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  3. It was the English scientist-philosopher Francis Bacon who said, "Knowledge itself is power. "This is an important dictum, but i

It was the English scientist-philosopher Francis Bacon who said, "Knowledge itself is power. "This is an important dictum, but i

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问题    It was the English scientist-philosopher Francis Bacon who said, "Knowledge itself is power. "This is an important dictum, but it has never been so true as today, with the advent of the Information Age.
   At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a country’s comparative advantage depended largely on the natural resources it was endowed by Nature. People had to learn rudimentary skills when they joined manufacturing industries. They were called blue-collar workers, and they formed the majority, directed by a minority of managers.
   After World War II, the invention and increasing use of the microchip brought about great changes in the structure of man’s social production.  While the primary industry (agriculture) and the secondary industry (manufacturing) remain to be important, there have been rapid advances in the tertiary industry (services). And there is now talk of a fourth industry, the information industry.
   In the industrialized world, that is, in the US, Europe and Japan, about two thirds of jobs are now in the service sector, and the number is on the rise. Of course, there are roughly two different groups of job-holders in the service sector itself. The jobs in the first group, such as retail sales, food services, trucking and janitorial services, which are unskilled occupations, are low-wage, while in the second group are high-paid investment banker, computer programmers, high technicians, etc. , who are able to solve complicated problems by applying information. And the second group of service job-holders represent the future in economic development.
   It is argued that in future people should no longer be classified as white collar or blue collar, but rather as knowledge workers and non-knowledge workers.  The knowledge workers cannot only read and write and perform rote tasks, they must meet the basic requirement of computer literacy and constantly think up new ways to meet the changing demands of increasing productivity.
   More and more people are learning to be competent in using personal computers, digital communications and factory robots.  Breakthroughs in bio-engineering, artificial intelligence, new materials, and still unimagined fields of technology and management will greatly advance productivity. It is people with the most advanced knowledge who will take the lead. Systems analysts, computer scientists and programmers, management analysts and inventors and developers are in most demand in the industrialized countries.
   In manufacturing itself,  for example,  there is a move away from standardized production and toward more flexible, customized manufacturing. Hence the growth of a large number of small factories, which are owned by a few multi-skilled and ever-retrained worker-engineer-managers, and equipped with precision,  reset table machines working special materials like stainless steel and titanium. They are able to produce new-designed precision turned parts at the bidding of customers, often bigger factories, and their managers work with their hands and brains at the same time.
   The only way to greater knowledge is through education and training. Knowledge, as much as capital, material resources and sweat, has become an essential factor of production. The educational system of a society ought to enable its members to make a rapid transition to the above-described knowledge-based work. Otherwise, that society will inevitably lag behind.
   It has been the way of developed countries to automate out of existence low-productivity  factories and jobs; or transfer them to a country where costs are lower. In other words, the developed countries have been trying to keep higher wage jobs, while moving lower wage jobs to the developing countries.  However, in the great worldwide movement to the Information Age, if a developed country should fail to bring up-to date its system of education and training, it may not be able to continue growing richer.
   So now we come to understand Bacon’s dictum better. Knowledge itself is power. The challenge facing every country is to resuscitate its investment and training. If the intellectual capacity is not there, the investments won’t come. And the raw materials of the new economy-information and knowledge--will be of a nation’s own making.
According to the passage, in the Information Age, a nation will develop faster than the others if it has
选项 A、an abundance of natural resources
B、a highly-developed service industry
C、a better-adjusted educational system
D、many higher wage jobs
答案C
解析 第八段最后两句的意思是：一个社会的教育体系应该使其社会成员能迅速转移到从事上述知识型工作，否则这个社会注定会落后。反过来说，如果一个国家的教育体系更能适应其发展需要，它就会比其他国家发展得快。因此C正确。A不正确，因为在信息时代，原材料丰富已不是优势。B和C也不正确，因为发达的服务行业和大量的高收人工作是一个国家发达的结果而不是原因。
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