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Cold or Flu: Be Seriously Distinguished

For those who take English as a foreign language and seldom stay in a native language environment, we may find many mistakes when speaking English. Here is quite a common example that we always confuse the word of ‘cold’ and ‘flu’, what’s more, very few English teachers put this in their explanation that where are the differences. Quite occasionally I get a table from the official site of Timaflu when google for it.

Here is a comparison table between the flu and the cold.

Symptom	Cold	Flu
Fever	Fever is rare with a cold.	Fever is usually present with the flu in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperature of 100°F or higher for 3 to 4 days is associated with the flu.
Coughing	A hacking, productive (mucus- producing) cough is often present with a cold.	A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present with the flu (sometimes referred to as dry cough).
Aches	Slight body aches and pains can be part of a cold.	Severe aches and pains are common with the flu.
Stuffy Nose	Stuffy nose is commonly present with a cold and typically resolves spontaneously within a week.	Stuffy nose is not commonly present with the flu.
Chills	Chills are uncommon with a cold.	60% of people who have the flu experience chills.
Tiredness	Tiredness is fairly mild with a cold.	Tiredness is moderate to severe with the flu.
Sneezing	Sneezing is commonly present with a cold.	Sneezing is not common with the flu.
Sudden Symptoms	Cold symptoms tend to develop over a few days.	The flu has a rapid onset within 3-6 hours. The flu hits hard and includes sudden symptoms like high fever, aches and pains.
Headache	A headache is fairly uncommon with a cold.	A headache is very common with the flu, present in 80% of flu cases.
Sore Throat	Sore throat is commonly present with a cold.	Sore throat is not commonly present with the flu.
Chest Discomfort	Chest discomfort is mild to moderate with a cold.	Chest discomfort is often severe with the flu.

For details, you can visit: http://www.tamiflu.com/about/coldflu.aspx

Postgraduate Student: Shall We Take It?

最近总是有很多师弟师妹在问我是不是要考研，事实上，我很难回答这个问题。毕竟，我已经是一个研究生即将毕业的人了。同时正如我的导师所言，所有的决定只能是由自己来做的，而不是由别人可以代劳的。所以呢，我也只能对两者进行比较，却不能代替本文的读者来做出是否读研的决定。我坚信，命运掌握在自己手中，而不是被别人所掌控。同时，鉴于我对会计专业更了解，我在下文中的分析多以此为例展开。

对于读研的动机，其实可以分为两大类：第一类人是对研究和学术有着执着兴趣的人，他们往往希望通过读研而后读博来完成自己心中的梦想。我并不否认这一类人的存在，他们往往能够成为所在学科领域的领军人物。但是，不得不承认的是，这类人太少了。而另一类人，则构成了考研的大多数人，他们的动机往往非常功利，或者客气一点说，是比较实用主义的(Pragmatic)。他们往往希望能偶取得更好的工作而去攻读更高的学位，甚至不惜花大价钱去读博士。这里，我无格评论他们的对与错，但是不可否认的是，这种实用主义的读研观很大程度上削弱了研究生对自己所学内容的忠诚度，而这种忠诚度的缺失很大程度反映在了上课的出勤率，论文的质量，科研的质量，甚至于老师的备课态度等。据统计，我国现在已经成为了世界上生产博士的第一大国，似乎已经超过了美国。但是在博士生的水平上，我们却与人家相去甚远，这与我们的态度不无关系。

对于前文所述的第一类人，那么，在一个不错的导师的指导下，他会有如鱼得水一般的感觉。以会计学为例，本科阶段的教学内容，对大多数学校而言，是基于实务的，而很少涉及理论。如：财务会计，管理会计等，在一些财经类院校，则往往开设一些补充的偏向理论的内容，如会计理论，会计史等。而在一些综合性的大学，这类课程往往会被金融，经济，管理等一些实用性更强的科目所取代。这就是为什么综合性大学的会计学毕业生尽管没有理论深度，却具有很好的基础知识铺垫。但是进入研究生以后，本科阶段所缺的理论知识会通过不同的渠道补上来，如课堂学习，文献阅读，甚至于一些公共培训项目，如香港中文大学每年会在上海国家会计学院举办对大陆商学院的青年学者培训。另外，一些高级别的学术会议也会成为学习的有效渠道。如本人就在某个会议上知道了需要去重视分析性研究（Analytical Research）而不仅仅是经验研究（Empirical Research)。而若你有不错的经济学，数学或者计算机编程方面的背景，那你会感觉相当不错。

