Unionized workers are paid about _________ percent more than similar nonunion workers. a. 2 b. 5 c. 15 d. 40

根据下列材料，请回答 36～40 题：

If the trade unionist Jimmy Hoffa were alive today, he would probably represent civil servant. When Hoffa’s Teamsters were in their prime in 1960, only one in ten American government workers belonged to a union; now 36% do. In 2009 the number of unionists in America’s public sector passed that of their fellow members in the private sector. In Britain, more than half of public-sector workers but only about 15% of private-sector ones are unionized.

There are three reasons for the public-sector unions’ thriving. First, they can shut things down without suffering much in the way of consequences. Second, they are mostly bright and well-educated. A quarter of America’s public-sector workers have a university degree. Third, they now dominate left-of-centre politics. Some of their ties go back a long way. Britain’s Labor Party, as its name implies, has long been associated with trade unionism. Its current leader, Ed Miliband, owes his position to votes from public-sector unions.

At the state level their influence can be even more fearsome. Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California points out that much of the state’s budget is patrolled by unions. The teachers’ unions keep an eye on schools, the CCPOA on prisons and a variety of labor groups on health care.

In many rich countries average wages in the state sector are higher than in the private one. But the real gains come in benefits and work practices. Politicians have repeatedly “backloaded” public-sector pay deals, keeping the pay increases modest but adding to holidays and especially pensions that are already generous.

Reform. has been vigorously opposed, perhaps most egregiously in education, where charter schools, academies and merit pay all faced drawn-out battles. Even though there is plenty of evidence that the quality of the teachers is the most important variable, teachers’ unions have fought against getting rid of bad ones and promoting good ones.

As the cost to everyone else has become clearer, politicians have begun to clamp down. In Wisconsin the unions have rallied thousands of supporters against Scott Walker, the hardline Republican governor. But many within the public sector suffer under the current system, too.

John Donahue at Harvard’s Kennedy School points out that the norms of culture in Western civil services suit those who want to stay put but is bad for high achievers. The only American public-sector workers who earn well above $250,000 a year are university sports coaches and the president of the United States. Bankers’ fat pay packets have attracted much criticism, but a public-sector system that does not reward high achievers may be a much bigger problem for America.

第 36 题 It can be learned from the first paragraph that

[A] Teamsters still have a large body of members.

[B] Jimmy Hoffa used to work as a civil servant.

[C] unions have enlarged their public-sector membership.

[D]the government has improved its relationship with unionists.

What may cause the percentage of workers to decline?

A．Ritualized time

B．Technology and the division of labor

C．The appearance of new aristocracies

D．The new fashion

The case of Swirl unauthorized workers was caused possibly because ______

A．the company has no identity verification measures on their workers.

B．the employers of the company are not accountable for their employment practices.

C．the lack of biometric identifier in its identity verification system.

D．it meant to break the legislation proposal on immigration problems.

Section B

Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.

The first 10 months of last year saw more than 270,000 Chinese workers going abroad to work, the People's Daily Overseas Edition reported.

Currently, about 4 million Chinese workers, or 0.3 percent of the country's population, are working in foreign countries, the newspaper said.

They are living a very different and difficult life, far from home and family members. Their security and living conditions have raised concern at home and abroad.

In a recent incident, five Chinese telecom workers were kidnapped in Nigeria (尼日利 [非洲中西部国家). Although they were released safely on Wednesday, the general living and working conditions of Chinese workers in that country has raised worry.

There are more than 300 Chinese companies running businesses in Nigeria, involved such fields as petroleum, household appliances, and cell phones.

A worker, surnamed Zhang, working for a Chinese telecom company in Nigeria, told People's Daily that his job always required him to work outdoors.

He could not be sure of having three square meals a day, or even a daily bath. Worse, malaria (疟疾) was a common disease among his colleagues.

Besides their work, they also had to engage in public relations activities with the local communities.

In big cities like Lagos (尼日利亚的首都), due to bad road conditions, frequent power blackouts (中断), and few public places of entertainment for the Chinese, most workers chose not to go out in the evenings, the newspaper said.

Chinese workers can also be found in war-stricken countries.

In Baghdad, capital of Iraq, there are about 20 telecom workers besides the Chinese diplomatic staff. Hundreds of Chinese workers are also in the Kurdistan (库尔德斯坦[在西南亚]) area of north Iraq.

Most of them are working for a Norwegian oil company in exploration work. They receive a monthly salary of about $1,000 and are under the protection of the Kurdistan military, making it difficult for them to socialize with the local community.

Alegria too has a large number of Chinese workers.

Peng Guichen, in charge of labor services in Algeria under the China State Construction International Group, told People's Daily there are more than 9,000 workers. Most of them were skilled, like electrical engineers, carpenters and bricklayers.

"The reason they are working here is very simple--to make money," Peng told the newspaper.

The monthly salaries ranged from US$400 to US$800.

The number of Chinese workers going abroad has steadily increased since 2003, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

According to the passage, currently millions of Chinese workers go abroad to ______.

