单选题     An industrial society, especially one as centralized and concentrated as that of Britain, is heavily dependent on certain essential services: for instance, electricity supply, water, rail and road transport, the harbors. The area of dependency has widened to include removing rubbish, hospital and ambulance services, and, as the economy develops, central computer and information services as well. If any of these services ceases to operate, the whole economic system is in danger.
    It is this economic interdependency of the economic system which makes the power of trade unions (工会)such an important issue. Single trade unions have the ability to cut off many countries' economic blood supply. This can happen more easily in Britain than in some other countries, in part because the labor force is highly organized. About 55 percent of British workers belong to unions, compared to under a quarter in the United States. For historical reasons, Britain's unions have tended to develop along trade (行业) and occupational lines, rather than on an industry-by-industry basis, which makes a wages policy, democracy in industry and the improvement of procedures for fixing wage levels difficult to achieve.
    There are considerable strains and tensions in the trade union movement, some of them arising from their outdated and inefficient structure. Some unions have lost many members because of their industrial changes. Others are involved in arguments about who should represent workers in new trades. Unions for skilled trades are separate from general unions, which means that different levels of wages for certain jobs are often a source of bad feelings between unions. In traditional trades which are being pushed out of existence by advancing technologies, unions can fight for their members' disappointing jobs to the point where the jobs of other union members are threatened or destroyed. The printing of newspapers both in the United States and in Britain has frequently been halted by the efforts of printers to hold on to their traditional highly-paid jobs.
    Trade unions have problems of internal communication just as managers in companies do, problems which multiply in very large unions or in those which bring workers in very different industries together into a single general union. Some trade union officials have to be re-elected regularly; others are elected, or even appointed, for life. Trade union officials have to work with a system of 'shop stewards' (工厂工人代表) in many unions, 'shop stewards' being workers elected by other workers as their representatives at factory or work level.
单选题     Why is the trade union power crucial in Britain? ______
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】定位：根据题干信息the trade union power和crucial可将答案定位到第二段第一句。 该句提到：“正是由于经济体系内各种经济因素相互依赖(this economic interdependency of the economic system)，才使得工会权力成为如此重要的问题。”选项A符合题意。
单选题     Because of their out-of-date organization, some unions find it difficult to ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】定位：根据题干信息 out-of-date organization可将答案定位到第三段第一句。 第三段开头处提到：“工会运动面临许多限制和压力，其中一些源于工会本身落后而低效的结构。由于产业调整，一些工会已经失去了很多成员。另外一些工会则面临一系列争论：新的行业中究竟由谁来代表工人?”可见由于其落后的结构，工会适应不了产业的变化和调整。故D为正确答案。
单选题     Disagreements arise between unions because some of them ______.
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】定位：根据题干信息disagreements arise between unions可将答案定位到第三段第四句。 该句提到：“技术性行业的工会跟一般意义上的工会是分离的，这意味着，某些工作薪金水平的不同通常会在各工会之间引发摩擦。”可见different levels of wages for certain jobs是引发矛盾的一大原因，但在四个选项中找不到意思相近的表述。我们继续向下寻读即可发现下一句中提到：“传统的行业正逐渐被先进的技术所替代，在这些行业里，工会会为其成员渺无前景的工作努力抗争，使其他工会成员的工作也受到威胁或者破坏。”也就是说，一些王会会为了保护自己成员的利益而牺牲其他工会成员的利益。故选项C为正确答案。
单选题     Why does the author compare the trade unions with managers in companies? ______
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】定位：根据题干信息managers in companies可将答案定位到最后一段第一句。 该句提到：“和公司中的经理们一样，工会内部也同样面临着交流问题。在那些大型工会或者聚集了不同行业工人的工会里，这些问题成倍增加。”可见，工会和经理们的共同点就是在其内部存在着沟通不畅的问题，故选B。
单选题     The title which best expresses the idea of the text would be ______
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】定位：根据题干信息词title可知解答本题需通观全文。 本题问选项中最适合做文章题目的是哪一项，考查的是全文的主旨。从全文的内容看，文章主要阐述了英国工会的状况及其存在的问题。故应选A。最具迷惑性的是D项The structure of British Trade Unions。但其只提到英国工会的结构，而没有概括其存在的问题，故不够全面。