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  3. In Forces of Production, David Noble examines the transformation of the machine-tool industry as the industry moved from relianc

In Forces of Production, David Noble examines the transformation of the machine-tool industry as the industry moved from relianc

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问题     In Forces of Production, David Noble examines the transformation of the machine-tool industry as the industry moved from reliance on skilled artisans to automation. Noble writes from a Marxist perspective, and his central argument is that management, in its decisions to automate, conspired against labor: the power that the skilled machinists wielded in the industry was intolerable to management.  Noble fails to substantiate this claim, although his argument is impressive when he applies the Marxist concept of "de-skilling"－the use of technology to replace skilled labor--to the automation of the ma chine-tool industry. In automating, the industry moved to computer-based, digitalized "numerical-control" (N/C) technology, rather than to artisan-generated "record-playback" (R/P) technology.
    Although both systems reduced reliance on skilled labor, Noble clearly prefers R/P, with its inherent acknowledgement of workers’ skills: unlike N/C, its programs were produced not by engineers at their computers, but by skilled machinists, who recorded their own movements to "teach" machines to duplicate those movements. However, Noble’s only evidence of conspiracy is that, although the two approaches were roughly equal in technical merit, management chose N/C. From this he concludes that automation is undertaken not because efficiency demands it or scientific advances allow it, but because it is a tool in the ceaseless war of capitalists against labor.
The author of the passage is primarily concerned with ______.
选项 A、reexamining a political position and defending its validity
B、examining a management decision and defending its necessity
C、analyzing a scholarly study and pointing out a central weakness
D、explaining a trend in automation and warning about its dangers
答案C
解析 主旨题。A．“defending its validity”显然不符文章作者态度。B．同上。C．正确。分析一学术研究并指出其主要缺陷。符合作者对Nobel的整体负评价。D．“warning about its dangers”是 Nobel做的事，作者不同意。
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