German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck may be most famous for his military and diplomatic talent, but his legacy includes many of t

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问题     German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck may be most famous for his military and diplomatic talent, but his legacy includes many of today’s social insurance programs. During the middle of the 19th century, Germany, along with other European nations, experienced an unprecedented rash of workplace deaths and accidents as a result of growing industrialization. Motivated in part by Christian compassion for the helpless as well as a practical political impulse to undercut the support of the socialist labor movement, Chancellor Bismarck created the world’s first workers’ compensation law in 1884.
    By 1908, the United States was the only industrial nation in the world that lacked workers’ compensation insurance. America’s injured workers could sue for damages in a court of law, but they still faced a number of tough legal barriers. For example, employees had to prove that their injuries directly resulted from employer negligence and that they themselves were ignorant about potential hazards in the workplace. The first state workers’ compensation law in this country passed in 1911, and the program soon spread throughout the nation.
    After World War Ⅱ, benefit payments to American workers did not keep up with the cost of living. In fact, real benefit levels were lower in the 1970s than they were in the 1940s, and in most states the maximum benefit was below the poverty level for a family of four. In 1970, President Richard Nixon set up a national commission to study the problems of workers’ compensation. Two years later, the commission issued 19 key recommendations, including one that called for increasing compensation benefit levels to 100% of the states’ average weekly wages.
    In fact, the average compensation benefit in America has climbed from 55% of the states’ average weekly wages in 1972 to 97% today. But as most studies show, every 10% increase in compensation benefits results in a 5% increase in the numbers of workers who file for claims. And with so much more money floating in the workers’ compensation system, it’s not surprising that doctors and lawyers have helped themselves to a large slice of the growing pie.

选项 A、to make industrial production safer
B、to speed up the pace of industrialization
C、out of religious and political considerations
D、for fear of losing the support of the socialist labor movement

答案C

解析 由第一段最后一句可知,在削减对社会主义劳动运动的支持这种实际的政治驱动下,和对无助者的基督怜悯精神的驱使下,俾斯麦首相于1884年创立了世界上第一部工人赔偿法。
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