单选题

Formal Education and Economic Growth

The relationship between formal education and economic growth in poor countries is widely misunderstood by economists and politicians alike progress in both area is undoubtedly necessary for the social, political and intellectual development of these and all other societies; however, the conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor countries is wrong. We are fortunate that is it, because new educational systems there and putting enough people through them to improve economic performance would require two or three generations. The findings of a research institution have consistently shown that workers in all countries can be trained on the job to achieve radical higher productivity and, as a result, radically higher standards of living.
Ironically, the first evidence for this idea appeared in the United States. Not long ago, with the country entering a recessing and Japan at its pre-bubble peak. The U. S. workforce was derided as poorly educated and one of primary cause of the poor U. S. economic performance. Japan was, and remains, the global leader in automotive assembly productivity. Yet the research revealed that the U. S. factories of Honda Nissan, and Toyota achieved about 95 percent of the productivity of Japanese, because of the training that U. S. workers received on the job.
More recently, while examing housing construction, the researchers discovered that illiterate, non-English speaking Mexican workers in Houston, Texas, consistently met best-practice labor productivity standards despite the complexity of the building industry"s work.
What is the real relationship between education and economic development? We have to suspect that continuing economic growth promotes the development of education even when governments don"t force it. After all, that"s how education got started. When our ancestors were hunters and gatherers 10,000 years ago, they didn"t have time to wonder much about anything besides finding food. Only when humanity began to get its food in a more productive way was there time for other things.
As education improved, humanity"s productivity potential, they could in turn afford more education. This increasingly high level of education is probably a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for the complex political systems required by advanced economic performance. Thus, poor countries might not be able to escape their poverty traps without political changes that may be possible only with broader formal education. A lack of formal education, however, doesn"t constrain the ability of the developing world"s workforce to substantially improve productivity for the forested future. On the contrary, constraints on improving productivity explain why education isn"t developing more quickly there than it is.

单选题 The author holds in Paragraph 1 that the importance of education in poor countries ______.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是作者在第一段认为教育的重要性在贫困国家的情况。原文第一段的第一句话的后半部分说到，“...the conventional view that education should be one of the very highest priorities for promoting rapid economic development in poor countries is wrong.”“在贫困国家教育应该是促进经济快速发展优先考虑的要素之一的这种传统观点是一种错误的看法。”由此可推知，教育的重要性在贫困国家被高估了。因此，本题的正确答案为D。

单选题 It is stated in Paragraph 1 that construction of a new education system ______.

单选题 A major difference between the Japanese and U. S. workforces is that

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是日本和美国劳动力的主要区别。原文第二段的最后一句话明确说到,“Yet the research revealed that the U. S. factories of Honda Nissan, and Toyota achieved about 95 percent of the productivity of Japanese, because of the training that U. S. workers received on the job.”美国工人接受了职业培训后，本田、丰田的美国公司才达到了日本95%的产量，由此可推知，日本工人的生产力比美国工人的生产力高。因此，本题的正确答案为B。而A和D两个选项的说法原文中没有提到，C选项的说法与原文内容相反。

单选题 The author quotes the example of our ancestors to show that education emerged ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题问的是作者引用我们祖先的例子来表明什么。原文倒数第二段的最后两句话说到，“When our ancestors were hunters and gatherers 10,000 years ago, they didn"t have time to wonder much about anything besides finding food. Only when humanity began to get its food in a more productive way was there time for other things.”可见，作者举出我们祖先的例子是来论证最后一句话的观点：只有当人们有了获得食物的更高产的方式时才有时间做其它事情。也就是说，人们受教育的前提是有剩余时间。因此，本题的正确答案为A。