01 插图解读 这张漫画描绘了一位身穿毕业学位袍的年轻人，表情木讷呆滞。他头顶戴的不是学位帽，而是一顶米老鼠耳朵帽子。米老鼠耳朵象征娱乐化与幼稚化，与庄重的学位袍形成鲜明反差，暗示高等教育已不再保证“成熟与体面”的工作出路，学历的价值正在缩水，甚至沦为“迪士尼乐园里的笑话”。针对这张漫画，我们可以模仿考研英语一的漫画作文，进行写作练习。Write an essay of 160-200 words based on the pictures below. In your essay, you should1）describe the picture briefly,2）interpret the implied meaning, and3）give you comments.第一段，描述漫画内容，即“漫画描绘了一位身穿毕业学位袍的年轻人，表情木讷呆滞。他头顶戴的不是学位帽，而是一顶米老鼠耳朵帽子”。可用 Illustrated in the picture is / are sb who...引出：
Illustrated in the picture is a young graduate who is wearing a graduation gown with a blue tie, yet instead of a traditional academic cap, he is wearing a hat with Mickey Mouse ears. His expression is blank and dull, which forms a sharp contrast with the symbolic meaning of a graduation gown, representing dignity and hope for a bright future.
The picture serves as a reminder that higher education no longer guarantees a decent job or a stable life as it once did. The Mickey Mouse ears symbolize entertainment, naivety, and the devaluation of academic degrees, suggesting that in today’s world, even those with higher education may find themselves in a situation as absurd as a joke in Disneyland, unable to find meaningful employment and decent returns for their efforts.
returns在这里是名词，指“回报率”，decent returns for their efforts意思是“努力有合理的回报”。最后一段可发表个人观点，可从“分析原因”或“提出对策”两个角度切入。例如，从原因看，AI确实给年轻人带来了严峻挑战；从对策看，我们不应只满足于学习专业范围内的知识，而应着力培养跨学科思维。本段开头可通过“From my perspective”引出观点，最后，可通过句型“Only in this way, can we...”进行总结与呼吁。
From my perspective, this cartoon vividly reflects the challenges faced by young people in the job market today. In an era of AI and rapid technological change, we should not only pursue academic knowledge in one field but also cultivate interdisciplinary thinking. Only in this way can we avoid becoming mere tools and remain irreplaceable in an increasingly complex world.
Matthew Martin of Oxford Economics, a consultancy, has looked at Americans aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor’s degree or more. For the first time in history, their unemployment rate is now consistently higher than the national average.牛津经济咨询公司（Oxford Economics）的马修·马丁（Matthew Martin）对22至27岁、拥有学士及以上学位的美国年轻人进行了研究。历史上首次，这一群体的失业率持续高于全国平均水平。
问题二：高学历者收入溢价在缩小
Until recently the “university wage premium”, where graduates earn more than others, was growing. More recently, though, it has shrunk, including in America, Britain and Canada. 此前，“大学毕业生薪资溢价”——即毕业生收入高于其他群体的现象——曾不断扩大。但近期，这一溢价在美国、英国和加拿大等国家均有所缩小。
Jobs are also less fulfilling. A large survey suggests that America’s “graduate satisfaction gap”—how much more likely graduates are to say they are “very satisfied” with their job than non-graduates—is now around three percentage points, down from a long-run advantage of seven.工作满足感也在下降。一项大型调查显示，美国“毕业生满意度差距”——毕业生表示对工作“非常满意”的比例比非毕业生高出的百分比——已降至约3个百分点，远低于长期保持的7个百分点优势。
03 就业难的原因原因一：大学扩招
Maybe the enormous expansion of universities lowered standards. If ivory towers admit less-talented applicants, and then do a worse job of teaching them, employers might over time expect fewer differences between the average graduate and the average non-graduate.大学的大规模扩招或许降低了教学标准。如果象牙塔接纳了较弱的申请者，且教学质量未能提升，随着时间推移，雇主对毕业生与非毕业生平均水平差异的期待可能随之降低。
the enormous expansion of universities指大学数量迅速增加，招生规模不断扩大。“扩招”也可以说：
university enrollment expansion
expand university enrollment
ivory tower，象牙塔，指脱离现实、与社会隔绝的学术圈或知识分子群体。原因二：工作岗位减少
Employers have also trimmed jobs in graduate-friendly industries. Across the EU the number of 15-to-24-year-olds employed in finance and insurance fell by 16% from 2009 to 2024. America has only slightly more jobs in “legal services” than in 2006. 同时，雇主也削减了面向毕业生的行业岗位。在欧盟，2009年至2024年间，15至24岁年轻人在金融和保险业的就业人数减少了16%。美国“法律服务”行业的岗位数量自2006年以来变化不大。
trim 的本义为“修剪（树枝、头发、草坪）”，即剪去多余部分，使其整齐，例如：trim hair（修剪头发）trim the bushes / trees（修剪灌木 / 树木）trim the lawn（修剪草坪边缘）在此基础上，trim引申为“削减（预算、开支、规模、人员）”。文中“trim jobs”表示“削减部分工作岗位”，即“裁员”。看两个例句：
To improve operational efficiency, some Chinese manufacturing companies have trimmed unnecessary processes while increasing investment in smart technologies.为了提高运营效率，一些中国制造企业在削减不必要流程的同时，加大了对智能技术的投入。
Several Chinese cities have trimmed administrative procedures to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.中国多个城市已精简行政流程，以鼓励创业和创新。
原因三：专业选择错误
Students also may not be picking the right subjects. Outside America, the share in arts, humanities and social sciences mostly grows. So, inexplicably, does enrolment in journalism courses.学生选专业的倾向也可能存在问题。除美国外，艺术、人文和社会科学专业的招生比例普遍增长，令人费解的是，新闻学专业的报名人数也在上升。