但是对于第二类人，也就是研究生中的大多数，学术对他们并没有太强的吸引力。而研究生的学习，其实更多的是充当了一种就业的缓冲剂。大多数人会利用这三年来学习英语，通过一些更高级别的考试，如雅思，托福，托业，甚至于GRE和GMAT，毕竟英语在如今的就业中是一张王牌。对于会计学院的学生而言，注册会计师，俗称CPA，也是一个非常具有人气的考试。每年5月一过，你就会在自习室里看到CPA大军的出现，这种盛况一般会到9月中旬结束。然后第二年重演。如此周而复始，永不停息。其实对他们而言，研究生并没有真正学到什么，而事实上，他们可能也没指望去学那么多。更多的，他们是在为自己的就业做一些更现实的准备。

所以，在读研究生之前，想清楚自己到底想干什么，或许是一个更为明智的决定。当然，此文只是个人的代表观点，仅供参考

Accounting Theory: Some Books I Read

时间过得还是很快的，转眼间，研究生生涯的三分之二时间已然逝去。借着今日的凉风习习，反思我过去两年所读过的书，其实还是不少的。尽管我并没有从头到尾完整的读过其中任何一本（我觉得读书更多的是选择），但是我还是打算就我读过的书来做一个总结。今天我们先做的主要涉及会计理论方面。

会计理论，不同于本科阶段所学的会计实务知识，是一种更多的讨论会计底层的学科，比如准则制定的导向问题，目标问题，以及投资者与经营者之间的委托代理关系等等。这是大多数学校都会给研究生开设的基础课，我所在的学校也不例外。同时，在我的学校，本科似乎也有类似的课程。对本科生而言，这类课程有助于他们去考研，而对研究生而言，这是他们学习如何做研究的启航点。而我的梳理就从最狭隘的传统会计理论开始。由于我水平有限，错误在所难免，望见谅。

我第一次接触会计理论，并不是始于研究生阶段，而是始于本科时代所读的这本由孙玉甫等人所作，由盖地作序的《广义财务会计理论》。尽管在今天看来，这本教材多少有点肤浅，但是他的确是第一次让我了解到了除了会计分录和财务报告外会计学科的广阔的天地。通过这本书，我第一次听说了财务会计的准则制定目标，原则等等的理论解释，同时也第一次知道了美国，英国ASB（现为IASB）等机构的简单情况。由于我以前所学的内容多为实务性知识，而有悖于中国准则的名词和知识都较少听到。如利得，全面收益等等。尽管当时只是一知半解，但是无意中，这本书却让我萌发了对会计理论的兴趣，进而促使我做出了考会计研究生的决定。

而进入研究生阶段以后，开始接触的第一本会计理论方面的书籍则是林志军和葛家樹教授所作的《现代西方会计理论》。我想很多人知道这本研究生教材。这本教材几乎是我们当时上课时候的范本。该教材很好的解释了很多与准则制定与应用相关的理论基础。考虑到葛家樹教授所作的研究，这本书详细介绍了美国FASB的各项准则中的大量内容，如物价变动，全面收益，以及资产负债表观下的所得税会计处理（我国已采用）等。更加难能可贵的是，这本书也同时简单介绍了Ball and Brown (1968)所开始的，由Watts和Zimmerman人提出的实证会计理论，尽管限于作者的理解，这本书对该内容并没有做到客观评价，但也表现了老一辈学者对当代研究的关注，实已难能可贵。相比较于《广义财务会计理论》，这本书显然更具有内涵，难度也更大些。但考虑到此书为研究生教材，而前者为本科教材，这种差异也就可以理解了。

受我恩师的影响，进入研究生阶段以后，我就开始不再关注这些传统理论，转而开始对罗切斯特学派所倡导的实证研究（其实这是国内的误传，更准确的，这是经验研究）。这种转换促使我开始去拜读Watts和Zimmerman的大作——《实证会计理论》。这是一本经典的英文教材，但我最早阅读的是中文版。这本教材主要讲解了EMH，CAPM，盈余公告的信息含量，竞争性假说，薪酬计划等问题。与其说这本书是教材，还不如说该书是一本论文的综述。个人感觉，作为一个会计研究生，这本书是不可不读的。当然也有一个问题，就是我觉得这本书的中文译本的翻译比较生硬，有些句子艰涩难懂。而最近人大出版的英文原版则读起来会轻松很多。如果诸位愿意一堵此书风采的话，我建议诸位直接读原版。如果与Watts和Zimmerman于1990年在Accounting Review上所发表的十年回顾一同阅读，则效果会更好。尽管很多国内学者，尤其是老一辈学者并不认可，但是这的确是会计理论的一个进步。经济学，统计学等数理方法的引入，可以很大程度上提高会计研究的严谨性。

