We often hear employers and business leaders lament the

unfortunate gap between what students learn in college and what they

are actually expected to know in order to be job-ready. This is

particularly alarming on light of the large—and still growing—number of 【M1】_________

people graduate from university: above 40% of 25- to 34-year-olds in 【M2】_________

OECD countries, and nearly 50% of 25- to 34-year-olds in America.

Because there is a clear premium on education—recent 【M3】_________

report from The Economist suggest that the ROI of a college degree has 【M4】_________

never been higher for young people—the value added from a college

degree decreases as the number of graduates increase. This is why a 【M5】_________

college degree will boost earnings with over 20% in sub-Saharan Africa 【M6】_________

(where degrees are relatively rare), and only 9% in Scandinavia (where 【M7】_________

of adults have degrees). At the same time, as university qualifications

become more commonplace, recruiters and employers will

increasingly demand them, regardless of whether they are actually

acquired for a specific job. So, while tertiary degrees may still lead to 【M8】_________

higher-paying jobs, the same employers handing out these jobs are

hurting itself—and young people—by limiting their candidate pool to 【M9】_________

college graduates. In an age of ubiquitous disruption and unpredictable

job evolution, it is hard to argue that the knowledge acquisition

historical associated with a university degree is still relevant. 【M10】________

A broad public discussion of environmental problems began in the

mid-1980s, when the first “green” groups formed in opposition to

Erevan’s intense industrial air pollution and to nuclear power generation

in wake of the 1986 reactor explosion at Chernobyl. Environmental 【M1】__________________

issues helped form the basis of the nationalist independence movement

when environmental demonstrations subsequently merged with these for 【M2】__________________

other political causes in the late 1980s.

In independent Armenia, environmental issues divide society into

those who fear of “environmental time bombs” and those who view 【M3】__________________

resumption of pollution-prone industrial operations as the only mean of 【M4】__________________

improving the country’s economy. In the early 1990s, the latter group

blamed Armenia’s economic woes on a role played by the former in 【M5】__________________

closing major industries.

In 1994 three national environmental laws were in effect: the Law

on Environmental Protection, the Basic Law on the Environment, and

the Law on Mineral Resources. The Council of Ministers, Armenia’s

cabinet, includes a minister of the environment. Therefore, no 【M6】__________________

comprehensive environmental protection program has emerged, and

decisions on environmental policy have been made on an ad hoc basis.

Environmental conditions in Armenia have been worsened by the

Azerbaijani blockade of supplies and electricity from outside. The results

of the blockade and the failure of diplomatic efforts to lift it led the

government propose reconstruction of the Armenian Atomic Power 【M7】__________________

Station at Metsamor, which was closed after the 1988 earthquake

because of its location in an earthquake-prone area and what had the 【M8】__________________

same safety problems as reactors listed as dangerous in Bulgaria, Russia,

and Slovakia. After heating debates over startup continued through 【M9】__________________

1993, French and Russian nuclear consultants declared operating

conditions basically safe. Continuation of the blockade into 1994 gave

added emergency to the decision. 【M10】_________________

Technologies collapse the distance between a desire and its

fulfillment by reducing either the time or the effort involved. This

has long been the point on that new technologies have been 【M1】________

marketing, and digital technologies have only augmented a longstanding 【M2】________

trend. But they have done so to such a degree and the change may be 【M3】________

qualitative. Consider the ease on which we may now locate, purchase, 【M4】________

and receive commodities that just a few years ago would have taken us

considerably less time and trouble to acquire. The content of a book is 【M5】_________

only one of a multitude of possible examples, but it illustrates the point

remarkably well. Theoretical science in his view required aristocratic

repose and leisure, and anything of the sort existed in America. Instead, 【M6】_________

Americans were promiscuously active. All of this is marvelous and

fascinating and helpful, but cranks, and I’m not always above being a

crank, might point out that making something effortless and instant

umultaneously renders it ephemeral and trivial. If you eliminate the

effort and time involved realizing a desire, you also diminish the 【M7】_________

satisfaction and joy that attends the fulfillment. Beyond this, however,

there is also the matter of habits and assumptions and how those in turn 【M8】_________

shape individuals who together comprise of the political and economic 【M9】_________

culture of the nation. What sorts of habits, then, are inculcated by a

technological environment ordered around this general tendency?

Certainly not the kind of habits that sit well with the venerable

notion of delaying gratification. Nor, it would seem, would these habits 【M10】________

leave one well suited for the demands of citizenship.