The new Labor Government ______ many industries, electricity, gas, water and health.
Historians of women’s labor in the United States at first
largely disregarded the story of female service workers
-women earning wages in occupations such as salesclerk.
domestic servant, and office secretary. These historians
(5) focused instead on factory work, primarily because it
seemed so different from traditional, unpaid “women’s
work” in the home, and because the underlying economic
forces of industrialism were presumed to be gender-blind
and hence emancipatory in effect. Unfortunately, emanci-
(10) pation has been less profound than expected, for not even
industrial wage labor has escaped continued sex segre-
gation in the workplace.
To explain this unfinished revolution in the status of
women, historians have recently begun to emphasize the
(15) way a prevailing definition of femininity often etermines
the kinds of work allocated to women, even when such
allocation is inappropriate to new conditions. For instance,
early textile-mill entrepreneurs, in justifying women’s
employment in wage labor, made much of the assumption
(20) that women were by nature skillful at detailed tasks and
patient in carrying out repetitive chores; the mill owners
thus imported into the new industrial order hoary stereo-
types associated with the homemaking activities they
presumed to have been the purview of women. Because
(25)women accepted the more unattractive new industrial tasks
more readily than did men, such jobs came to be regarded
as female jobs.And employers, who assumed that women’s
“real” aspirations were for marriage and family life.
declined to pay women wages commensurate with those of
(30) men. Thus many lower-skilled, lower-paid, less secure jobs
came to be perceived as “female.”
More remarkable than the origin has been the persistence
of such sex segregation in twentieth-century industry. Once
an occupation came to be perceived as “female.” employers
(35) showed surprisingly little interest in changing that percep-
-tion, even when higher profits beckoned. And despite the
urgent need of the United States during the Second World War
to mobilize its human resources fully, job segregation by sex
characterized even the most important
(40) war industries. Moreover, once the war ended, employers
quickly returned to men most of the “male” jobs that
women had been permitted to master.
According to the passage, job segregation by sex in the United States was______
A.greatly diminlated by labor mobilization during the Second World War
B.perpetuated by those textile-mill owners who argued in favor of women’s employment in wage labor
C.one means by which women achieved greater job security
D.reluctantly challenged by employers except when the economic advantages were obvious
E.a constant source of labor unrest in the young textile industry
Today all that has changed. On many modern farms machines now supply 96 percent of the power, human labor 3 percent, and horses 1 percent. Modern farms are enterprising businesses which keep only the livestock that can pay its way. The children go to school by bus every morning, the parents work on the farm or in the house, and hired help is seldom needed. Their work has been replaced by a whole army of farm machines.
Farmers in the machine age also use the new fertilizers, new sprays, new feeds, new hybrid seeds, and other helps developed by farm sciences. As a result the farmers are able to produce more food with less labour. This means fewer but larger farms and fewer but more prosperous farmers.
In old days, most of the work on a farm was done by______.
A.all the farm family
B.livestock
C.farm machines
D.both A and B
Besides active foreign enterprises and a (31) number of private employers, a consequential new development was the development of employment in state-owned enterprises (guanying or guanshang ). Started by some (32) Qing officials, the yangwupai, in the late nineteenth century, sizable state-owned enterprises developed primarily (33) enhancing China's national defense. Famous industrial giants of today's China such as the shipyards in Shanghai and heavy industries in cities like Wuhan, Nanjing, and Chongqing were built by the Qing or the Republic governments. Some of them later began to (34) considerable private investment. After World War II, this type of state- owned employment became very important. Labor in those enterprises consisted basically (35) two tiers: a largely market-oriented allocation of blue-collar and some white-collar workers, and a mostly state allocation of most of the white-collar workers including managerial and technical personnel. The latter was a distorted labor market that featured strong (36) considerations in allocating and managing labor. Personal and kinship connections, the so-called "petticoat influence," and political (37) were the norm for this type of labor allocation pattern. In a way, it was midway between a rather crude market oriented labor allocation pattern and the centuries-old, warm, family-based traditional labor allocation pattern. It covered a very small but important portion of the Chinese labor force, and thus (38) our attention. Later, it apparently provided the historical precedent (39) state-owned enterprises to allocate their administrative and technical cadres, even its entire industrial labor force, (40) state employees.A.growingB.growC.grownD.grew
Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and declining middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machine or foreign workers.
In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average is just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genins. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra – their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment.
Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. But there’s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes, “ In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs – about 6 millions in total – disappeared.”
There will always be change – new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I.T. revolution , the beat jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average.
In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.
The joke in Paragraph 1 is used to illustrate
A.the impact of technological advances
B.the alleviation of jobs pressure
C.the shrinkages of textile mills
D.the decline of middle-class incomes
Why do women earn less than men do? Are the differences explained by the fact that women are looked down upon? If so, the government has to intervene (干预), to force the employers to pay equal wages to equal jobs. However, there is no agreement among economists about the causes of the gap. One view argues that women on the average have chosen low-paid jobs in which workers enjoy the freedom of entering and leaving the labor force, which reduces their years of experience relative to men. Other people say the gap can also be explained by the difference in educational background.