但是《实证会计理论》也有一个致命的缺点，那就是，该书并不适合没有研究经历的人阅读。因为这书的内容相对零散，而且写作风格类似于文献回顾，却不提供必要的理论链接。所以在读此书遇到困难之后，在我姐的指导下，我接触了另一本著名教材——《财务会计理论》。该书由加拿大滑铁卢大学William Scott所著，更新频繁，该书涉及了几乎所有的国际顶级期刊上的重要研究，并且用通俗而朴实的语言进行了诠释，而去掉了原论文中大量的数理模型和推论。尽管该书的立足点只是在于给本科生和不立志于做研究的学生提供理论的介绍，但是该书却为我们提供了一个不错的视野和过度平台。唯一的缺憾是，该书的中文版翻译并不好，而国内却没有影印版。我手头的英文版则是通过大哥从新加坡国立图书馆复印而来。细读之下，感觉非常棒。英文原版可以从Amazon购得，但是价格非常贵。

先写这么多吧，等过几天再把其他的书补上来。水平有限，如有不实之处，还请多多见谅。

Knowledge Obtaining: Solitude or Interaction?

Nowadays we are facing the difficulties of mastering the knowledge that is either required by our daily job or living. We need the knowledge the conduct the way that we work, we need that to fix the errors that we make, and we need that to help explain the problems that we meet. Some scholars argue that people should make full efforts to master knowledge as much as possible that they can acquire, and some others do not agree with that. But is it that necessary for us to master all the knowledge that we can acquire? The answer is obviously no. In fact, we can obtain the knowledge we want through the interaction with others as well.

We are living in an era that there are far more knowledge than that we can master. In fact, it is the development on both the science and arts in modern times that deep specialization on knowledge that produces great amount of points of knowledge, which is impossible to be mastered individually. Taking the knowledge of accounting for example, it is no doubt for a professional staff to master the principles of accounting, while if you are working for a large group, you are to find various styles of transaction and bills that you are to take into the practice of accounting. It is quite a large number of these styles that induces different positions and fields in the field of this profession, which includes risk management, accounting payables and receivables, etc. It is all these positions in accounting that forms the entire system of that, which can hardly be accomplished by one person or two.

And knowledge can be obtained by the interaction with others, not only through solitude. With the same reason as discussed above as over specification on knowledge, different people have their own interest and advantage, and different knowledge’s can thus been obtained through the interactions between them. This is just the reason why the team-working form is becoming that popular in large companies. Taking the team for a software engineering at the medium level for example, different positions are included in this team, such as external package, database designing and structure engineering. The knowledge that is required in this team can thus be obtained through the interaction within the team, and more importantly, it is unwise and unnecessary for the members in the team to master all the knowledge through solitude, which can be a difficult task.

But we have to admit that some knowledge can only be solitude, and they are to be essential for the interaction that I discussed above. This knowledge mainly refers to the fundamental course, such as math, language, principles of economics etc. They form the fundamentals and boot the probability of the interaction. Just reconsider the example on the team of software engineering, if one of the members within the team that is not that familiar with the basics of the relevant knowledge, such as the basics of programming, the database management, how can he interact with his colleagues? Such interaction can only be successful and the knowledge be obtained when the relevant parties are qualified to the fundamentals and their professional competences are identical.

In sum we find the knowledge can be obtained both through the solitude and the interaction with the others. But they are of two layers; the fundamentals should be obtained through the solitude and the professional ones from the interaction instead. It is impossible for any individual to master all the knowledge that can be acquired totally. Knowledge comes from both the solitude and the interaction with others boosts our working efficiency.

Scandals: Can that always be bad?

This is another GRE Analytical Writing exercise that comes from the following topic:

TOPIC: ISSUE185 – "Scandals-whether in politics, academia, or other areas-can be useful. They focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could."

