单选题 For most of us, work is the central, dominating factor 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 more work is pretty intolerable, the people who do it should compensate for its boredom, frustrations and humiliations 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 a 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 at work and in work is still one of the cruelest and most glaring forms of inequality in our society. We can not hope to solve the more obvious problems of industrial life, many of which arise directly 0r indirectly from the inequality at work. 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 to develop their abilities. They are able to exercise responsibility; they have a considerable degree of control over their own and the others' working lives. Most important of all, they have the opportunity to initiate. By contrast, for most manual workers, work is a boring, monotonous, even painful experience. They spend all their working lives in conditions which would be regarded as intolerable for themselves by those who take the decisions which let such conditions continue. The majority have 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 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 According to the author, it's true about work that ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据作者的观点,就工作而言,人的幸福生活的确在很大程度上取决于工作是否有所报偿。第一段指出,在可以预见的将来,工作所提供的物质和精神回报以及工作环境,在决定生活所提供的满意度方面继续发挥重要作用。
单选题 What advantage do managers have over the other workers?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 同其他工作人员相比,经理有什么样的优势?他们可以作出自己的决定。根据第三段开头,对于大多数经理来说,工作既是机遇又是挑战。他们的工作趣味盎然,能让他们发挥自己的才能。他们能够履行职责,在很大程度上控制自己以及别人的工作。最重要的是,他们能够发出倡议,这一切说明他们自己有决定权。
单选题 Working conditions generally remain bad because ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 在通常情况下,工作环境仍然很恶劣,因为经理们不想改变工作环境。根据第三段第六句和第七句,对于大多数体力劳动者来说,工作枯燥、让人厌倦、令人痛苦。他们就是在这样难以忍受的环境中度过工作生活的。决策者们自己都承认这种环境,却让这样的环境持续下去。
单选题 What frustrates the workers in a modern society?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 在现代社会,什么让工人们灰心丧气?他们觉得自己只是现代社会一个微不足道的、处于从属地位的组成部分。根据第三段八、九、十句,大多数体力劳动者几乎不能控制自己的工作,工作无法为个人的发展提供机遇。往往这样设计生产:让工人们仅仅成为技术的一部分。在办公室许多工种平淡无味,工人们有理由认为自己仅仅是官僚机器的轮齿。