单选题 Opinion polls are now beginning to show a reluctant consensus that, whoever is to blame and whatever happens from now on, high unemployment is probably here to stay. This means we shall have to find ways of sharing the available employment more widely. But we need to go further. We must ask some fundamental questions about the future of work. Should we continue to treat employment as the norm? Should we not rather encourage many other ways for self-respecting people to work? Should we not create conditions in which many of us can work for ourselves, rather than for an employer'? Should we not aim to revive the household and the neighborhood, as well as the factory and the office, as centers of production and work?
The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people's work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of the changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a daunting thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history shows, has not meant economic freedom.
Employment became widespread when the enclosures of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by depriving them of the use of the land, and thus of the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people's homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people commuted longer distances to their places of employment until, eventually, many people's work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.
Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. In pre-industrial times, men and women had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and the family to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations still assume this norm today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles between the sexes.
It was not only women whose work status suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were excluded-a problem now, as more teenagers become frustrated at school and more retired people want to live active lives.
All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some effort and resources away from the utopian goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without fulltime jobs.

单选题 According to the author, the universal employment has ______.
A．turned out not to be the best form of jobs
B．created an alternative form of jobs
C．built the foundation of an economic leap
D．failed to produce job opportunities for most people

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】本段最后两句在评述工业时代和全民就业的关系时提到“但事实上，它可以提供更好的就业前景。从历史来看，全民就业并不意味着经济上的自由。”由此可推断，全民就业并非工业时代的最佳就业模式，因为该就业模式并未带来经济上的自由。因此正确答案为A。

单选题 Modem forms of transportation have greatly encouraged ______.
A．the phenomenon of deprivation of employees' leisure time
B．the disconnection between people's work and their family life
C．the commutation between the working places and employees' homes
D．people' s desire to work far away from where they were born

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】题干问现代交通方式极大地鼓励了什么。第三段最后一句指出，后来随着交通的发展，人们先是通过铁路，而后公路，在住所和工作地之间进行更长距离的往返，直到最终，很多人的工作与他们的家庭生活以及居住地之间失去了联系。由此可见，交通的发展最终使得人们的工作与他们的生活和居住地不再有关系，故B项是正确答案，其中disconnection是原文lost all connection的同义转述。文中虽提到commute，即通勤的问题，但只是说交通的发展使得人们在住所和工作地之间进行更长距离的往返，并没有丝毫鼓励这种通勤方式的意思，故C项排除。文中说人们由于工作而远离了他们生活的地方，这是客观的情况，并不是人们的主观渴望，D项错误。A项文中未提及。

单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A．women could have been more productive than men in a proper job system
B．work in pre-industrial times has been distributed evenly between men and women
C．paid employment has aroused serious social problems in current society
D．women have been treated unfairly under the employment system of industrial age

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】该段首句指出，工业时代的就业模式使女性处于不利地位，接着就这一主题进行论述，在第三句指出，现在，普遍的情况变成了丈夫出去工作赚钱，然后把没有报酬的家务活和照顾家庭的任务留给妻子。由此可见，工业时代的就业模式未能公平地对待妇女。故D项为正确答案。虽然工业时代就业模式对待妇女不公平，但并不能因此推断出在工业化以前的时代工作是男女平均分配的，原文只是说那时男人和女人一起分担家庭和村庄社区的生产工作，该表述过于绝对，故B项被排除。其他两项文中未提及。

单选题 What is the problem for the young under the employment system?
A．They are less likely to compete with the aged.
B．They are much worried about the generation gap.
C．They are more likely to suffer from unemployment.
D．Their academic performances seem useless for job hunting.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】第五段第二句指出，随着雇佣关系成为主导的工作形式，年轻人和老年人也受到了排挤——现在，随着越来越多的年轻人对学校感到失望……由此可见在雇佣体制下，年轻人不容易找到工作，故C项为正确答案。本句虽提到年轻人对学校失望，但并没有说他们的学业成绩对找工作没有用处，因此D项可排除。选项A和B文中并未提及。

单选题 What is the possible change of job forms?
A．Full-time employment will not be the dominant form of work.
B．Most people can work at home and for themselves.
C．The differences between men and women will disappear.
D．All people get equal job opportunities and equal pay.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】该句指出，现在我们的确要转变某些努力和资源，放弃为所有人创造工作的空想目标，将精力投入到这个紧迫而又实际的任务中——帮助大多数人能够不靠全职工作而生活下去。由此可见，为所有人创造全职工作的做法将会被改变，故正确答案为A项。题干中的change与原文switch…to…对应。