首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A Mess on the Ladder of Success A)Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrati
A Mess on the Ladder of Success A)Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrati
admin
2014-01-19
49
问题
A Mess on the Ladder of Success
A)Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrative that gave the ambitious or unsatisfied reason to pack up and seek their fortune elsewhere. For the first 300 or so years of European settlement, the story was about moving outward: getting immigrants to the continent and then to the frontier to clear the prairies(大草原). drain the wetlands and build new cities.
B)By the end of the 19th century, as the frontier vanished, the US had a mild panic attack. What would this energetic, enterprising country be without new lands to conquer? Some people, such as Teddy Roosevelt, decided to keep on conquering(Cuba, the Philippines, etc.), but eventually, in industrialization, the US found a new narrative of economic mobility at home. From the 1890s to the 1960s, people moved from farm to city, first in the North and then in the South. In fact, by the 1950s, there was enough prosperity and white-collar work that many began to move to the suburbs. As the population aged, there was also a shift from the cold Rust Belt to the comforts of the Sun Belt. We think of this as an old person’s migration, but it created many jobs for the young in construction and health care, not to mention tourism, retail and restaurants.
C)For the last 20 years- from the end of the cold war through two burst bubbles in a single decade- -the US has been casting about for its next economic narrative. And now it is experiencing another period of panic, which is bad news for much of the workforce but particularly for its youngest members.
D)The US has always been a remarkably mobile country, but new data from the Census Bureau indicate that mobility has reached its lowest level in recorded history. Sure, some people are stuck in homes valued at less than their mortgages(抵押贷款), but many young people who don’t own homes and don’t yet have families—are staying put, too. This suggests, among other things, that people aren’t packing up for new economic opportunities the way they used to. Rather than dividing the country into the 1 percenters versus(与......相对)everyone else, the split in our economy is really between two other classes: the mobile and immobile.
E)Part of the problem is that the country’s largest industries are in decline. In the past, it was perfectly clear where young people should go for work(Chicago in the 1870s, Detroit in the 1910s. Houston in the 1970s)and, more or less, what they’d be doing when they got there(killing cattle, building cars, selling oil). And these industries were large enough to offer jobs to each class of worker, from unskilled laborer to manager or engineer. Today, the few bright spots in our economy are relatively small(though some promise future growth)and decentralized. There are great jobs in Silicon Valley, in the biotech research capitals of Boston and Raleigh-Durham and in advanced manufacturing plants along the southern z-85 corridor. These companies recruit all over the country and the globe for workers with specific abilities.(You don’t need to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, to get a job in one of the microhubs(微中心), by the way. But you will almost certainly need at least a B. A. in computer science or a year or two at a technical school.)This newer, select job market is national, and it offers members of the mobile class competitive salaries and higher bargaining power.
F)Many members of the immobile class, on the other hand, live in the America of the gloomy headlines. If you have no specialized skills, there’s little reason to uproot to another state and be the last in line for a low-paying job at a new auto plant or a green-energy startup. The surprise in the census(普查)data, however, is that the immobile workforce is not limited to unskilled workers. In fact, many have a college degree.
G)Until now, a B. A. in any subject was a near-guarantee of at least middle-class wages. But today, a quarter of college graduates make less than the typical worker without a bachelor’s degree. David Autor, a prominent labor economist at M. I. T., recently told me that a college degree alone is no longer a guarantor of a good job. While graduates from top universities are still likely to get a good job no matter what their major is, he said, graduates from less-famous schools are going to be judged on what they know. To compete for jobs on a national level, they should be armed with the skills that emerging industries need, whether technical or not.
H)Those without such specialized skills like poetry, or even history, majors are already competing with their neighbors for the same sorts of second-rate, poorer-paying local jobs like low-level management or big-box retail sales. And with the low-skilled labor market atomized into thousands of microeconomics, immobile workers are less able to demand better wages or conditions or to acquire valuable skills.
