Reading Section C 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 and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center. Passage One Question 56 to 60 are based on the following passage. Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-education well off and the unskilled poor. Rapid technological advance has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. The consequences, for individual and society, are profound. The world is facing as astonishing rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600 million to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity (长寿)translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will create government budget problems. But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers (二战后生育高峰期出生的美国人) are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce. That even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sh
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- Passage OneQuestions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.Immigration poses two main challenges for the rich world’s governments. One is how to manage the inflow (流入) of migrants; the other, how to integrate those who are already there.Whom, for example, to allow in? Already, many governments have realized that the market for top talent is global and competitive. Led by Canada and Australia, they are redesigning migration policies not just to admit, but actively to attract highly skilled immigrants. Germany, for instance, tentatively introduced a green card of its own two years ago for information-technology staff.Whereas the case for attracting the highly skilled is fast becoming conventional wisdom, a thornier issue is what to do about the unskilled. Because the difference in earnings is greatest in this sector, migration of the unskilled delivers the largest global economic gains. Moreover, wealthy, well-educated, ageing economies create lots of jobs for which their own workers have little appetite.So immigrants tend to cluster at the upper and lower ends of the skill spectrum. Immigrants either have university degrees or no high-school education. Mr. Smith’s survey makes the point: Among immigrants to America, the proportion with a postgraduate education, at 21%, is almost three times as high as in the native population; equally, the proportion with less than nine years of schooling, at 20%, is more than three times as high as that of the native-born.All this means that some immigrants do far better than others. The unskilled are the problem. Research by George Boras, a Harvard University professor whose parents were unskilled Cuban immigrants, has drawn attention to the fact that the unskilled account for a growing proportion of America’s foreign-born. Newcomers without high-school education not only drag down the wages of the poorest Americans; their children are also disproportionately likely to fail at school.These youngsters are there to stay. “The toothpaste is out of the tube,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Centre for Immigration Studies. And their numbers will grow. Because the rich world’s women spurn motherhood, immigrants give birth to many of the rich world’s babies. Foreign mothers account for one birth in five in Switzerland and one in eight in Germany and Britain. If these children grow up underprivileged and undereducated, they will create a new underclass that may take many years to emerge from poverty.For Europe, immigration creates particular problems. Europe needs it even more than the United States because the continent is ageing faster than any other region. Immigration is not a permanent cure (immigrants grow old too), but it will buy time. And migration can “grease the wheels” of Europe’s sclerotic (硬化的) labor markets, argues Tito Boeri in a report published in July. However, thanks to the generosity of Europe’s welfare states, migration is also a sort of tax on immobile labor. And the more immobile Europeans are — the older, the less educated — the more xenophobic (恐惧外国人的) they are too.Q：It has become a generally accepted view that the rich governments should ________.
- People who work next to each in the same office have more but better interruptions than those who ______.
- Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter.How Work Will Change When Most of Us Live to 100A) Today in the United States there are 72,000 centenarians（百岁老人）.Worldwide, Probably 450,000. Ifcurrent trends continue, then by 2050 there will be more than a million in the US alone. According to the work ofProfessor James Vaupel and his co-researchers, 50% of babies born in the US in 2007 have a life expectancy of104 or more. Broadly the same holds for the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Canada, and for Japan 50% of 2007babies can expect to live to 107.B) Understandably, there are concerns about what this means for public finances given the associated health andpension challenges. These challenges are real, and society urgently needs to address them. But it is also importantto look at the wider picture of what happens when so many people live for 100 years. It is a mistake to simplyequate longevity (长寿) with issues of old age. Longer lives have implications for all of life, not just the end of it.C) Our view is that if many people are living for longer, and are healthier for longer, then this will result in aninevitable redesign of work and life. When people live longer, they are not only older for longer, but also youngerfor longer. There is some truth in the saying that “70 is the new 60” or “40 the new 30.” If you age more slowlyover a longer time period, then you are in some sense younger for longer.D) But the changes go further than that. Take, for instance, the age at which people make commitments such asbuying a house, getting married, having children, or starting a career. These are all fundamental commitments thatare now occurring later in life. In 1962, 