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
In 1930, W. K. Kellogg made what he thought was a sensible decision, grounded in the best economic, social and management theori
In 1930, W. K. Kellogg made what he thought was a sensible decision, grounded in the best economic, social and management theori
admin
2016-06-23
43
问题
In 1930, W. K. Kellogg made what he thought was a sensible decision, grounded in the best economic, social and management theories of the time. Workers at his cereal plant in Battle Greek, Mich, were told to go home two hours earlier every day for good.
The Depression-era move was hailed in Factory and Industrial Management magazine as the "biggest piece of industrial news since Henry Ford announced his five-dollar-a-day policy. " It’s believed that industry and machines would lead to workers’ paradises where all would have less work, more free time, and yet still produce enough to meet their needs.
So what happened? Today, instead of working less, our hours have stayed steady or risen — and today many more women work so that families can afford the trappings of suburbia. In effect, workers chose the path of consumption over leisure.
With unemployment at a nine-year high and many workers worried about losing their jobs — or forced to accept cutbacks in pay and benefits — work is hardly the paradise economists once envisioned.
The modern environment would seem alien to pre-industrial laborers. For centuries, the household — from farms to "cottage" craftsmen — was the unit of production. The whole family was part of the enterprise, be it farming, blacksmithing, or baking. "In pre-industrial society, work and family were practically the same thing," says Gillis.
The Industrial Revolution changed all that. Mills and massive iron smelters required ample labor and constant attendance. For the first time, work and family were split. Instead of selling what they produced, workers sold their time. With more people leaving farms to move to cities and factories, labor became a commodity and placed on the market like any other.
Innovation gave rise to an industrial process based on machinery and mass production.
The theories of Frederick Taylor, a Philadelphia factory foreman, led to work being broken down into component parts, with each step timed to coldly quantify jobs that skilled craftsmen had worked a lifetime to learn. Workers resented Taylor and his stopwatch, complaining that his focus on process stripped their jobs of creativity and pride, making them irritable. Long before anyone knew what "stress" was, Taylor brought it to the workplace — and without sympathy.
The division of work into components that could be measured and easily taught reached its apex in Ford’s River Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Mich. , where the assembly line
came of age
. To maximize the production lines, businesses needed long hours from their workers. But it was no easy to sell.
Labor leaders fought back with their own propaganda. For more than a century, a key struggle for the labor movement was reducing the amount of time workers had to spend on the job.
Between 1830 and 1930, work hours were cut nearly in half, with economist John Maynard Keynes famously predicting in 1930 that by 2030 a 15-hour workweek would be standard. While work had once been a means to serve God, two centuries of choices and industrialization had turned work into an end in itself, stripped of the spiritual meaning that sustained the Puritans who came ready to tame the wilderness.
By the end of the 1970s, companies were reaching out to spiritually drained workers by offering more engagement while withdrawing the promise of a job for life, as the American economy faced a stiff challenge from cheaper workers abroad. By the 1990s, technology made working from home possible for a growing number of people. Seen as a boon at first, telecommuting and the rapidly proliferating "electronic leash" of cell phones made work inescapable, as employees found themselves on call 24/7. Today, almost half of American workers use computers, cell phones, E-mail, and faxes for work during what is supposed to be nonwork time. Home is no longer a refuge but a cozier extension of the office.
When the stock market bubble burst and the economy fell into its recent recession, workers were forced to re-evaluate their priorities. They want a better quality of life; they’re asking for more flextime to spend with their families.
But there’s still the question of fulfillment. A recent study shows that work doesn’t satisfy workers’ deeper needs. "We expect more and more out of our jobs," says Hunnicutt. "We expect to find wonderful people and experience all around us. "
The phrase "came of age" underlined in Paragraph 8 probably means to______.
选项
A、come into being
B、realize its function
C、fall into an out-of-date style
D、fall into an effective pattern
答案
D
解析
词义题型见第8段第一句:The division of work into components that could be measured and easily taught reached its apex in Ford’s River Rouge Plant in Dearborn,Mich.,where the assembly line came of age.(工作被分成了不同的部分,变得能被衡量且更易学会了;这种分工在密执安州的迪尔伯恩市的福特汽车制造厂的River Rouge厂达到了顶点;那里的生产流水线——);根据句中说的“已达到了顶点”,came of age应不仅指“出现或发生”。应指“达到最有效的模式”;因此D为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/zuwO777K
本试题收录于:
CATTI三级笔译综合能力题库翻译专业资格(CATTI)分类
0
CATTI三级笔译综合能力
翻译专业资格(CATTI)
相关试题推荐
NarratorListentopartofalectureabouttheenvironmentstudyinBiramichiRiver.Nowgetreadytoanswerthequestions.You
NarratorListentopartofadiscussioninaphysicsclass.TheprofessorisdiscussingForces.Nowgetreadytoanswertheques
UnitedStatesGovernmentListentoTrack11.
Whatdoyourememberaboutyourlifebeforeyouwerethree?Fewpeoplecanrememberanythingthathappenedtothemintheirearly
Thetwentiethcenturysawgreatchange.Inyouropinion,whatisonechangethatshouldberememberedaboutthetwentiethcentur
Ingeneral,peoplearelivinglongernow.Discussthecausesofthisphenomenon.
"GeothermalEnergy"GeothermalenergyisnaturalheatfromtheinterioroftheEarththatisconvertedtoheatbuildingsand
______thenegativefeedbackloopworksproperly,thermoregulationpreventssmallchangesinbodytemperaturefrombecomingtool
Havingtrafficinanexhibitionisadouble-edgedswordthough:someisgoodbecauseitmakesyourboothlookpopular,butyoud
Heisthemostintrepidexplorerinthepresentcentury.
随机试题
网上消费者决策的基本原则有:______、相对满意原则、遗憾最小原则和预期满意原则。
女性,32岁,进行性膀胱刺激症状。经抗生素治疗不见好转,且伴有右侧腰部胀痛及午后潮热。为了解患者肾功能及形态的病理改变.最有价值的检查是
工程量清单是招标文件的组成部分,其组成不包括()。
卖方在国际货物买卖中根据买方提供的样品加工出一个类似的样品交给买方确认,并将确认的样品作为最后交货的质量依据,这种样品为()。
如果其他条件不变,人民币对美元升值,理论上会导致()。
现金比率剔除了应收账款对偿债能力的影响,最能反映企业直接偿付流动负债的能力,因此.现金比率越高越好。()
贝壳堤由死亡的贝类生物在海岸带堆积而成。在沿海地区经常分布着多条贝壳堤,标志着海岸线位置的变化。下图示意渤海湾沿岸某地区贝壳堤的分布。据此完成下列问题。沿岸流动的海水搬运河流入海口处的泥沙,并在贝壳堤外堆积,由此()。
①就是鸟语,也似乎琐碎而单薄,需要屋里的寂静来做衬托②到处是给太阳晒得懒洋洋的风,不像搅动屋里沉闷的那样有生气③春天从窗外进来,人在屋子里坐不住,就从门里出去④又是春天,窗子可以常开了⑤我们因此明白,春天是该镶嵌在窗子里看的,好比画配了框子⑥不过
斯腾伯格(Sternberg,1969)的短时记忆提取实验表明短时记忆中项目的提取是
在VisualFoxPro中,在屏幕上预览报表的命令是
最新回复
(
0
)