More and more scandals are presenting in front of us through various mediums, including newspapers, magazines and internet. And they refer to every realm of our lives, ranging from politics to academia that drive people’s attention from one field to another. Some argues that such scandal to be good, with the reason that they can focus our attentions in different ways and lead to some fresh discoveries, but a question comes out in this way. Do they really matter in this way?

The formation, or those preconditions for scandals, carries various stories themselves, including the eager to success but without patience, a failure that is developed from the ideal anticipation from the reformers, etc, and in this way, such happening of scandals can really help people be aware of their mistakes and make attempts to overcome. Dating back to the 19th century in Europe, when people were exhausted to make a kind of non-stop working machine, existed George L. Push, a gentleman who was convinced on the existence of such machine, announced his success of building ups of such machine in a local newspaper. But his followers soon found it to be false since what he had made was only an ideal model, but without any realistic machine at all! The critics from the readers and his fans then drove to him like a storm. But soon after the in-depth discussion based on this scandal, people eventually accepted the fact that such machine can never be existed.

The scandals can also drive people to the new fields of research, the development of new policy that they are not initially focused. When getting focused, the reformers, scientists, etc can get more suggestions and critics from the public that boost their efficiency and reduce their possibility of failure. As a reformer that is proposing a new housing policy aiming at solving the housing problems for the disabled, they found very few citizen get interested on that at the begining. So he then conducted a test in some communities where the scandals then come out due to some faults on the proposal. The scandal draw people’s attention to this policy and people start to write to the newspapers and government for the deliveries of their new ideas. Then the policy is rapidly improved under these suggestions, while we cannot deny the contribution from the scandals.

But we must be aware that such benefit can hardly be brought to permanently. In fact, such severe scandals, especially those refer to the fields that are unknown to the public, can mislead them. Because such scandals can make people feel the related affairs unbelievable, such as a new policy, a new skill and a new medicine, and the anticipation for these from the public would be greatly mitigated. A real example on the investment can help explain this. We are dating back to the 1920s in US, where there were still no equivalent accounting standards among the listed companies and financial fraud were popular. But when some frauds were getting to known to the public, the public trust on the accounting number were totally lost and people start to sell out their stocks in hand. The consequence of such scandals is known to all, that is, the Great Deficiency. It is the scandal that brings all the investors into the disaster.

That’s why we are caring so much on scandals. For the public, it is a good way for them to refer to some new fields that are strange to them, offering them new room of thinking. While it is apparently more significant to the reformers and government, since such scandals from different areas can help them to improve their developing policy, skills etc, but we must also be aware that such scandals can also reduce the trust from the public that can lead to severe consequence sometimes. We are not to deny the usefulness of scandals, but we should also be aware of their potential harms.

Exercise for GRE Analytical Writing: Quick action or A Reconsideration?

This is an exercise for my coming GRE Analytical Writing section, if you are interested, please provide me some suggestions on how to improve the writing skills. The reason why I upload them here is because I find the titles from the analytical writings, especially that for issues, are really good topics that can evoke our thinking in depth.

Thanks for your comments and they are always welcome

Following is the original article that i wrote:

Nowadays people are becoming so eager to succeed that they are becoming quicker to take action but rather than taking a good consideration before that. In fact, with a fast speed of working and higher efficiency of action sometimes do provide us greater production. However, such quick reactions can hardly always work.

An adequate thorough thinking for some actions that are to be taken is beneficial, especially for some important decisions. A common experience that can convince us is that we can make a decision in seconds, but we can never finish an intricate task in seconds. Putting a pre-determined decision into practice involves many steps that we can hardly reach wholly in a flash, and a thorough thinking brings us the new opportunity on such thinking. A good example for this is making a plan for a chemical experiment. It is the truth that an initial plan can be made in quite a quick action, while, more importantly, we should examine and reconsider the very steps during this procedure, on the medicine we use, the controlling group we set, and the equipment that we may ask for. Without such intense thinking on realms of this experiment, various problems can occur during the coming procedure, and, some fatal errors that we failed to realize prior to their occurrence can sometimes directly turn this experiment into failure.

