Every day Yang Hongwei takes the bus home from work, staring silently at the European-style villas(别墅), luxury cars and twinkling lights from the shopping center that he sees through the window.
Yang works for a software company in Zhongguancun. He dreams of such a life, away from poverty, and that hope has kept him in Beijing for three years since he graduated from university.
Soon Yang squeezes his way off the bus to the reality of his life: his home—a 10-square-metre room that costs 550 yuan(81 US dollars) or about one-fifth of his salary in rent every month. It’s very cold inside the house as it has no central heating system. He has to stand the long and cold winter. Determined to achieve his dream, Yang says he has changed jobs “numerous” times in the past three years and is considering quitting his present job.
Yang’s frustration over his life as a migrant(移民) is shared by many other graduates that have moved into big cities. Together they have come to be called the “ant tribe”, a term created by Chinese sociologists to describe the struggles of young migrants, who, armed with their diplomas, flood to big cities in hopes of a better life only to put up with low-paying jobs and poor living conditions. They share every similarity with ants. They live in colonies in crowded areas. They’re intelligent and hardworking, yet unknown and underpaid. The term, sociologists have said, also reflects their helplessness in a world governed by the law of the concrete jungle—only the strongest survive.
A survey in Ant TribeⅡ found nearly 30 percent of the “ants” are graduates of famous key universities—almost three times the percentage of 2009. Most have degrees in popular majors, such as medicine, engineering, economics and management. In addition, 7.2 percent of the “ants” have at least a master’s degree compared to 1.6 percent in 2009. Most said the economic recovery did not really improve their financial situations, and 66 percent said their incomes fell short of their expectations, the survey also found.
For two years, Lian Si, a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Chinese and Global Affairs of Peking University, who has studied the phenomenon, led a team of more than 100 graduate students to follow the groups in university towns like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Xi’an. Lian evaluates the total population of the “ant community” in major cities at one million across China, with about 100,000 found in Beijing alone. Lian predicts that an increasingly challenging job market will see the ant tribe growing further in number. Another 6.3 million graduates are expected to join migrant workers and other job hunters in what promises to be a fierce labour competition.
The ant tribe’s embarrassing living situations have become a serious social issue, and the government should develop “second-and-third-tier cities” to attract more graduates from big cities. However, “ants” expect more study and training opportunities in big cities, which keeps them in positive mindsets despite their situations. As in the case of Yang, he is optimistic about getting a new job soon, having received eight interview offers in a week after sending out his resume. The prospect of landing a higher-paying job keeps him hopeful of moving out of the slum district(贫民区) soon. The sooner the better.
小题1:. Yang has worked in Beijing since graduation from university ______.
| A．to live in a beautiful villa of European style |
| B．to have more opportunities to be promoted |
| C．to struggle for a better-off life in a big city |
| D．to enjoy a busy life in a software company |
小题2:. Which of the following best describes “ant tribe”?
| A．It refers to the group of low-income graduates living in embarrassing conditions. |
| B．It refers to the people who work hard like ants but are paid little. |
| C．It refers to the sociologists and scholars researching into some social phenomena. |
| D．It refers to some well-educated people who can’t survive in society. |
小题3:. What does the writer think of the phenomenon of “ant tribe”?
| A．“Ant tribe” has become too serious a social problem to solve. |
| B．It is the government’s duty to solve the problem of “ant tribe”. |
| C．Both the government and the graduates have the responsibility. |
| D．The existence of “ant tribe” has little influence on job markets. |
小题4:. The passage is mainly about ______.
| A．a new urban life style—“ant tribe” | B．a recent survey about the “ant tribe” |
| C．the “ant tribe’s” living conditions | D．the “ant tribe’s” dream and reality |
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e factory owners. Many Luddites were arrested. Charlotte Bronte’s novel Shirley will tell your parents all about it. 
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iles made by the US company, Jitterbug. Instead of icons and menus the Jitterbu
g phones ask users simple “yes/no” questions and have larger keypads. The company realized that there are potentially 100 million older users in the US alone. 
dy to try new technology
he old idea of a homeless person, that of the single man who gets drunk all the time, is no longer true．A much larger part of the population now finds itself homeless．Even worse, once a person becomes homeless, he often finds it impossible to find a job, since most employers require anyone who wants a job from them to provide a home address on a job application