Question

Are billionaires good with exams as well as their money? Or are they more likely to have escaped school at the first opportunity and worked their way up to make their fortunes?

A study of the educational background of some of the world’s wealthiest people shows that they are much more likely to have gone to university, and they are more likely to have a postgraduate degree(硕士或博士研究生学位) than no degree at all.

It doesn’t give much support for the image of self-taught entrepreneurs (企业家), who rely on their own wisdom rather than higher education.

The study, by insurance company GoCompare, examined the educational background of people appearing in the top 1 00 billionaire lists by Forbes magazine over the past 20 years.

It shows that 76 percent of these billionaires have a degree. Forty-seven percent of them have a bachelor’s (学士) degree, 23 percent a master’s (文/理科硕士) degree and 6 percent a doctorate(博士学位). The most popular subjects were the ones related to economics and engineering. There were many more studying sciences than arts.

The school attended by the global super rich are also much more likely to be world-class universities, rather than local ones. Harvard University is the single most likely name to be found on the resume(履历) of a billionaire, though one of the most famous names on the rich list, Bill Gates, dropped out of Harvard before finishing.

Stanford University in California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have become the launchpads for a rising number of tech billionaires. Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were both postgraduates at Stanford. Borthers Charles and David Koch, who are among the world’s biggest oil tycoons, both got their bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MIT.

Among U.K. universities, the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Cambridge have the most multi-billionaires on the Forbes list, while Oxford has produced Rupert Murdoch.

1.The study has found all of the following EXCEPT .

A. most billionaires are not self-taught geniuses

B. billionaires are much more likely to have received higher education

C. nearly half of those on Forbes’ top 100 billionaire lists have a bachelor’s degree

D. there are more billionaires without degree at all than those with a master’s degree

2.Of the following subjects, what is the most likely to have been a college major of a billionaire?

A. Computer science. B. Art history.

C. English literature. D. Law.

3.What does the underlined word “launchpads” in Paragraph 7 mean?

A. Favorite places of famous people.

B. Effective starting points for a career.

C. Places on the Internet that help you find information.

D. Places where rockets and other spacecraft are sent into space.

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

A. The study was carried out by Forbes magazine.

B. A high percentage of the world’s richest people have a doctorate.

C. Rupert Murdoch went to the London School of Economics and Political Science.

D. Harvard University has produced more billionaires on the Forbes list than any other university.

Answer 1