Much of the gap, however, has not been fully explained. It might be the result of some prejudice (偏见) against women. It is this part that has produced calls for government action. What would happen if the government did intervene to increase the wages paid to women? One possibility is that in comes for women as a group might actually decline (下降). An increase in wage decreases the quantity of labor imput demanded, resulting in decreased employment as the rate of hiring new workers declines The result will be a surplus (过剩) of labor. Those who can find jobs might be better off while those who had jobs might find themselves out of work.
The difference in labor incomes is most obvious between ______.
A.young men and young women
B.young women in the same industry
C.middle-aged men and middle-aged women
D.middle-aged women in the same industry
()is a branch of linguistics that studies the rule that govern the formation of sentences.
A.Syntax
B.Phonetics
C.Semantics
D.Phonology
Industrial Revolution. (31) they were not enough. Something else was needed to start the industrial process. That "something special" was men-- (32) individuals
who could invent machines, find new sources of power, and establish business organizations to reshape society. The men who (33) the machines of the Industrial Revolution came from many backgrounds and many occupations. Many of them were (34) inventors than scientists. A
man who is a pure scientist is primarily interested in doing his research (35) . He is not necessarily working so that his findings can be used. An inventor or one
interested in applied science is (36) trying to make something that has a concrete idea. He may try to solve a problem by using the theories (37) science or by
experimenting through trial and error. Regardless of his method, he is working to obtain a specific result: the construction of a harvesting machine, the burning of a
light bulb, or one of (38) other objectives. Most of the people who developed the machines of the Industrial Revolution were inventors, not trained scientists. A few were both scientists and inventors. Even
those who had (39) or no training in science might not have made their inventions if a groundwork had not been laid by scientists years (40) .A.ButB.AndC.Besides D.Even
“Further contradicting conventional wisdom, we found that women as well as men have lower levels of stress at work than at home,” writes one of the researchers. Sarah Damaske, In fact women say they feel better at work. She notes. “it is men not women. Who report being bappicr at home than at work,” Another surprise is that the findings hold true for both those with childrcn and without, but more so for nonparents. This is why pcoplc who work outside the home have better health.
What the study doesn’t measure is whether people are still doing work when they’ re at home, whether it is household work or work brought home from the office. For many men, the end of the workday is a time to kick back. For women who stay home, they never get to leave the office. And for women who work outside the home, they often are playing catch-up-with-household tasks. With the blurring of roles, and the fact that the home front lags well behind the workplace in making adjustments for working women, it’ s not surprising that women are more stressed at home.
But it’s not just a gender thing. At work, people pretty much know what they’re supposed to be doing: working, making money, doing the tasks they have to do in order to draw an income. The bargain is very pure: Employee puts in hours of physical or mental labor and employee draws out life-sustaining moola.
On the home front, however, people have no such clarity. Rare is the household in which the division of labor is so clinically and methodically laid out. There are a lot of tasks to be done, there are inadequate rewards for most of them. Your home colleagues-your family-have no clear rewards for their labor; they need to be talked into it, or if they’ re teenagers, threatened with complete removal of all electronic devices. Plus, they’ re your family. You cannot fire your family. You never really get to go home from home.
So it’s not surprising that people are more stressed at home. Not only are the tasks apparently infinite, the co-workers are much harder to motivate.
According to Paragraph 1,most previous surveys found that home______ .
A.was an un realistic place for relaxation
B.generated more stress than the workplace
C.was an ideal place for stress measurement
D.offered greater relaxation than the workplace
According to Damaske, who are likely to be the happiest at home?A.Working mothers
B.Childless husbands
C.Childless wives
D.Working fathers
The home front differs from the workplace in that______ .A.home is hardly a cozier working environment
B.division of labor at home is seldom clear-cut
C.household tasks are generally more motivating
D.family labor is often adequately rewarded
The word“moola”(Line 4,Para 4)most probably means______ .A.energy
B.skills
C.earnings
D.nutrition
The blurring of working women’s roles refers to the fact that______ .A.they are both bread winners and housewives
B.their home is also a place for kicking back
C.there is often much housework left behind
D.it is difficult for them to leave their office
Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and declining middle-class incomes today is also because of the advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign worker.
In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job,could earn an average lifestyle. ,But ,today ,average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra-their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment.
Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. But there’s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes,” In the 10 years ending in 2009, [U.S.] factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs-about 6 million in total -disappeared.
There will always be changed-new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I.T. revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average.
In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to support employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I.Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to poet-high school education.
The joke in Paragraph 1 is used to illustrate_______ .
A.the impact of technological advances
B.the alleviation of job pressure
C.the shrinkage of textile mills
D.the decline of middle-class incomes
The quotation in Paragraph 4 explains that ______ .A.gains of technology have been erased
B.job opportunities are disappearing at a high speed
C.factories are making much less money than before
D.new jobs and services have been offered
According to the author, to reduce unemployment, the most important is_____ .A.to accelerate the I.T. revolution
B.to ensure more education for people
C.ro advance economic globalization
D.to pass more bills in the 21st century
Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the text?A.New Law Takes Effect
B.Technology Goes Cheap
C.Average Is Over
D.Recession Is Bad
According to Paragraph 3, to be a successful employee, one has to______ .A.work on cheap software
B.ask for a moderate salary
C.adopt an average lifestyle
D.contribute something unique
(10 marks)
B.F. Skinner______.
A.supports the nature theory.
B.thinks the environment plays an important role in determining character
C.believes instincts govern behavior
D.believes in the importance of genes in determining personality