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, and 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 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 and occupational lines, rather than on an industry-by-industry basis, which makes a wages policy, democracy in industry and the improvement of procedure 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There are considerable strains and tensions in the trade union movement, some of them arising from their outdated and inefficient structure.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 mean that different levels of wages for certain jobs are often a source of bad feeling 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" in many unions, "shop stewards" being workers elected by other workers as their representatives at factory or works level. (411 words)

单选题 Why is the interdependence of the UK economy mentioned in paragraph 1?
【正确答案】
【答案解析】[注释] 逻辑结构题。本题问：第1段中为什么提到英国经济的相互依赖性?第1段最后 1句和第2段第1句写道：“如果这些设施中任何一项(由于劳工纠纷)停止运行。那整个经济体系就危在旦夕。正是经济体系的这种互相依赖性使得工会的权力成为一个非常重要的问题。”故应选[A]“为了强调工会权力的重要性”。[B]“为了简要概述基础设施的巨大规模”不能入选，原因是它答非所问。[C]是强干扰项，不能选的原因是它只提及一点、偏离主题。[D]“展示一个集中的工业社会”，偏离段落内部的逻辑关系，故不能入选。
单选题 Because of their out-of-date organization some unions find it difficult to
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[注释] 细节归纳题。本题问：由于组织结构老化，有些工会会遇到什么困难?解这类题要注意段落的主题句及其扩展句的综合归纳。第3段第1句写道：“在工会运动内部存在着巨大的压力和紧张情绪，其中有些问题是由于工会过时的、效率低下的组织结构产生的。”接着对此论点进行具体阐述并举例说明。可见，作者要说明，由于组织结构的落后性，有些工会发现很难随着行业的变化来改变其内部组织。故[B]符合题意。[C]“适应先进的技术”是强干扰，属概念偷换，因为文中指的是传统行业，而不是指有些工会。
单选题 Disagreements arise between unions because some of them
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[注释] 细节理解题。本题问：工会间产生分歧的原因何在?第3段倒数第2句写道：“技术的进步淘汰了许多传统行业，在这些行业中工会能够为它们成员令人失望的工作而苦斗，以致使其他工会成员的工作受到威胁或毁灭。”可见，[C]项符合此意。[D]“打算在新的贸易组织中代表工人”是强干扰项，属概念偷换，因为文中指的是新的技术行业中，而不是指新的贸易组织中。
单选题 What basic problem are we told most trade unions face?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[注释] 总结归纳题。本题问：大多数工会遇到的基本问题是什么?从最后一段中可以看出，由于行业的变化和重组，各种工会遇到了前所未有的困难——缺少内部有效的思想交流，组织机构陈旧，效率低下。可见，[D]反映了这种状况。[B]“它们的力量不如以前”是强干扰项，不能选的原因是它太笼统、针对性差。
单选题 The title which best expresses the idea of the text would be
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[注释] 全文主旨题。本题问：本文最好的题目是下面哪一个?从全文的内容看，文章主要阐述英国工会的状况及其存在的问题。故应选[A]。[D]The Structure of British Trade Unions只提到英国工会的结构，而没有谈及其存在的问题，故不能入选。