首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The citizens of France are once again taking a pasting on the op-ed pages. Their failing this time is not that they are cheese-e
The citizens of France are once again taking a pasting on the op-ed pages. Their failing this time is not that they are cheese-e
admin
2010-05-14
32
问题
The citizens of France are once again taking a pasting on the op-ed pages. Their failing this time is not that they are cheese-eating surrender monkeys, as they were thought to be during the invasion of Iraq, but rather that they voted to reject the new European Union constitution. According to the pundits, this was the timid, shortsighted choice of u backward-looking people afraid to face the globalized future. But another way of looking at it is that the French were simply trying to hold on to their perks—their cradle-to-grave welfare state and, above all, their cherished 35-hour workweek.
What’s so bad about that? There was a time when the 35-hour workweek was the envy of the world, and especially of Americans, who used to travel to France just so they could watch the French relax. Some people even moved to France, bought farmhouses, adjusted their own internal clocks and wrote admiring, best-selling books about the leisurely and sensual French lifestyle.
But no more. The future, we are told, belongs to the modem-day Stakhanovites, who, like the famous Stalinist-era coal miner, are eager to exceed their quotas: to the people in India, say, who according to Thomas L. Friedman are eager to work a 35-hour day, not a 35-hour week. Even the Japanese, once thought to be workaholics, are mere sluggards compared with people in Hong Kong, where 70 percent of the work force now puts in more than 50 hours a week. In Japan the percentage is just 63 percent, though the Japanese have started what may become the next big global trend by putting the elderly to work. According to figures recently published in The Wall Street Journal, 71 percent of Japanese men between the ages of 60 and 64 still work, compared with 57 percent of American men the same age. In France, needless to say, the number is much lower. By the time they reach 60, only 17 percent of Frenchmen, fewer than one in five, are still punching the clock. The rest are presumably sitting in the cafe, fretting over the Turks, Bulgarians and Romanians, who, if they were admitted to the European Union, would come flooding over the French border and work day and night for next to nothing.
How could the futurologists be so wrong? George Jetson, we should recall—the person many of us cartoon-watchers assumed we would someday become—worked a three-hour day, standard in the interplanetary era. Back in 1970, Alvin Toffler predicted that by 2000 we would have so much free time that we wouldn’t know how to spend it.
Who does the word "Stakhanovites" refers to according to the passage?
选项
A、Those that are of Russian origin.
B、Those Russian workers.
C、Those exceedingly hardworking ones.
D、Those socialists.
答案
C
解析
推断题。这里要根据上下文推断出“Stakhanovites”一词的意思。后面的文字很明白地告诉读者,这是一个俄国人名,而且是“eager to exceed their quotas”的工作狂,因此这个单词在本文中的意思是热衷于加班工作的人。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LElO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thesedayssearchingforanumber【C1】______telephonedirectoryseemsveryold-fashioned.Voicerecognitionsystemsarebecoming
GeorgeBushwaswidelyquotedoninternational【B1】______buthadratherlesstosayaboutthePlanof【B2】______totacklethe"s
A、AmericanEnglish.B、BritishEnglish.C、ChineseEnglish.D、AustralianEnglish.D
LasVegaswasfounded【B1】______yearsagoandwasofficially【B2】______in1905.Sincethen,LasVegashastransformeditselfint
TheArchbishopofCanterbury’sstoryseemedratherextraordinary.Herewasadeeplymoral,responsible,successfulfamilymanwh
WhichofthefollowingstatementsisINCORRECT?Thereseemstobea(n)______relationshipbetweengreateventandmigration.
Insixteenth-centuryItalyandeighteenth-centuryFrance,waningprosperityandincreasingsocialunrestledtherulingfamilies
WhatisthecauseoftheproblemthatpeoplelivingonpartsofthesouthcoastofEnglandface?Itisnotfeasibletobuildse
A、HeadacheB、StomachepainsC、BoweldisturbanceD、Vomiting’D根据新闻材料,该次食物中毒的症状有三:胃痛、呕吐及腹泻。其中腹泻diarrhoea一词与boweldisturbance意思相近,
A、isanAmericanB、kidnappedtwoU.S.citizensC、wasborninAfghanistanD、receivedterroristtrainingfromtheAfghangovernmen
随机试题
A.EF-TB.EF-GC.两者均是D.两者均非肽链延长过程中转肽酶存在的是
关于氮芥类药物的描述,正确的是
Ⅱ类洞制备时鸠尾峡应位于
在语言活动中,某小朋友认真地完整地听完老师讲的故事,这说明该小朋友具有()。
政府监管分为经济性监管和社会性监管。经济性监管是指通过制定特定产业的进入、定价、融资以及信息发布等政策对主体行为进行有效的调整,以达到避免竞争主体过多或过少而引起过度竞争或竞争不足,造成资源浪费或者配置低效率,妨碍社会生产效率和服务供给的公正、稳定。社会性
在校篮球队中,赵宜和钱尔的身高不如孙珊;全队最高的是李思;赵宜比王海高。除了以下哪项外,其余各项都能从上述信息推出?
Therearefivebasic【C1】______ofanewspaper:toinform,tocomment,topersuade,toinstructandtoentertain.Youmaywellthi
Whenwilltheconcertbeheld?Itwillbeheld______.
【S1】【S7】
UsingtheMindtoFightDiseasesA)Psychologyhasanewapplicationinthefieldofmedicine.Manydoctors,togetherwiththeir
最新回复
(
0
)