计算机等级考试：决胜四级简答（4）

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:04:05 08:25:08
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

计算机等级考试训练软件《百宝箱》

Last years economy in the United States should have won the Oscar（奥斯卡奖） for best picture. Growth in gross domestic product was 4.1 percent. profits soared up. exports flourished. and inflation （通货膨胀）stayed around 3 percent for the third year. So why did so many Americans give the picture only a B rating? The answer is jobs. The macroeconomic（宏观经济的） situation was good, but the microeconomic(微观经济的) numbers were not. Yes, 3 million new jobs were there, but not enough of them were permanent, good jobs paying enough to support a family.

Job insecurity was not good. Even as they announced higher sales and profits, corporations acted as if they were in a loss, cutting 516,069 jobs in 1994 alone, almost as many as in the bad year of 1991.

 Yes, unemployment went down. But over 1 million workers were so discouraged they left the labor force. More than 6 million who wanted fulltime work were only partially employed. and another large group was either sheltered behind selfemployment. We lost a million good manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 1995, continuing the trend that has reduced the blue collar work force from about 30 percent in the 1950s to about half that today.

 White collar workers found out they were no longer secure. In 1995, for the first time, they were let go in numbers virtually equal to those for blue collar workers. Many turn to temporary work—with lower pay, fewer benefits and less status. All this is a country where people meeting for the first time say, “What do you do?”
Questions:

1. What is the economic problem facing United States?

2. What is the meaning of the word “soar” in Paragraph One? 

3. What are the two problems a newlyemployed will be most likely to find? 

4. For the last four decades, who have been more vulnerable(易受影响的) to unemployment?

5. What does “those” in Paragraph three refer to?

答案部分

短文大意

本文主要谈论美国的就业形势。美国去年的经济繁荣，各项经济指标都呈良好势头，但许多美国人并不看好它。其原因就出在就业上。尽管宏观经济形势良好，但微观经济指标并不乐观。虽然失业减少了，可蓝领阶层找不到称心的工作；白领阶层的工作也不再那么稳定。

1.【参考答案】 unemployment

【解题技巧】 读懂句子言下之意。

【详细解答】 第一段中The answer is jobs就是我们要找的答案。jobs工作问题实则指unemployment 。

2.【参考答案】 Increase.

【解题技巧】 通过上下文判断词义。

【详细解答】 作者在第一段排列了四项经济好转的原因。经济好转，利润(profit)当然也上升。

3.【参考答案】 The job is not permanent and the pay is not enough.

【解题技巧】 关键在审题。

【详细解答】 答案在第一段中部new jobs…not enough of them were permanent, good jobs paying enough 。

4.【参考答案】 Blue collar workers.

【解题技巧】 利用相关信息作比较。

【详细解答】 文章中只提到blue collar workers和white collar workers。根据第二段末和第三段信息比较两者就得出答案。

5.【参考答案】 Number.

【解题技巧】 代词指代前面刚出现过的名词。

【详细解答】 回答代词指代一类题，我们应该是轻松自如了。