A、Housework is no easy job. B、The kitchen is hard to clean. C、A housewife needs to be paid for cleaning. D、Her husband has no ti

As nanny, cook, cleaner, shopper, driver, and gardener, she has one of the most demandingjobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores which take the average housewife71 hours a week would cost ￡349.At over￡18,000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population,including train drivers, firemen, prison officers, and social workers. Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into an even higher pay league. According to a study, she earns￡457 a week — at nearly ￡24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists.
Researchers put a price on each chore, then tried to find out how long the average persontakes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week onhousework — with looking after the children (17.9 hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.3hours each) the most time-consuming.
A wife with a part-time job still works an average of 59 hours a week at home. Thosein full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace. The good news isthat these hours drop sharply as children get older. While the average mother with childrenunder one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66hours from five to ten.
Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said, “Paying the housewives may notbe practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps throughthe tax. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t understand this.For example, my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans thekitchen — that’s the real test.”
Questions 26 to 29 are based on the passage you have just heard.
26. Who earns most according to the passage?
27. What do we learn about looking after children from the passage?
28. According to the passage, how many hours a week may a housewife work with a baby less than one year old?
29.What does Karen Williams want to show by mentioning her husband?