An industrial society, especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain, is heavily dependent on certain essent

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问题     An industrial society, especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain, is heavily dependent on certain essential services: for instance, electricity supply, water, rail and road transport, and harbors. The area of dependency has widened to include removing rubbish, hospital and ambulance services, and, as the economy develops, central computer and information services as well. If any of these services ceases to operate, the whole economic system is in danger.
    It is this economic interdependence of the economic system that makes the power of trade unions such an important issue. Single trade unions have the ability to cut off many countries’ economic blood supply. This can happen more easily in Britain than in some other countries, in part because the labor force is highly organized. About 55 percent of British workers belong to unions, compared to under a quarter in the United States. For historical reasons, Britain’s unions have tended to develop along trade and occupational lines, rather than on an industry-by-industry basis, which makes a wages policy, democracy in industry and the improvement of procedure for fixing wage levels difficult to achieve.
    There are considerable strains and tensions in the trade union movement, some of them arising from their outdated and inefficient structure. Some unions have lost many members because of their industrial changes. Others are involved in arguments about who should represent workers in new trades. Unions for skilled trades are separate from general unions, which means that different levels of wages for certain jobs are often a source of bad feeling between unions. In traditional trades which are being pushed out of existence by advancing technologies, unions can fight for their members’ disappointing jobs to the point where the jobs of other union members are threatened or destroyed. The printing of newspapers both in the United States and in Britain has frequently been halted by the efforts of printer to hold on to their traditional highly-paid jobs.
    Trade unions have problems of internal communication just as managers in companies do, problems which multiply in very large unions or in those which bring workers in very different industries together into a single general union. Some trade union officials have to be re-elected regularly; others are elected, or even appointed, for life. Trade union officials have to work with a system of " shop stewards" in many unions, " shop stewards" being workers elected by other workers as their representatives at factory or works level.
The author mentions Britain’s economic interdependency in the first paragraph in order to______.

选项 A、depict the UK’s state of danger
B、reveal the,UK’s dependency on certain essential services
C、explain the various areas of dependency in Britain
D、introduce the topic under discussion

答案D

解析 篇章结构题需关注句与句之间或段与段之间的衔接性表达。既然题目询问第一段提及“英国经济相互依赖”的目的,整个第一段又都在讲述这种“相互依赖”。根据行文结构的规律,其目的应体现在第二段,故考生可重点关注第二段首句(一、二段的衔接性表达):It is this economic interdependency of the economicsystem that makes the power of trade unions such an important issue(正是这种经济上的相互依赖才使得工会力量成为重要议题)。本句中的this economic interdependency指代上文第一段内容,而它的目的,根据makes可知,是要引出下文或本文的话题(issue):the power of trade unions(工会的力量),因此本题答案选D:“导出探讨的话题”。
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