VOA慢速英语 2007 1206a

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Today we answer a question from a listener who wants to become a Spanish professor. Orlando Carvajal asks how much professors earn in the United States.

 
Money from the sale of books written by professors can add to their salaries. Florida State University professor Darrin McMahon shows his book 'Happiness: A History.'
We looked in the almanac published by the Chronicle of Higher Education. It shows that the average salary for full professors last year was ninety-nine thousand dollars. For associate professors it was seventy thousand. And for assistant professors it was fifty-nine thousand dollars.

Private, independent schools pay more than public colleges and universities. But how do professors compare with other professions? For that we turn to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor¹ Statistics².

Assistant professors earned about the same last year as workers in business and financial operations. But they earned about ten thousand dollars less than computer programmers, for example.

The highest paying group of jobs in the United States is in management. The average wage last year was ninety-two thousand dollars. Next came lawyers and other legal workers, at eighty-five thousand.

Orlando also asks about benefits, things like health insurance and retirement³ plans. Benefits differ from school to school just as salaries do.

The Chronicle Almanac shows that new assistant professors in foreign language earned forty-eight thousand dollars last year. That was a little more than the national average for all education jobs. But averages do not tell the whole story.

Sally Hadden is an associate professor of history and law at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She notes that language professors generally earn less than those in subjects like engineering, for example.

But these days, professors of some languages, including Arabic, can earn much more than Spanish professors. Universities are competing for them with government and industry.

Professor Hadden also notes that colleges in different areas of the country pay different salaries. Some states have strong unions that have negotiated⁴ set increases in salaries for professors.

And different schools value different skills in their professors. Community and liberal arts colleges generally value good teaching skills more than big research universities do.

Salaries can also be tied to something else -- tenure⁵. More about that next week.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online with transcripts⁶ and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

 

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。

3 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

4 negotiated   

谈判，协商，议定( negotiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 兑现（支票等）； 通过，越过（险要路段）

参考例句：

• The government negotiated with the opposition party over the new law. 政府就新法与反对党进行了协商。
• By careful strategy she negotiated a substantial pay rise. 她精心策划后，谈妥了大幅增加工资的事。

5 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

6 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句