单选题
Another month, another dismal set of job figures.
America pulled out of its last economic recession way back in November 2001, yet
the country's "jobs recession" finished only last autumn, when 2.7 million jobs
had been lost since the start of the slowdown. Now, though economic growth has
bounced back, new jobs refuse to do the same in this, the third year of
recovery. In February, a mere 21,000 jobs were created, according to the
official payroll survey, at a time when George Bush's economists forecast 2.6
million new jobs for 2004 mounting alarm at the White House, and increased calls
for protection against what a growing number of Americans see as the root of
most ills: the "outsourcing" of jobs to places like China and India. Last week
the Senate approved a bill that forbids the outsourcing of government
contracts--a curious case of a government guaranteeing not to deliver
value-for-money to taxpayers. American anxiety over the economy appears to have
tipped over into paranoia and self-delusion. Too strong? Not
really. As The Economist has recently argued--though in the face of many angry
readers--the jobs lost are mainly a cyclical affair, not a structural one. They
must also be set against the 24 million new jobs created during the 1990s.
Certainly, the slow pace of job-creation today is without precedent, but so were
the conditions that conspired to slow a booming economy at the beginning of the
decade. A stock market bubble burst, and rampant business investment slumped.
Then, when the economy was down, terrorist attacks were followed by a spate of
scandals that undermined public trust in the way companies were run. These acted
as powerful headwinds and, in the face of them, the last recession was
remarkably mild. By the same token, the recovery is mild, too. Still, in the
next year or so, today's high productivity growth will start to translate into
more jobs. Whether that is in time for Mr. Bush is another matter.
As for outsourcing, it is implausible now, as Lawrence Katz at Harvard
University argues, to think that outsourcing has profoundly changed the
structure of the American economy over just the past three or four years. After
all, outsourcing was in full swing--both in manufacturing and in
services--throughout the job-creating 1990s. Government statisticians reckon
that outsourced jobs are responsible for well under 1% of those signed up as
unemployed. And the jobs lost to outsourcing pale in comparison with the number
of jobs lost and created each month at home.
单选题
It seems that in the eyes of many Americans their unemployment is
caused by ______.
A. the economic recession in November 2001
B. the forecasts of George Bush's economists
C. the flow of job chances into developing countries
单选题
The bill approved last week shows that the Americans ______.
A. have been carried away with their fear of the gloomy employment
prospect
B. will be able to deliver more money than value to the taxpayers
C. decide that they would lay more emphasis on value than money
D. are becoming very curious about the government's outsourcing
contracts
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】这是一道推论题。题干中的信号词为The bill approved last week，出自于文章第一段倒数第二句话中。文章第一段后半部分指出：上个星期，参议院通过了一项法案，禁止政府签订资源外流的合同，这是一项政府保证不向纳税人提供物有所值的产品的奇怪案例；美国人对经济的焦虑已经使他们变成了偏执狂和妄想狂。这说明，对经济的焦虑已经使美国人失去理性了。A说“已经因为令人沮丧的就业前景而失去自制力”，这与文章的意思符合。B、C和D都与文章的意思不符合。
单选题
According to The Economist, the reason for mass unemployment is ______.
A. the unavoidable economic cycle
B. the poor performance of Bush government
C. the unhealthy structure of the economy
D. the booming economy at the beginning of the decade