A study involving 8,500 agers from all social backgrounds found that most of them are ignorant when it comes to money. The findings, the first in a series of reports from NatWesl that has started a five-year research project into agers and money, are particularly worrying as this generation of young people is likely to be burdened with greater debts than any before.
University tuition fees (学费)are currently capped at £3,000 annually, but this will be reviewed next year and the Government is under enormous pressure to raise the ceiling.
In the research, the agers were presented with die terms of four different loans but 76 per cent failed to identify the cheapest. The young people also predicted that they would be earning on average £ 31.000 by the age of 25, although the average salary for those aged 22 to 29 is just £ 17,815. The agers expected to be in debt when they finished university or training, although half said that they assumed the debts would be less than £ 10.000. Average debts for graduates are £ 12，363.
Stephen Moir, head of community investment at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns NatWest, said. 'The more exposed young people are to financial issues, and the younger they become aware of them, the more likely they are to become responsible, forward-planning s who manage their finances confidently and effectively.'
Ministers are deeply concerned about the financial pressures on agers and young people because of student loans and rising housing costs. They have just introduced new lessons in how to manage debts. Nikki Fairweather aged 15 from St Helens, said that she had benefited from lessons on personal finance, but admitted that she still had a lot to learn about money.
小题1: Which of the following can be found from the five-year research project?A．Students understand personal finances differently.B．University tuition fees in England have been rising.C．agers tend to overestimate their future earnings.D．The students' payback ability has become a major issue.小题2:The phrase 'to raise the ceiling' in paragraph 2 probably means '______'.A．to raise the student loans B．to improve the school facilitiesC．to increase the upper limit of the tuitionD．to lift the school building roofs小题3: According to Stephen Moir, students_______.A．are too young to be exposed to financial issuesB．should learn to manage their finances wellC．should maintain a positive attitude when facing loans D．benefit a lot from lessons on personal finance小题4:What can we learn from the passage?A．Many British agers do not know money matters wellB．agers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts.C．Financial planning is a required course at college. D．Young people should become responsible s.