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Students in China face a fiercely competitive job market but they are not adjusting their expectations.

A new survey has found that with a record seven-and-a-half million students graduating from universities and colleges in July, the job market is expected to be fierce. However, the majority of prospective graduates have not slashed their job expectations.

The survey has been conducted by Renren.com, a Facebook-like social networking website in China. It found that 40 percent of prospective graduates have a salary expectation of between 8,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan per month. That’s roughly 1,300 to 1,700 U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, 30 percent of the graduates want 6,000 to 8,000 yuan per month. Only 12 percent expected a monthly salary of 2,000 to 4,000 yuan.

Li Xiaoxiao, a graduate-to-be majoring in law at Fudan University in Shanghai, is still looking for a satisfactory job in the city. She said the minimum salary for her first job should be 6,000 yuan. That’s the bottom line, considering the cost of eating, renting an apartment, transport cost and social activities in Shanghai.

fierce adj. 凶猛的，猛烈的，激烈的 其实fierce和competitive的意思差不多，用这两个词中的一个来形容job market就可以了（本文第二段里也有the job market is expected to be fierce这句）。把两个合在一起，说fiercely competitive job market，无非是起强调作用，突出今年的就业竞争无比激烈。

slash vt. 大幅削减，猛砍
例句：
With the company going through a rough period, everyone can see that subsidies have to be slashed. （公司正在经历困难期，大家都心知肚明，必须大幅度削减补贴。）

prospective graduate / graduate-to-be n. 即将毕业的学生 这两种造词手法都很常见，可以用来描述各种即将拥有某种身份的人。比如：prospective parent / parent-to-be （即将当父母的人），prospective CEO / CEO-to-be （即将担任首席执行官的人），prospective candidate / candidate-to-be （即将获得提名的候选人）等等。

major vi. 主修…专业 n. 主修…专业的学生 作动词使用时跟in形成固定搭配，位置在具体专业之前；作名词时则是跟在具体专业之后。
例句：
Given her flawless command of the English language, most people assume she majored in English. In fact, she was a history major. （由于她的英语天衣无缝，大部分人都认定她主修的是英语专业。事实上，她是历史专业的学生。）

bottom line n. 底线，最低条件 该短语起源于商业领域，指的是达成交易的底线，或是公司在一段时期内的盈亏总额。但在日常生活中更常见的是其引申义，即泛指的底线、不可退让的最低要求。
例句：
Girl, I know you are deeply in love with him, and people always say love is blind. But, bottom line, you have to have self-respect. You can’t continue to let him treat you like a doormat. That’s just not a healthy relationship. （亲，我知道你深爱着他，而人们总说爱是盲目的。但底线是，你得有自尊，不能再让他把你当门垫踩在脚下了。这种关系真的不健康。）
Sure, you may have all kinds of excuses, and some of them are actually legit, but I don’t care. You are a professional journalist, so the bottom line is, you cannot have factual errors in your reporting. （你可能有各种各样的理由，其中一些甚至站得住脚，但我不理会这些。你是一名职业记者，所以最起码你的报道里不能出现事实性错误。）