And such thinking can take something that we miss at a first glance into consideration, such as the consequence of some actions that can bring us great influence. Suppose that a local government is thinking about a project of the establishment of an industry that can produce high pollution to the environment, but its establishment can boost the economic growth as well. Taking the viewpoint of short-seeing, a kind of thinking method that only covers the influence or that consequence of a specified event in a short period, the local government would pass the decision of the establishment on the consideration of the economic growth. But once the staffs take reconsideration on such plan in depth, more or less, he or she would think about the pollution matters. And a professional evaluation can then be taken, which involves professors and experts on environmental science, to suggest the magnitude of its pollution on local environment. Once the cost on environment is higher than the economical profit, we suggest it as the result of evaluation, this project would be denied rather than the acceptance.

But a fast reaction can make as being competitive to the other opponents, which is of great significance contemporarily. This frequently occurs in business world. An investing analyst working for an investing firm would require taking intermediate action when they find an investing opportunity rather than a time costly reconsideration; otherwise the opportunity would never be back. The other example exists in the industry of manufacturing, a competitive industry nowadays. The key determinants of the profitability of a firm are depending on whether they can turn a good design into productivity with adequate high efficiency. Only when being with high productivity that the firm can get the dominant role in industry and be profitable. Any delay on this procedure can be consequential.

In sum, taking good consideration before the action can help people be more aware of the possible difficulties and problems that they can probably meet, and such thinking also offers people an intense understanding on the steps that would involved in their actions. What’s more, such consideration can prevent people from making some errors taking quick action but missed the awful consequence it can induce. But admittedly, under some occasions, quick actions are required; a delay on action can lose the opportunity sometimes.

SNAI Lectures II: China Related Problems

继昨天的Joint Workshop之后，今天TJ Wong开始了会计学方面的讲授。同样的，他上午也讲授了大量的研究心得。不过相比Joseph，TJ的见解另有一番风味。我一直奇怪，为什么上财的实证研究会开始的如此之早。今天才知道，TJ在1996年就访问了上财，并开始指导上财的博士进行早期的实证研究。当时的上财也存在着广泛的讨论，是narrative还是positive。但是现在，人家已经不再讨论这个问题。positive的methodology已经成为了一种default，更多的，他们开始关注如何提升研究水平。不知道可不可以这么说呢？我在短短两年内，经历了中国会计研究的变迁，尽管我完全做不了很好的研究，更多的，我需要学习，跟我导师，跟我同门，跟我认识的北大清华上财的同行们。

TJ也很重视中国的Top-Down的研究思路。但是他显然更偏向于会计。它主要提到了两种90年代的中国式研究，即复制美国（Replicate US）或者停留在现象层面（Documenting a Phenomenon）。而更多的，他们倾向于考虑Institutional方面的问题。因为中国的Emerging Market环境会导致很多与US所不一致的Constraints，比如Familiy Firm的问题，高管的Political Cost和Political Connections等等。

同时，TJ认为，由于上述的Institutional Difference，我们的研究就需要有别于美国。更多的，我们需要通过理论来解释中国现象，但是这种理论并不是大多数中国学者认为的代理理论等。更多的，我们需要考虑的是Coase（1937），Coase（1960），Alichan（1967）等早期理论，而这些理论曾构成了Jensen and Meckling(1976)的基础。现在，同样我们需要这些理论来考虑中国问题。在基本理解了制度问题以后，则可以开始研究资本市场（Captial Market)问题。如Valuation，Behavior等等。这条路跟美国发展的轨迹是一样的。没有足够的理论作为基础，那文章就只能是Document a Phenomenon了。

至于学习，TJ则要求大家多读经典文献，而不是一味追求新文献。因为新的文献往往不会去阐述理论，作者往往会认为大家已经熟知所涉及的理论，而这个假设却有悖于中国的PhD学生和青年学者。只有在了解了足够的文章背景以后，读Paper才能具有意义，否则会是一个效率很低的工作。当然，这个问题的话，仁者见仁，智者见智了。

呵呵，先写这些，学到了新东西再写。下午就开始组织理论的学习了。

SNAI Lecture I: Words Toward Researchers

几乎从来没有想过做学问的态度。原因有二。首先我只是一个硕士生，根本够不上做研究的级别，只是承蒙我老板的厚爱，做了点杂事；其次，我所理解的做学问跟我们学习的态度是一样的，那就是兢兢业业，努力学习，努力读文献（注意：此处不包括若干同志的努力“学习”他人文章，以“努力”作出自己“成果”）。这两天有幸听香港中文大学的范博宏（Joseph P.H. Fan)的授课，才第一次真正开始了解了如何来做研究。他的观点核心其实就是两个字：那就是态度。想到前中国国足教练米卢的“态度决定一切”，似乎也就不难理解了。或许，正如古人云，英雄所见略同。

