Though experts were quick to declare that the election of Barack Obama represented the emergence of a "post-racial" America, the

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问题     Though experts were quick to declare that the election of Barack Obama represented the emergence of a "post-racial" America, the macro-economy has provided a corrective. During the American economy’s last deep recession, in the early 1980s, black unemployment soared to twice the level among whites, passing 21% in 1983. And according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, time has changed little. The current unemployment rate among black Americans is almost 16%; among whites the figure is under 10%.
    The widening gap between blacks and whites persists across demographic lines. The current "mances-sion" has hit male-dominated professions hardest. But white men face a relatively mild unemployment rate of just over 10% compared with over 18% among black men. For the worst-off, the data are catastrophic. Among young black men without a high-school diploma, nearly half have no jobs. These rates are based on a labor-force number which excludes those in prison; if there were not five times as many blacks behind bars as whites, the figures would look even worse.
    There is no shortage of explanations for the gap. States with weaker labor markets, like South Carolina and Michigan, also tend to have larger black populations than low-unemployment states like Iowa and Montana. Predominantly black neighborhoods are often a long way from where jobs are concentrated, in largely white suburbs, so those without cars cannot get to them.
    Blacks are also at a disadvantage when it comes to relying on friends and family connections to find jobs; there is not the same network of family businesses that whites and Latinos have. Some studies have found that this factor may explain as much as 70% of the difference in black and white unemployment rates, and may also explain the difference between black and Latino jobless rates. Among young men, for instance, the near-20% Hispanic unemployment rate is much closer to that for whites (17%) than blacks (30%).
    What is clear is that the unemployment problem in black communities will not end with the recession. The employment-to-population ratio among black adults is only just above 50%, and it is closer to a shocking 40% for young black men; for adult whites it is 59%. Black workers are also unemployed for about five weeks longer, on average, than the rest of the population. Some 45% of unemployed blacks have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer, compared with just 36% of unemployed whites. That means continued loss of skills, and a longer and harder road back into the workforce.
It can be learned from the last paragraph that the unemployed blacks ________.

选项 A、may feel relieved after the recession
B、are out of work for 27 weeks on average
C、often stay unemployed longer than the whites
D、lose their skills completely while waiting for jobs

答案C

解析 根据题干可直接定位到最后一段。由该段第三句可知,黑人平均失业周期比白人多5周,故C项为正确答案。最后一段第一句提到,黑人糟糕的就业情况不会因为经济萧条的结束而结束(not end、with the recession),由此可知就算经济衰退结束了,黑人仍不能如释重负,故排除A项;最后一段第四句指出45%的失业黑人曾连续27周没有工作,B项则是用所有的黑人代替45%的失业黑人,应该排除;D项的completely一词是对最后一句中loss of skills“技能不断流失”的绝对化,故D项也错误。
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