阅读理解 The car industry suffered another setback yesterday when Lucas Electrical Company announced that many of its 12,000 workers at 15 factories in the West Midlands would be going on short time. It was expected that they would work a four-day week starting early next month. "There will be a requirement for some short-time working in selected product areas and the final details will be organized on a site-by-site basis," a Lucas spokesman said in Birmingham. The factories cover an area from Telford, Shropshire, to Solihull in the West Midlands. Many of those involved are women and the products include alternators, batteries and headlamps. For many families the wife has been the sole earner in recent months. The Lucas announcement is expected to have an aggravated effect on the region'' s rapidly declining economy. The company spokesman said that not all the 12,000 would be affected; about 20 percent of the staff would not be affected at all. The announcement comes after BL'' s production cuts in the Austin-Rover division with a two-week extended holiday for 8,000 workers because of the sluggish market. Dunlop in Birmingham has made a similar decision. Lucas said that it was also because of reductions in the schedules of other customers in the car industry. It as emphasized that it was temporary and its duration would depend on how many cars were sold in the coming months.

单选题 According to the passage, we learn the bad news for the car industry from______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】本题询问对汽车工业产生不利的消息的来源。文章第一句便提到Lucas Electrical Company 所宣布的新举措使汽车工业又一次萎缩，紧接着的第二句进一步解释了举措的内容，即工人们的周工作日将缩短，因此只有C符合原意。

单选题 Which of the following is true about the bad news?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】本题为细节题，应将四个选项与原文一一比较。A的错误在于工人每周将工作四天而不是五天。B的错误在于妇女们将受到很大影响而不是提前退休。C是由另一家公司宣布的。D是正确的，因为文中讲到“The Lucas announcement is expected to have an aggravated effect on the region''s rapidly declining economy”，其中“aggravated”意为“made worse”，与问题中的“an increase of ”意思同致。