单选题
For most of us, work is the central, dominating fact of
life. We spend more than half our conscious hours at work, preparing for work,
traveling to and from work. What we do there largely determines our standard of
living and to a considerable extent the status we are accorded by our fellow
citizens as well. It is sometimes said that because leisure has become more
important the indignities and injustices of work can be pushed into a corner,
that because most work is pretty intolerable, the people who do it should
compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations (羞耻) by concentrating
their hopes on the other parts of their lives. I reject that as
a counsel of despair. For the foreseeable future the material and psychological
rewards which work can provide, and the conditions in which work is done, will
continue to play a vital part in determining the satisfaction that life can
offer. Yet only small minority can control the pace at which they work or the
conditions in which their work is done; only for a small minority does work
offer scope for creativity, imagination, or initiative.
Inequality (不平等) at work and in work is still one of the cruelest and most
glaring forms of inequality in our society. We cannot hope to solve the more
obvious problems of industrial life, many of which arise directly or indirectly
from the frustrations created by inequality at work, unless we tackle it head-on
(迎面地). Still less can we hope to create a decent and humane society.
The most glaring inequality is that between managers and the rest. For
most managers, work is an opportunity and a challenge. Their jobs engage their
interest and allow them develop their abilities. They are constantly learning;
they are able to exercise responsibility; they have a considerable degree of
control over their own-and others'-working lives. Most important of all, they
have opportunity to initiate. By contrast, for most manual workers, and for a
growing number of white-collar workers, work is a boring, dull even painful
experience. They spend all their working lives in conditions which would be
regarded as intolerable for themselves-by those who make the decisions which let
such conditions continue. The majority has little control over their work; it
provides them with no opportunity for personal development. Often production is
so designed that workers are simply part of the technology. In offices, many
jobs are so routine that workers justifiably feel themselves to be mere cogs in
the bureaucratic (官僚的) machine. As a direct consequence of their work
experience, many workers feel alienated from their work and their firm, whether
it is in public or in private ownership.
单选题
The importance of work lies in the fact that ______.
A.it becomes a measurement of people's living standard
B.the pay from work satisfies our need for materials
C.it is a typical life style in an industrial society
D.it is the only way for others to judge our social status
单选题
According to the passage, only a small number of people
A.dominate all the important positions of a company or an organization
B.allocate the psychological reward to most employees in a company
C.have access to a higher position and a satisfying salary in a
company
D.have the right to enjoy the creative and other positive aspects of
work
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】根据该句可知：“然而……只有对少数人而言，工作可以为其提供创造力、想象力或主动性的空间和前景。”题干中a small number of people与原文中a small minority对应，再结合四个选项，可知D项与文意相符，其中的creative and other positive aspects与原文中的creativity, imagination, or initiative对应，故答案为D。
单选题
It can be inferred that to solve problems in an industrial society, we
______.
A.should create more working opportunities for the poor
B.have to eliminate the unequal aspects in work
C.had better cancel all managing positions in a company
D.should turn to individual employment and work at home