When education fails to keep pace with technology, the result is inequality. Without the skills to stay useful as innovations ar

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问题    When education fails to keep pace with technology, the result is inequality. Without the skills to stay useful as innovations arrive, workers suffer—and if enough of them fall behind, society starts to fail apart. That fundamental insight seized reformers in the Industrial Revolution, promoting state-funded universal schooling. Later, automation in factories and offices called forth a surge in college graduates. The combination of education and innovation, spread over decades, led to a remarkable flowering of prosperity.
   Today robotics and artificial intelligence call for another education revolution. This time, however, working lives are so lengthy and so fast-changing that simply cramming more schooling in at the start is not enough. People must also be able to acquire new skills throughout their careers.
   Unfortunately, as our special report in this issue sets out, the lifelong learning that exists today mainly benefits high achievers and is therefore more likely to aggravate inequality than diminish it. If 21st-century economies are not to create a massive underclass, policymakers urgently need to work out how to help all their citizens learn while they earn. So far, their ambition has fallen pitifully short.
   The classic model of education—a burst at the start and top-ups through company training—is breaking down. One reason is the need for new, and constantly updated, skills. Manufacturing increasingly calls for brain work rather than physical work. The share of the American workforce employed in routine office jobs declined from 25. 5% to 21% between 1996 and 2015. The single, stable career has gone the way of the Rolodex.
   Pushing people into ever-higher levels of formal education at the start of their lives is not the way to cope. Just 16% of Americans think that a four-year college degree prepares students very well for a good job. Although a vocational education promises that vital first hire, those with specialized training tend to withdraw from the labour force earlier than those with general education—perhaps because they are less adaptable.
   At the same time on-the-job training is shrinking. In America and Britain it has fallen by roughly half in the past two decades. Self-employment is spreading, leaving more people to take responsibility for their own skills. Taking time out later in life to pursue a formal qualification is an option, but it costs money and most colleges are geared towards youngsters.
According to Paragraph 3, today’s lifelong learning can______.

选项 A、increase the number of the underclass
B、benefit people with high career goals
C、eliminate inequality once and for all
D、be helpful to the majority of people

答案A

解析 细节题。根据题干定位到第三段首句。[A]increase the number of the underclass“使底层阶级数量增加”;首句说:如今终身学习使成功人士受益,并加剧不平等;接着说:如果21世纪的经济体不想产生一个庞大的底层阶级:由这两句话得出结论:今天的终身学习会加剧不平等并产生庞大的底层阶级,也就是“使底层阶级数量增加”,故选项[A]正确。[B]benefit people with high career goals“使树立远大事业目标的人士受益”与原文benefits high achievers“使成功人士受益”不符,“树立远大事业目标的人士”不等同于“成功人士”,故该项可以排除。[C]eliminate inequality once and for all“彻底消除不平等”;该项与原文aggravate inequality“加剧不平等”完全相反,故排除。[D]be helpful to the majority of people“对大多数人有帮助”:该项与原文mainly benefits high achievers“主要使成功人士受益”不符。综上,本题选[A]。
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