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  3. In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from

In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from

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问题     In an essay, entitled "Making It in America," in the latest issue of The Atlantic, the author Adam Davidson relates a joke from cotton country about just how much a modern textile mill has been automated: The average mill has only two employees today, "a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to keep the man away from the machines. "
    Davidson’s article is one of a number of pieces that have recently appeared making the point that the reason we have such stubbornly high unemployment and sagging middle-class incomes today is largely because of the big drop in demand because of the Great Recession, but it is also because of the quantum advances in both globalization and the information technology revolution, which are more rapidly than ever replacing labor with machines or foreign workers.
    Yes, new technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars. But there’s been an acceleration. As Davidson notes, "In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs—about 6 million in total—disappeared. "
    Besides, what the new technology won’t do in an above average way a Chinese worker will. Consider this paragraph from an article in The Times about why Apple does so much of its manufacturing in China: "Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly-line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the Chinese plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8.000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. ’ The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,’ the executive said. ’ There’s no American plant that can match that.’"
    There will always be change—new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I. T. revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average. Here are the latest unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Americans over 25 years old: those with less than a high school degree, 13.8 percent; those with a high school degree and no college, 8.7 percent; those with some college or associate degree, 7.7 percent; and those with bachelor’s degree or higher, 4.1 percent.
    In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.
It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that______.
选项 A、some well-recognized economic trend may lead to unexpected results
B、the globalization progress will deteriorate the unemployment rate in all countries
C、the drop in demand prompts enterprises to look overseas for cheap foreign labor
D、some technological advancement will bring about disastrous consequences
答案A
解析 第二段作者点明文章主旨大意。居高不下的失业率除了受到内需的影响之外，和信息技术带来的生产率的突飞猛进和全球化带来的海外廉价劳动力也有着千丝万缕的关系。[A]选项为正确答案，技术进步和全球化进程都是被广泛认可的经济趋势，但是却给美国带来了就业率降低的后果，这是人们未曾料想到的。[B]选项错误，全球化进程使得美国的高技能高薪水的劳动力被放置到了全球的环境中与发展中国家同样技能而低薪水的劳动力竞争，因此美国的失业率恶化，而发展中国家的就业率却会提升。[C] 选项错误，第二段提到了drop in demand，但是内需的降低是就业率降低的原因，不是企业去海外寻找廉价劳动力的原因，企业去海外寻找廉价劳动力是全球化推动的结果。[D]选项夸大其词，技术进步确实有一定的负面影响，例如加深了失业率，但是说毁灭性的后果难免夸大其词。
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