单选题 Machines and foreign competition will replace millions of American jobs. But work will be plentiful for people trained in the occupations of the future. The Labor Department predicts a net increase of 25 million new jobs in the United States in 1995 with service-industry jobs growing three times as rapidly as factory jobs. "Work will shift its emphasis from the fatigue and monotony of the production line and the typing pool to the more interesting challenge of the electronic service center, the design studio, the research laboratory, the education institute and the training school," predicts Canadian economist Calvert.
Jobs in high-tech fields will multiply fastest, but from a low base. In terms of actual numbers, more mundane occupations will experience the biggest surge: custodians, cashiers, secretaries, waiters and clerks. Yet much of the drudge work will be taken on by robots.
The number of robots performing blue-collar tasks will increase from 3,000 in 1981 to 40,000 in 1990, says John E. Taylor of the Human Resources Research Organization in Alexandria, Va. Robots might also be found on war zones, in space- even in the office, perhaps making coffee, opening mail and delivering messages.
One unsolved problem, what to do with workers displaced by high technology and foreign competition. Around the world "the likelihood of growing permanent unemployment is becoming more accepted as a reality among social planners," notes David Macarov, associate professor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Meantime at the percentage of time people spend on the job is likely to continue to fall. Robert Theobald, author of Avoiding in 1984, fears that joblessness will lead to increasing depression, bitterness and unrest. "The dramatic consequences of such a shift on the Western psyche, which has made the job the way we value human beings, are almost incalculable," he comments.
Because of the constantly changing demand for job skills, Ron Kutschner, associate commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, offers this advice for today' s high school students: "Be prepared with a broad education, like the kind pre-college students get--basic math. science and English. Prepare yourself to handle each new technology, as it comes down the road. Then get technology training for your first job. That is the best stepping stone to the second and third jobs./

单选题 According to the passage, jobs on the productions line are usually______.
A. interesting and challenging
B. dull and dangerous
C. boring and tiring
D. unpleasant but rewarding

单选题 The sentence "more mundane occupations will experience the biggest surge" in Paragraph 2 means______.
A. there will be a great increase in humble jobs
B. there will be a great increase in ordinary jobs
C. there will be a great increase in office jobs
D. there will be a great increase in full-time jobs

单选题 What will happen when more and more workers are replaced by machines and foreign competition?
A. Permanent unemployment is likely to be mounting.
B. Workers are likely to reduce their working hours.
C. Unemployed workers will feel more and more bitter, depressed and discontented.
D. All of the above.

单选题 Robert Theobald believes that permanent unemployment will be hard on Westerners because
A. Westerners usually use jobs as a criterion to appraise people
B. Westerners are addicted to work
C. Westerners are not used to staying home unemployed
D. Westerners usually take pleasure in working

单选题 It is implied in the last paragraph that people must have a broad education and technology training in order to______.
A. meet ceaselessly changing demand for job skills
B. get many good jobs
C. apply for permanent jobs
D. get promoted from one job to another