After Susan Joyce was laid off from Digital Equipment Corp. , she was horrified to hear of two suicides in her layoff group. Then she learned about a colleague who stabbed his wife to death and hung himself. "I worked with him for 10 years, maybe more," says Joyce. "He seemed like a nice guy. These cases may sound extreme, but being fired or laid off is undeniably one of life' s biggest blows and can lead to clinical depression, violence and alcohol abuse, as well as strokes and heart attacks. Even the fear of losing a job produces more doctor visits and health worries. In short, the recent news about rising unemployment and job insecurity may be bad news for our health. Layoffs create a sense of hopelessness. Stress - related complaints such as insomnia and headaches tend to follow, lingering even after victims find new jobs, says University of Michigan psychologist Richard Price, who tracked more than 700 layoff victims for two years. Research based on 17 years of Pennsylvania unemployment records concluded that employees affected by a mass layoff at a plant were 15 percent more likely to die of any cause over the next two decades. Experts blame the cascade (大量倾泻) of misfortune that often follows after a layoff, including the loss of health insurance. Your health can suffer simply from fear of losing your job, says Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan. After crunching data from two large national surveys, she concluded that chronic job insecurity over a two - year period rivals the anxiety of a job loss or a major illness. Burgard adjusted her data for what psychologists call "neuroticism" and found that even people who aren' t typically worriers report worse health when they believe their jobs are in danger. Fears of poor job prospects may have similar consequences. When Swedish researchers asked 21 - year - olds about their health during a recession, they reported more problems than a comparison group during a boom. Economic stress may even show up in national public -health measures, although experts disagree about how to calculate those effects. Harvey Brenner, professor emeritus ([大学教师]退休后仍保留头衔的，荣誉退休的) at Johns Hopkins's Bloomberg School of Public Health and a professor of public health at the University of North Texas, argues that the 1 percentage point increase in unemployment since a year ago could have serious health repercussions (持续影响，反响) for the next two years. According to Brenner' s projections, there could be as many as 47,000 more deaths than would have otherwise occurred, including 1,200 more suicides, as well as nearly 26,000 more heart attacks. Should unemployment continue to rise, these numbers are likely to increase too, he says.
单选题
What do we know about Susan Joyce?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】推理判断题。由题干中的Susan Joyce定位到第一段。第一段开头就指出Susan Joyce下岗之后听说了两则惊人的消息，所以乍看去A选项是正确的，但这里面需要注意时态所标明的时间概念，was laid off。与is out of work所标明的时问是有出入的，所以A)选项不正确。第一段确实提到了三个人的死亡，但其中只有一个明确说明是Susan Joyce的前同事，故排除B。从Susan Joyce对于自己前同事的描述He seemed like a nice guy．可以知道他不像是会做出文中提到的惊人之举的人，因此排除C。Susan Joyce说自己与做出惊人之举的前同事共事十年甚至更长，由此可以推断Susan Joyce失去工作之前工作时间应该是超过10年，故D正确。
单选题
Which of the following statements about layoffs is true according to the passage?
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】事实细节题。根据题干中的lay off可以定位到第二、三段。第二段第一句就指出being fired or laid off is undeniably one of life's biggest blows，A选项绝对了，排除了其他人生所面临的重大打击，故不正确。同一句话后半部分说丢掉工作“不仅会导致中风和心脏病，还会引起抑郁、暴力和酗酒”，显然B符合这一描述。第三段第二句话指出失去工作会引起例如失眠和头痛在内的健康问题，而这些问题lingering even after victims find new jobs，故排除C。本文主要说明了being laid off与job insecurity对人生理和心理健康的影响，并没有涉及到二者之间的关系，故D不正确。
单选题
Which of the following is" crunching" ( Line 17, Paragraph 4) closest to in meaning?