【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[听力原文] W: Now we have Mr. Smith who has made a survey on children's attitudes toward different jobs with his colleagues. We have heard just now some people who feel other people have a strong idea about the work they do. Do you think this kind of thing is widespread? M: Absolutely. Most works or professions seem to have an image or a stereotype attached to them, much to the irritation of the job-holders. However, there is a serious problem that many young people maybe auctally choose the careers under the impact of these false images. Certainly, there is evidence they may avoid certain career since they have a negative image. On a large scale, this could cause problem for the whole sectors of the economy. Recently, there was a survey into children's attitudes toward different professions. W: How was the survey done? M: What the survey wanted to get was the children's impressions and prejudices. They gave the children 12 pairs of statements. In each pair of statement was positive, the other one was its opposite. For instance, "Such and such a person may be boring or interesting company." W: I see. What job did they ask about? M: Do you want the whole list? W: Why not? M: They looked at lawyers, physicists, accountants, sales representatives, economists, biologists, estate agents and three types of engineer—electrical, mechanical and civil engineers. The children were asked to say which if the statements was "most true" about every profession. W: What about the results? M: The children were rather striking concerning one job in particular, the poor old engineer. Of all the professions mentioned, he came out much worse than you may expect. The vast majority of children thought that engineering was a "dirty job". The only person they thought more likely to lose the job was the sales representatives. However, I must say that there were good points, too. Engineering was seen to be a "well paid and interesting" job. W: Not such a rosy picture. M: No, but it went better when the children were asked about how they imagined the engineer as a person. Most of them chose positive comments, except they thought that the engineer was likely to be badly rather than well dressed. The children's ratings put engineers just above the sales representative all bunched together. Probably they don't have that idea of their real job. I think they went by the titles, since civil engineer came out top, maybe the suggestion of the name? Right. Reasonable sounding, isn't it? W: Very sensible. I think the mechanical engineer came out bottom? M: Absolutely right. In fact, 90 percent of the children associated it with dirty job, as against 76 percent for the electrical engineer and 68 percent for the civil engineer. W: And the other professions? M: After the lawyer came the accountant; then the scientist, the physicist first. The economist came above the engineers. Funnily, he was the only person most of the children felt would be gloomy instead of cheerful. W: A real sign of the times. M: Yes. But I think the most serious implication of this survey is the children's obvious ignorance of the importance of the engineer's part in the society. W: Emm. M: In most other European countries, to be an engineer is to be somebody. And I think this means many bright children who may really enjoy the job and do well in it, probably never consider it, which is a pity to the country as a whole. We do need good engineers.