A．study

B．receive education

C．work

D．seek jobs

The author’s claim that, since the mid-1970’s, a new strategy has emerged in the unionization of public-sector clerical workers (line 23 ) would be strengthened if the author______

A．described more fully the attitudes of clerical workers toward labor unions

B．compared the organizing strategies employed by private-sector unions with those of public-sector unions

C．explained why politicians and administrators sometimes oppose unionization of clerical workers

D．indicated that the number of unionized public-sector clerical workers was increasing even before the mid-1970’s

E．showed that the factors that favored unionization drives among these workers prior to 1975 have decreased in importance

The author cites union efforts to achieve a fully unionized work force (line 13-19) in order to account for why______

A．politicians might try to oppose public-sector union organizing

B．public-sector unions have recently focused on organizing women

C．early organizing efforts often focused on areas where there were large numbers of workers

D．union efforts with regard to public-sector clerical workers increased dramatically after 1975

E．unions sometimes tried to organize workers regardless of the workers’ initial interest in unionization

For centuries in Spain and Latin America, heading home for lunch and a snooze with the family was some thing like a national right, but with global capitalism standardizing work hours, this idyllic habit is fast becoming an endangered pleasure. Ironically, all this is happening just as researchers are beginning to note the health benefits of the afternoon nap.

According to a nationwide survey, less than 25 percent of Spaniards still enjoy siestas. And like Spain, much of Latin America has adopted Americanized work schedules, too, With shortened lunch breaks to one hour and requiring its employees to work their eight-hour shift between 7 a. m Before the mandate, workers would break up the shift--going home midday for a long break with the family and returning to work until about 9 or 10 p.m. The idea of siesta is changing in Greece, Italy and Portugal, too, as they rush to join their more "industrious" counterparts in the global market.

Most Americans I know covet sleep, but the idea of taking a nap mid-afternoon equates with laziness, un employment and general sneakiness. Yet according to a National Sleep Survey poll, 65 percent of adults do not get enough sleep. Numerous scientific studies document the benefits of nap taking, including one 1997 study on the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation in the journal Internal Medicine. The researchers found that fatigue harms not only marital and social relations but worker productivity.

According to Mark Rosekind, a former NASA scientist and founder of Solutions in Cupertino, Calif. , which educates businesses about the advantages of sanctioning naps, we're biologically programmed to get sleepy between 3 and 5 p. m. and 3 and 5 a.m. Our internal timekeeper-called the circadian clock--operates on a 24-hour rotation and every 12 hours there's a dip. In accordance with these natural sleep rhythms, Rosekind recommends that naps be either for 40 minutes or for two hours. Latin American countries, asserts Rosekind, have had it right all along. They've been in sync with their clocks; we haven't.

Since most of the world is sleep-deprived, getting well under the recommended eight hours a night (adults get an average of 6. S hours nightly), we usually operate on a kind of idle midday. Naps are even more useful now that most of us forfeit sleep because of insane work schedules, longer commute times and stress, In a study published last April, Brazilian medical researchers noted that blood pressure and arterial blood pressure dropped during a siesta.

In the second sentence of Para. 1, the underlined words "all this" refers to ______.

A．the habit of napping

B．the standardizing of work hours

C．the decline of the siesta tradition

D．the growth of global capitalism

The failure of the strike of Standard Oil workers shows that ______.

A．when women are involved, strikes are bound to fail

B．passive women involvement in strikes makes success unlikely

C．women are not often firm enough in organized strikes

D．most women are loyal and militant members of work unions

Part A

Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D . Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.

In a democratic society citizens are encouraged to form. their own opinions on candidates for public offices, taxes, constitutional amendments, environmental concerns, foreign policy, and other issues. The opinions held by any population are shaped and manipulated by several factors: individual circumstances, the mass media, special-interest groups, and opinion leaders.

Wealthy people tend to think differently on social issues from poor people. Factory workers probably do not share the same views as white-collar workers, nonunion workers. Women employed outside their homes sometimes have perspectives different from those of full-time homemakers. In these and other ways individual status shapes one's view of current events.

The mass media, especially television, are powerful influences on the way people think and act. Government officials note how mall from the public tends to "follow the headlines". Whatever is featured in newspapers and magazines and on television attracts enough attention that people begin to inform. themselves and to express opinions.

The mass media have also created larger audiences for government and a wider range of public issues than existed before. Prior to television and the national editions of newspapers, issues and candidates tended to remain localized. In Great Britain and West Germany, for example, elections to the national legislatures were usually viewed by voters as local contests. Today's elections are seen as struggles between party leaders and programs. In the United States radio and television have been beneficial to the presidency. Since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his "fireside chats," presidents have appealed directly to a national audience over the heads of Congress to advocate their programs.

Special-interest groups spend vast sums annually trying to influence public opinion. Public utilities, for instance, tried to sway public opinion in favor of nuclear power plants. Opposed to them were citizens' organizations that lobbied to halt the use of nuclear power. During the 1960s the American Medical Association conducted an unsuccessful advertising campaign designed to prevent the passage of medicare.

Opinion leaders are usually such prominent public figures as politicians, show business personalities, and celebrity athletes. The opinions of these individuals, whether informed and intelligent or not, carry weight with some segments of the population. Some individuals, such as Nobel Prize winners, are suddenly thrust into public view by the media. By quickly reaching a large audience, their views gain a hearing and are perhaps influential in shaping views on complex issues.

How many factors could shape public opinion, as mentioned in the text?

A．2.

B．3.

C．4.

D．5.