College Graduates Become Budding Entrepreneurs

　　Amid this year's compeditive job market for college grads, a growing number of young people are embracing the idea of starting their own business.

 

　　CRI's Li Dong has more.

 

　　Yu Jiwen, a fresh graduate of Guanghzou University in south China's Guangdong Province, set up his own mobile application development company, Guangzhou Weekend Internet Technology, last year with funding from a private investor¹.

 

　　The company's main product is "Super Class Schedule", a mobile phone application which can provide the class schedules of around 3,000 colleges and universities across China. The tool also offers a service enabling social networking among schoolmates. Yu is now the CEO at the company.

 

　　"At the beginning, one of my current colleagues was working on an application about class schedules as a curriculum design. Traditional applications of this kind require one to input² their classes one by one, but my colleague found that students' class schedules are available at the website Office of Teaching Affairs and thought a mobile phone could read and copy them from the website. Although it's a simple technique, it was really convenient for me, so I told my colleague that maybe I could turn it into a valuable product."

 

　　One year later, the company expanded its staffing from six to 30 and its novel application, developed by a young team of technicians led by Yu, has amassed³ two million users following five million class schedules.

 

　　Meanwhile, Shi Huizhong, 27, has established a pollution-free vegetable production base in the city of Zhumadian, central China's Henan Province, which he and three of his high school classmates have now been running for almost three years.

 

　　"I think that as food safety has become a big public concern, this has illustrated⁴ that huge business opportunities exist in this field. If we can do well what others could not, we will grasp the opportunities."

 

　　Confident in the prospects⁵ of organic vegetables in China, the four quit their jobs and co-founded a two hectare production base in their hometown with an initial capital of 320,000 yuan.

 

　　To ensure that their products are organic and pollution-free, they use water from a nearly 60-meter-deep well for irrigation and resorted to physical means rather than pesticides⁶ to control pest invasions. They also apply natural fertilizers so as to improve vegetable quality.

 

　　Local authorities have also been supportive of the business as most young people in the area choose to leave for big cities to live and work.

 

　　For CRI, I am Li Dong.

1 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

2 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

3 amassed   

v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He amassed a fortune from silver mining. 他靠开采银矿积累了一笔财富。
• They have amassed a fortune in just a few years. 他们在几年的时间里就聚集了一笔财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

5 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

6 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》