British Vision Issue 54 毕业等于失业?(在线收听

Now China's sizzling(red-hot) economy is growing at its fastest rate in a decade. This year 5 million young people will graduate from the country's universities, with the potential to boost China's economy still further.

But the government estimates that 1 million of them won't find jobs because the education system isn't supplying the needs of an economy still based on manufacturing. Our Beijing correspondent Lindsey Hilsum went along to a graduate job fair.

Too many students, not enough jobs. In the last 7 years the number of / graduates has quadrupled in Beijing alone. No wonder the job fair is a bit overwhelming.

I think there are so many people, and the crowd, at very beginning, I even wanna get out, you know, because I think I've been here before, but I have never seen so many people here.

This is one of dozens of job fairs being held in the capital now.

Huo jianguo calls himself Mike. He is looking for a job in sales, even though his degree is in electronic information. The requirements (are) spelt out, men must be tall, women, good looking, but Mike has his own hurdles. In China, selling involves a lot of serious drinking with clients. "I can drink a little" he says when asked ," 3 or 4 beers". "I don't care how much beer you can drink" she replies, "I'm talking about hard liquor". Oh dear, Mike says he can't take that much.

In the afternoon, Mike goes for a job with a mobile phone distributor. This is the third round of interviews. I think Mike has got a good chance. He has been to a reputable university and he speaks English, which is a big plus. But not many of the 5 million Chinese students who are going to graduate in the next few months have got those advantages. The Chinese economy is out of kilter with the education system. There just aren't enough jobs being created for that many people with degrees.

Mike's parents live in a flat in Tianjin, 2 hours' drive from Beijing. He is the only child in line with government policy. The insecurity of modern China baffles them. In their day, everyone was assigned a job for life by the state, or used to be called the iron rice bowl. In our time, we had no dreams. We all belonged to one state-owned work unit. There were no choices, no flexibility.

Mike shows me the market by his parents' flat. He says his dream is to run his own company, the job search is just start.

"For the younger people we'd better have hope in life, and have our own dreams, if not, life's just meaningless, you know. Yeah!

This is the new China where everyone dares to dream. But reality is harsh, and there is no safety net for those who fall.

Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News, Beijing.

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1.out of kilter: adj. phr., informal Not balanced right 不均衡

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/yinglunguangjiao/40946.html