Merit Mikhail, who graduated last June from the University of California, Riverside, is glad she borrowed to get through school. But she left Riverside owing $20,000 in student loans and another $7,000 in credit card debt. Now in law school, Merit hopes to become a public-interest attorney, yet she may have to postpone that goal, which bothers her. To handle her debt, she'll probably need to start with a more lucrative(有利的)legal job.
Like so many other students. Mikhail took out her loans on a kind of blind faith that she could deal with the consequences. "You say to yourself, 'I have to go into debt to make it work, and whatever it takes later, I'll manage.'" Later has now arrived, and Mikhail is finding out the true cost of her college degree.
1. Griffith worked for a firm that specialized in economic development in Washington D.C. because she needed money to pay for her debt.
2. The only problem the students are facing at graduation is the dismal job market.
3. One reason why colleges increase tuition and fees is that the state support is shrinking.
4. Nearly all the families can manage to meet the soaring tuition costs through various investment plans.
5. According to Nadine's calculation, she can pay off all her debt when she is ________ if she can get a salary of $120,000 a year right out of law school.
6. Students get money from not only federal loans but also ________.
7. The college department or association can get payments from the issuer if it sanctions credit cards decorated with ________.
8. O'Donnell thinks that the cause of her 22-year-old son's suicide is ________.
9. The author says that foregoing a college education is often not a wise choice because ________ of the 50 highest paying jobs require a four-year college degree except for air traffic controllers and nuclear power reactor operators.
10. Merit will have to start with a more lucrative legal job instead of her favorite position—a public-interest attorney because she has to ________.
Part IV Reading Comprehension (Reading in Depth) (25 minutes)
Section A
Directions: In this section, there is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words on Answer Sheet 2.
Questions 47 to 51 are based on the following passage.
Scientists say they have high hopes for a drug that could one day provide a new form of treatment for HIV-AIDS. A compound, which interferes with an elusive protein used by the HIV virus to infect human cells, has worked extremely well in monkeys. If the drug proves effective in human trials, scientists say, it could bolster(加强)the effectiveness of two existing AIDS drugs, particularly in fighting drug-resistant strains of the virus.
Researchers at the pharmaceutical(制药的)company Merck are very excited about an experimental drug, which has worked as well in monkeys infected with a primate version of the virus as any of the existing anti-AIDS drugs.
It works by blocking one of three proteins, or enzymes, the HIV virus uses to gain entrance into and infect human immune system cells.
Inhibitor drugs have been developed to block two of the proteins, to slow progression of the disease after infection. They have become standard therapy as a "cocktail" for people infected with HIV.
Those enzymes are reverse transcriptase (转录酶)and protease(蛋白酶). The first converts the virus' genetic material into that of its host cells. The second chops up the resulting larger proteins into smaller pieces, producing smaller viral particles that infect new cells.