学会开设更多实用性的课程。然而，据英国教育部的数据显示，情况恰好相反。
Undergraduate students at prestigious universities are more likely to study purely academic fields such as philosophy and classics, whereas those at less choosy ones tend to pick vocational topics such as business or nursing.
名牌大学的本科生更有可能学习哲学和古典文学等纯学术领域的专业，而普通院校的学生更倾向于选择商业或护理等职业领域的专业。
What could explain this seeming contradiction? One reason is that employers treat a degree from a top university as a proxy for intelligence. This means that students at elite institutions can study bookish subjects and still squeak by financially.
如何解释这种看似矛盾的现象呢?其中一个原因是，雇主们把顶尖大学的学位视为衡量智力的指标。这就意味着，在名牌大学攻读学术性专业的学生还能勉强拿到不错的薪水。
The median Cambridge graduate in a creative-arts subject—the university’s least lucrative group of courses, including fields such as music—earns around £25,000 ($32,400) at age 26. Economics students from less exalted universities, such as Hull, make a similar amount.
剑桥大学艺术创意专业(该校收入前景最差的专业)的毕业生在26岁时的平均年薪为2.5万英镑(约合32400美元)，和赫尔大学等不太知名大学的经济学专业毕业生的收入差不多。
Yet even though Oxbridge students can pretend to read “Ulysses” for years and still expect a decent salary, they end up paying a large opportunity cost by pursuing the arts.
然而，尽管牛津和剑桥的学生可以花几年的时间假装研读了《尤利西斯》，并且仍能拿到不错的薪水，但他们最终还是要为追求艺术付出巨大的机会成本代价。
That is because employers reserve the highest starting wages for students who both attended a leading university and also studied a marketable subject.
这是因为，雇主们会把最高的起薪留给那些既出身名校又学习了符合市场需求专业的毕业生。
Cambridge creative-arts graduates earn £11,000 more at age 26 than do those from Wrexham Glyndwr University, whose arts alumni are the lowest-earning in Britain.
剑桥大学艺术创意专业的毕业生的平均年收入比雷克瑟姆格林多大学同龄同专业的毕业生高出了1.1万英镑，在英国文科专业毕业生中当属雷克瑟姆格林多大学的毕业生赚得最少。
In contrast, Cambridge economics graduates make £44,000 more than do those from the University of Salford, where the economics course is the country’s least remunerative.
相比之下，剑桥大学经济学专业的毕业生平均年收入比索尔福德大学毕业生高出了4.4万英镑，在英国经济学毕业生中当属索尔福德大学的毕业生赚的最少。
Many gifted arts students would struggle to crunch numbers. But for those who can excel at both, the cost of sticking with the arts, in terms of forgone wages, is steep.
许多有天赋的人文社科专业学生都不擅长和数字打交道。但对于那些文理科都出类拔萃的人来说，选择文科专业的代价不菲(就舍弃的工资而言)。
Cambridge creative-arts students have A-level scores close to those of economics students at Warwick, but earn about half as much. That is tantamount to giving up an annuity worth £500,000.
剑桥大学艺术创意专业的学生的A-level分数和华威大学经济学专业的学生相当，但前者平均年收入只有后者的一半左右。这相当放弃了价值50万英镑的年金。(注：A-level是英国学生的大学入学考试课程，相当于英国的高考。)
Who can afford such indulgence? The answer is Oxbridge students, who often have rich parents.
那么谁可以这样有钱任性呢?答案是牛津大学和剑桥大学的学生，他们通常家境殷实。
At most universities, students in courses that lead to high-paying jobs, such as economics and medicine, tend to come from wealthier families, partly because such applicants are more likely to have the examination scores necessary to be accepted.
在大多数大学，经济学和医学等高薪专业的学生往往来自富裕家庭，部分原因在于这些申请者更有可能获得录取所需的考试成绩。
At Oxbridge, however, no such correlation exists. History and philosophy students there come from richer parts of Britain, on average, than their peers studying medicine do.
然而，在牛津剑桥就不存在这种关联。平均而言，牛津和剑桥历史和哲学专业的学生比医学专业的学生有着更殷实的家境。
[重难点词汇]
eschew [ɪsˈtʃuː] vt. 避免;避开;远避
frivolous ['frɪvələs] adj. 无聊的;轻佻的;琐碎的
prestigious [prɛ'stɪdʒəs] adj. 有名望的;享有声望的
lucrative ['lukrətɪv] adj. 有利可图的，赚钱的;合算的
remunerative [rɪ'mjunərətɪv] adj. 有利可图的;有报酬的;合算的
tantamount ['tæntə'maʊnt] adj. 同等的;相当于…的
indulgence [ɪn'dʌldʒəns] n. 嗜好;放纵;纵容;沉溺
以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研英语经济学人外刊:选专业还是选学校?”，希望对备考2020考研英语的考生有所帮助!祝2020考研顺利!
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