他首先提出，做研究，做高品质的研究，就要基于“降低模仿概率”原则，但是这又不等同于不可重复性，即在保证所用数据，程序的真实性情况下，要作出自己的特但，要研究真问题，从现实角度出发，而不是人云亦云。他举了一个例子，就是国内大量存在的代理问题的文献。他说，事实上，委托代理模型的基础假定是市场充分发达，法规制度，监管策略相对完善，而这在当前新兴市场上是不切实际的。所以，他的建议是，应该从制度的高度去考虑这些问题，如大股东对小股东的利益侵占，大股东对公司的掏空行为，其背后是不是有制度层面的原因，而不仅仅是表面所谓的代理问题。或许，这就是为什么他的文章可以发Journal of Finance，我们的文章却只能发研究生学报吧。

更进一步的，他提到了青年学者所具有的“四不一没有”标准。即，数据库没有数据的文章不做，现有文献没有的不做，财务会计外的题目不做，跟老板研究方向不一致的不做。所谓一没有，则是指没有严谨的理论基础。当然，他的要求或许太高，或许也有点狂妄，但一细想，却也颇有道理。就我自己的经历而言，利用相对规范的实证方法来描述一个基础的现象尚不太难，但是要用理论去解释，那我就只有两眼一抹黑了。尽管我最近在老板指导下，通过我自己的在外present论文，也多少了解了理论的重要，却一直不知道如何来做。Joseph的例子给了我们一个很好的范例：他从产权理论Coase（1960）的结论出发，讨论了巴西偷车贼和旧车交易的问题，从而引出了产权保护不力导致外化现象的问题，进而联想到了中国国有企业的股权结构问题。他认为：政府官员的进入会侵犯其他股东的利益，而这也是一种外化现象，进而可以使用Coase定理解释。

他关于研究的论述，的确初步解决了我一直以来的困惑，或许，对于那些怀疑实证研究的同学也具有参考价值。因为我们看到的基于中国市场的研究质量太差了，都并没有涉及根本问题，或许这就是某些学者的怀疑理由吧。

不过，貌似现在已经不是讨论实证和规范的时代了，更多的，我们需要考虑我们做什么了。

Some Doubts on PhD: Is it a must?

呵呵，刚看了一位同仁的空间，提到了我们学院最近发布的MPAcc的通知。事实上，我开始也没有过于关注，因为我也觉得MPAcc就是一个烧钱的主，我实在不知道跟我们会有什么相关性。也就无视掉了。但是现在，我突然发现，问题非常严重。因为，这个决策，反映了国家的信心，同时也反映了学校的态度，更严重的是，我们不得不调整下我们的期望了。昨晚我还在写一个关于投资者期望模型修正的东东，没想到，我自己先用上了。

近几年的改革大家都有目共睹，大学生的就业问题也日益突出。作为我而言，从底层的一个三流学校的专科走进一个国家重点学科的天堂。我所见的，更多的是找工作的痛苦。我专科的同学，有很多人在我拿到研究生录取通知书的时候都没有一个安稳的工作；我本科的同学相对好，都留在了地级市，南京，苏州或者上海。研究生的同学估计相对还好，毕竟是个不错的学校。但是呢，我认识的苏大研究生，比如教育学院的学生，却在几年前就有了问题。我的家人因此跟我说研究生不值得一读，我总以为她不懂统计学，犯了一个样本的抽样偏误（Selection Bias），不管它。但是，今年的经济危机却凸显了学生的就业问题。事实上，我并不认为中国的经济受到了很大的威胁。毕竟我们有很多自主企业。而金融危机主要导致的是外国公司裁员和中国的进出口。当然，这和中国，尤其是中国南方一直做来料加工，却没有做好产业调整有关。我一直以为，我们的决策层可以理解，可以做出产业调整来应对。但是，显然，我错了，国家做出了一个逆向选择。我不知道这是不是所谓的国家的委托代理问题。但是，研究生扩招，后果极严重。

