单选题 In 1910, Henry Van Dyke wrote a book called "The Spirit of America, " which opened with this sentence: "The Spirit of America is best known in Europe by one of its qualities— energy. " This has always been true. Americans have always been known for their manic dynamism. Some condemned this ambition as a scrambling after money. Others saw it in loftier terms. But energy has always been the country's saving feature.
So Americans should be especially alert to signs that the country is becoming less vital and assiduous. One of those signs comes to us from the labor market. According to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has a smaller share of prime age men in the work force than any other G-7 nation.
Part of the problem has to do with human capital. More American men lack the emotional and professional skills they would need to contribute. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 35 percent of those without a high school diploma are out of the labor force, compared with less than 10 percent of those with a college degree. Part of the problem has to do with structural changes in the economy. Sectors like government, health care and high-tech have been growing, generating jobs for college grads. Sectors like manufacturing, agriculture and energy have been getting more productive, but they have not been generating more jobs. Instead, companies are using machines or foreign workers.
The result is this: There are probably more idle men now than at any time since the Great Depression, and this time the problem is mostly structural, not cyclical. This is a big problem. It can't be addressed through the sort of short-term Keynesian stimulus some on the left are still fantasizing about. It can't be solved by simply reducing the size of government, as some on the right imagine.
It will probably require a broad menu of policies attacking the problem all at once: expanding community colleges and online learning; changing the corporate tax code and labor market rules to stimulate investment; adopting German-style labor market practices like apprenticeship programs, wage subsidies and programs that extend benefits to the unemployed for six months as they start small businesses.
Reinvigorating the missing fifth—bringing them back into the labor market and using their capabilities—will certainly require money. If this were a smart country, we'd be having a debate about how to shift money from programs that provide comfort and toward programs that spark reinvigoration.
But, of course, that's not what is happening. Discretionary spending, which might be used to instigate dynamism, is declining. Health care spending, which mostly provides comfort to those beyond working years, is expanding. Attempts to take money from health care to open it up for other uses are being crushed. We're locking in the nation's wealth into the Medicare program and closing off any possibility that we might do something significant to reinvigorate the missing fifth. Next time you see a politician demagoguing Medicare, ask this : Should we be using our resources in the manner of a nation in decline or one still committed to stoking the energy of its people and continuing its rise?

单选题 The loss of American dynamism concerned by the author is mainly manifested in the fact that ______.
A. American young are more indolent than their counterparts in other countries
B. America suffered from a higher rate of unemployment than other countries
C. More American young are out of work than their counterparts in other countries
D. American young are obsessed with the incessant quest for material comforts

单选题 The word assiduous is closest in meaning to ______.
A. industrious
B. scholarly
C. manic
D. optimistic

单选题 It is suggested in paragraph 3 that the dropping out of prime age labor force is partly due to ______.
A. their lack of ambition
B. overstaffed government organizations
C. the changes in industry accommodating them
D. pessimistic economic outlook

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】因果细节题
[解析] 本题考查对文章第三段内容的理解。第三段主要分析了导致美国年轻人失业率高的原因。有两方面原因，一方面是内因，这部分年轻人本身学历低，不具备就业的能力；一方面是外因，美国经济结构的变化引发了有些部门结构性过剩，而这些部门正是这部分学历低的年轻人赖以生存的行业。[A]选项指出缺乏斗志，文中没有提及。[B]选项利用government设置干扰项。第三段提到有些部门，例如政府部门提供了很多的就业岗位，但是这些就业岗位只适合有大学学历的人，对文中提到的学历低的年轻人并不适合。而[B]选项中overstaffed government organization本身和失业问题就没有直接联系。[C]正确，第三段提到制造业、农业等行业的生

单选题 To address the unemployment problem mentioned in this passage, the American government should ______.
A. divert more labor force from manufacturing sectors to high-tech sectors
B. roll out more programs to enhance the competitive edge of the jobless
C. do nothing but wait for the return of business cycle
D. provide more unemployment pension to the jobless

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】具体细节题
[解析] 文章第四段提到美国现在的失业问题属于结构性失业，这和20世纪30年代大萧条时期的循环性失业是不同的。不能够单纯地依靠政府刺激方案或者缩小政府规模来解决问题。第五段提到了诸多解决方案，总结起来主要有这样几点：提升就业者素养；鼓励公司扩大就业；鼓励失业者自己创业。[A]选项错误，虽然第三段提到生产行业劳动力过剩，而高科技行业劳动力不足，但是政府也不可能直接对这两类劳动力进行转移，因为各个行业对劳动力技能的需求是不同的。[B]选项正确，文中第五段提到的增加社区学校、鼓励网上学习等都是提升失业者竞争力的方法。[C]选项错误，美国这次的失业问题不是经济循环产生的自然性劳动力过剩，而是结构性过剩。[D]选项偷梁换柱，第五段最后提到对于那些打算自主创业的失业人员，可以让他们多领半年的失业救济金。这里针对的是打算自主创业的失业人员，并不是让政府毫无条件地增加失业救济金，这样做，只会使失业问题更为严重。