Part A Directions: Read the following

天天题库2020-05-20  143

问题 Part ADirections:Read the following four texts. Answer the questions after each text by choosing A, B, C or D.Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET. (40 points)Text 1  In an essay entitled “Making It in America,” the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, “a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines. ”  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 machines 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 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 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 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 post-high school education.

选项 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

答案A

解析本题考查的是考生对文中具体细节信息的理解和推理能力。第一段段通过Davidson的玩笑说明现代工厂的自动化程度越高,它所雇用的劳动力人数也将越少。A项是“技术进步的影响”,技术越进步,工厂的自动化程度就越高,它雇用的劳动力数量自然就越少,因此为正确答案。B项“就业压力的缓解”与玩笑故事要表达的意思相反。C项“纺织厂的萎缩”和D项“中产阶级收入下降”未本段中被提及。
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