本科的扩招，我们有目共睹，直接导致了教学资源的匮乏，工作压力加大。如果说当时的扩招是因为中国的经济发展而需要更多的人才的话，那么，今天的研究生扩招就完全没有这方面的制度因素。更多的，只是一个Arbitary Decision。因为中国的研究生教育本来就是一个学术研究的入门教育。类似于美国PhD项目的初始阶段。我实在不知道，尤其作为我们会计，一个基于经济学和管理学的实践性科目，需要那么多学术研究的人才干嘛，而事实上，大部分毕业的硕士根本做不了研究，无非只是为了一纸文凭而已，然后以此去换孔方兄。现在的研究生教育，大家都有目共睹，给我们代课的大水货也让我们大开了眼界。而可以预见的是，大规模扩招，必定重复本科扩招的后果，资源紧缺，质量下滑，然后这种大水货越来越多。这是一个恶性循环，而且还是一个单调递减函数。其实我很庆幸我有一个认真负责，而且很有学术修为的导师，我也学到了很多。但是如此扩招，我担心，这样的好事恐怕不会再有了吧？

要不要读博，其实我周围很多人都在考虑。我其实早就被大伙儿定位成了去读博士的人选了。但是扩招的加剧，使我们不得不去考虑下读博的Cost-and-efficiency。如果说我们硕士是入门级，只需读几篇文章而不需做研究，那么博士再以此推脱恐怕就会贻笑大方了。但是硕士的扩招，如前面所言，必然会导致硕士水准进一步下滑，而这显然就降低了博士的入门标准。北大的校长就说过，为什么北大的博士要四年？因为，三年改两年的效果直接导致了硕士毕业生无法符合他们的要求。而在此基础上下滑，即使增加教育年限，恐怕也难以弥补水平的缺失吧？另外，我们为此付出的青春，是否能够用我们所得来弥补呢？这是一个待解的方程。

恐怕，要不了几年，考博就会跟今天的考研一样了吧？我真怀疑，若干年以后，我们侥幸博士毕业，我们还有脸面在我们的英文签名上写Ph.D么？我们是否对得起我们名字前所加的Dr.呢？

一点拙见，仅供参考，文责不负。

Delay on GRE Writing: Depression

It has been quite a long time since the last passage with the language of English. I don’t have a strong desire to make an English writing blog, I don’t have the feeling of this language, but unfortunately, I don’t have the capability of wrtting this passage in Chinese as well. I envy the good writers, either in Chinese or English, that describes the sights naturally with beautiful words and marvelous feeling like a poem.

The postponing of the writing section do harm greatly on my mood. Not only the moeny that I spent for, but also the failure that I get from my heart as a deny to my decision perviously. I don’t know if it is called self-induced pressure, but an approaching of an exam without any good feeling is absolutely not a good signal, which exists not only in exams, but in any realms of lives. As a modern student who is surviving in an emerging economy, it is getting too many choices to make, too many alternatives to consider, and too many failures that may occur. Frankly speaking, I don’t have the intention to take such an exam, a high-level challenge among the English exams, but my consideration of my future is making his full efforts to persuade me to do so. Hereby, three kinds of pressure, parental, peer, self-induced are all intertwined.

But we do have to re-consider the nature and purpose that we study English. As a most developed unit globally, the American pie is pouringly influencing the rest of the word, from economics, military to socialism, even to our daily lives. A primary purpose of English thus comes out that English is to be a key to the door that one can step forward outside the motherland that feed him, and TOEFL and GRE as well as IELTS and GMAT are becoming a popular topic on campus permanently. For my own history of learning which can be dated back to 15 years ago when I was still a lad of 11 and started to know what ABC was like, I never reached the beauty of this language, refered to as English literature such as poems and arts, and the related civilizaton and culture, such as a basic introduciton on the christian conventions. While instead, I have participated in tens, may be over hundreds of English exams and contests, size and levels varying.

An exams-oriented education obviously fails to bring us good usage of the knowledge that we were infused, not only of English, but for many other subjects. A trip to Hawaii in December contributes me great feeling on this. Even though the paper can be fully presented at a symposium, and a discussion can be conducted, big troubles occurs on dining. If the surviving is treated as a criteria here, I dare say, the English education don’t provide me great support on my survival in US. While, I am surely these words may be argued as unsubstantial and unpersuasive by referring to the fundamentals.

Even there are some sort of complaints, I am not Mark Twain who had the courage to quite the election that I fully respect for, stepping forward under the intertwining of all the pressures can be the only solution for me. I don’t know how the future will be, will it be a sunny day? Or will it be of great fog? No one can tell me, and no one can answer it convictively, I suppose.

I appreciate very much a piece of words from Ode to the West Wind, written by Shirley,

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?