I)So what, exactly, should the ambitious young worker of today be learning? Unfortunately, it’s hard to say, since the US doesn’t have one clear national project. There are plenty of emerging, smaller industries, but which ones are the most promising?(Nanotechnology’s(纳米技术)moment of remarkable growth seems to have been 5 years into the future for something like 20 years now.)It’s not clear exactly what skills are most needed or if they will even be valuable in a decade. J)What is clear is that all sorts of government issues—education, health-insurance portability, worker retraining—are no longer just bonuses to already prosperous lives but existential requirements. It’s in all of our interests to make sure that as many people as possible are able to move toward opportunity, and America’s ability to invest people and money in exciting new ideas is still greater than that of most other wealthy countries.(As recently as five years ago, US migration was twice the rate of European Union states.)That, at least, is some comfort at a time when our national economy seems to be searching for its next story line.
New figures released by the government show that Americans today are less mobile than ever before.
选项
答案
D
解析
细节推断题。定位句提到,美国是一个人口流动较为显著的国家。但是美国人口普查局的最新数据表明,当前的人口流动性已经跌到了历史最低水平。题干中的less mobile than ever before对应原文中的its lowest level in recorded history,故答案为D)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/xlS7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
1.有些人认为老人应该和子女生活在一起,有些人不同意这一看法;2.你认为哪种做法合适,说出你的理由。OlderPeopleLivingwithAdultChildren
Researchershaveestablishedthatwhenpeoplearementallyengaged,biochemicalchangesoccurinthebrainthatallowittoact
Throughouthistorythebasicunitofalmosteveryhumansocietyhasbeenthefamily.Membersofafamilylivetogetherunderthe
Althoughtheterm"globalwarming"hasbecomeincreasinglyfamiliartothegeneralpublic,arecentsurveycarriedoutbytheCh
Thereisnodenyingthatstudentsshouldlearnsomethingabouthowcomputerswork,justasweexpectthematleasttounderstan
A、Heshouldbecarefulwhenusinghiscreditcards.B、Heoughttosellhiscartosavemoney.C、Heshouldstopspendingmoneyon
A、Themanshouldseeadoctor.B、Shewillhelpthemanchangehisdiet.C、Sheunderstandswhythemanseemsunhappy.D、Thedocto
A、Americansaretooattachedtotheircars.B、Americancarsaretoofast.C、Automobilesthreatenhumanhealth.D、Automobilesare
随机试题
关于民事责任的承担,下列说法错误的是:
惠普之道美国惠普公司创建于1939年,主要专注于生产打印机、数码影像、软件、计算机与资讯服务等业务。2007年年营业额为1043亿美元,员工数32万人。惠普公司不但以卓越的业绩跨入全球百家大公司行列,更以其对人的尊重与信任的企业精神而闻名于世。
Thisstudentmanagedtopassthedifficultexam,______surprisedallofus.
股份有限公司的股份有()特点。
在困难面前,导游人员不能表现出悲观的态度,以免影响旅游者情绪,不利于自身克服困难。()
平均活性指数就是一个装卸搬运系列中各阶段停滞部分(即活性指数0~3)的指数平均值。根据这一指数就可对该装卸搬运系列的改善步骤有一个基本估计。()
我国著名的饮料企业王老吉原先的广告词是“健康家庭永远相伴”,缺乏个性的广告语没有让销售有多大起色。后来,王老吉提出了“怕上火,喝王老吉”的新广告语,专业定位于“消火”,于是销量猛增。由此可见()。
下列关于中药材的说法,正确的一项是( )。
我国过去30多年的快速发展靠的是改革开放,我国未来发展也必须坚定不移依靠改革开放。只有改革开放才能发展中国、发展社会主义、发展马克思主义。以下对改革开放认识正确的是
Rabiesisanordinarilyinfectiousdiseaseofthecentralnervoussystem,causedbyavirusand,asarule,spreadchieflybydo
最新回复
(
0
)