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  3. In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from

In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from

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问题     In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of The Atlantic, 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 sagging 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 quantum advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign workers.
    Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars. But there’s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes, " In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs—about 6 million in total—disappeared. "
    Besides, what the new technology won’t do in an above average way a Chinese worker will. Consider this paragraph from an article in The Times about why Apple does so much of its manufacturing in China: "Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly-line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the Chinese plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8.000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. ’ The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,’ the executive said. ’ There’s no American plant that can match that.’"
    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. Here are the latest unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Americans over 25 years old: those with less than a high school degree, 13. 8 percent; those with a high school degree and no college, 8. 7 percent; those with some college or associate degree, 7. 7 percent; and those with bachelor’s degree or higher, 4.1 percent.
    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 Apple’s example in Paragraph 4 is used to______.
选项 A、describe the working condition of Apple’s manufacturing plant in China
B、disclose the secret behind Apple’s successful story
C、sing praises for Chinese workers’ team-work spirit and high productivity
D、explain why the cheap labor in developing countries is a threat for American labor market
答案D
解析 第三段讲的是技术进步对于就业率的冲击，第四段接着讲全球化进程对于美国就业率的冲击，作者举了苹果中国工厂的例子。苹果中国工厂在最后关头接到需要对iPhone屏幕设计进行修改的通知，然后在96个小时内，就完成了所有的修改任务。中国工厂的速度和灵活性令美国工厂望尘莫及，这也是为什么苹果公司会将生产任务放到中国完成的原因。作者举这个例子是为了让美国人意识到为什么美国的劳动力市场会受到来自中国等发展中国家的冲击。[A]选项错误，虽然有很多关于苹果中国工厂的负面报道，但这里它是作为正面案例被作者引用的。[B]选项错误，作者举苹果的例子并不是想要证明苹果有多么成功。[C]选项不够全面，作者赞扬中国工人的纪律性和高效的目的还是要与美国工厂作对比，让美国人意识到来自海外廉价劳动力的威胁，因此正确答案是[D]。
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