50% of Americans were married by age 21. By 2014, that milestone(里程碑)had shifted to age 29.E) While there are numerous factors behind these shifts, one factor is surely a growing realization for the young that they are going to live longer. Options are more valuable the longer they can be held. So if you believe you will live longer, then options become more valuable, and early commitment becomes less attractive. The result is that the commitments that previously characterized the beginning of adulthood are now being delayed, and new patterns of behavior and a new stage of life are emerging for those in their twentiesF) Longevity also pushes back the age of retirement, and not only for financial reasons. Yes, unless people are prepared to save a lot more, our calculations suggest that if you are now in your mid-40s, then you are likely to work until your early 70s; and if you are in your early 20s, there is a real chance you will need to work until your late 70s or possibly even into your 80s. But even if people are able to economically support a retirement at 65, over thirty years of potential inactivity is harmful to cognitive(认知的) and emotional vitality. Many people may simply not want to do it.G) And yet that does not mean that simply extending our careers is appealing. Just lengthening that second stage of full-time work may secure the financial assets needed for a 100-year life, but such persistent work will inevitably exhaust precious intangible assets such as productive skills, vitality, happiness, and friendship.H) The same is true for education. It is impossible that a single shot of education, administered in childhood and early adulthood, will be able to support a sustained, 60-year career. If you factor in the projected rates of technological change, either your skills will become unnecessary, or your industry outdated. That means that everyone will, at some point in their life, have to make a number of major reinvestments in their skills.I) It seems likely, then, that the traditional three-stage life will evolve into multiple stages containing two, three, or oven more different careers. Each of these stages could potentially be different. In one the focus could be on building financial success and personal achievement, in another on creating a better work/life balance, still another on exploring and understanding options more fully, or becoming an independent producer, yet another on making a social contribution. These stages will span sectors, take people to different cities, and provide a foundation for building a wide variety of skills.J) Transitions between stages could be marked with sabbaticals (休假) as people find time rest and recharge their health, re-invest in their relationships, or improve their skills. At times, these breaks and transitions will be self-determined, at others they will be forced as existing roles, firms, or industries cease to exist.K） A multi-stage life will have profound changes not just in how you manage your career, but also in your approach to life. An increasingly important skill will be your ability to deal with change and even welcome it. A three-stage life has few transitions, while a multi-stage life has many. That is why being self-aware, investing in broader networks of friends, and being open to new ideas will become even more crucial skills.L） These multi-stage lives will create extraordinary variety across groups of people simply because there are so many ways of sequencing the stages. More stages mean more possible sequences.M）With this variety will come the end of the close association of age and stage. I n a three-stage life, people leave university at the same time and the same age, they tend to start their careers and family at the same age, they proceed through middle management all roughly the same time, and then move into retirement within a few years of each other. In a multi-stage life, you could be an undergraduate at 20, 40, or 60; a manager at 30, 50, or 70; and become an independent producer at any age.N）Current life structures, career paths, educational choices, and social norms are out of tune with the emerging reality of longer lifespans. The three-stage life of full-time education, followed by continuous work, and then complete retirement may have worked for our parents or even grandparents, but it is not relevant today. We believe that to focus on longevity as primarily an issue of aging is to miss its full implications. Longevity is not necessarily about being older for longer. It is about living longer, being older later, and being younger longer.36. An extended lifespan in the future will allow people to have more careers than now.37. Just extending one’s career may have both positive and negative effects.38. Nowadays, many Americans have on average delayed their marriage by some eight years.39. Because of their longer lifespan, young people today no longer follow the pattern of life of their parents or grandparents.40. Many more people will be expected to live over 100 by the mid-21st century.41. A longer life will cause radical changes in people’s approach to life.42. Fast technological change makes it necessary for one to constantly upgrade their skills.43. Many people may not want to retire early because it would do harm to their mental and emotional well-being.44. The close link between age and stage may cease to exist in a multi-stage life.45. People living a longer and healthier life will have to rearrange their work and life.
- According to the passage, as employment became a dominant form of work, ______. A: women were left to work at homes B: old people tend to live a more active life C: women enjoy more working opportunities D: men and women begin to share the household work
- Directions: Read the following passages carefully. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished sentences. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the best answer to each question.