During the past 34 years, wages for everyone at or below the 30 percent of the income distribu tion have essentially been flat, while wages for the poorest 10 percent of workers have fallen. At all income levels, women earn less on average than men do. Since wages for the lowest income group have fallen while wages at the highest income group have grown, income inequality has also increased. However, while there' s lots of talk about the adverse consequences of growing income inequality, it's really poverty, not income inequality, that's the problem. And, poverty is a particularly big problem for women and girls, who make up more than half the people living in poverty. Poverty has harmful consequences for women. Economist Barry Bosworth at the Brookings Institution looked at life expectancy for women. As Bosworth' s research paper reported, while life expectancy generally increases over time, that' s not the case for low-income women. A woman born in 1940 who is at the bottom of the income distribution has seen her life expectancy shrink by 2.1 years relative to the same low-income women born 20 years earlier. A good way to raise the wages of women is to raise the education levels of women. The more e-ducated a woman is, the more income she earns. Economist David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that the median woman with a college degree earned about $23, 000 more a year than a woman who terminated her education once she earned her high school diploma. There' s another way to increase wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute, there are some unpleasant explanations for low wages. Some employers inappropriately classify workers as independent contractors and some employers engage in "wage theft". Government is trying best to do something about this. "Wage theft" occurs when employers do things like pay less than the minimum wage, don't pay overtime rates, and require unpaid work, and seems to be a wide-spread problem. Since women make up two-thirds of workers in amount of service industries—where such problems occur frequently—such as fast-food industry, they'd likely benefit from reduced wage theft.
单选题 It can be inferred from Para. 2 that the real problem for income inequality is______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:推断题。短文第二段第二句指出it’s really poverty,not income inequality.即真正的问题其实是贫困,而不是贫富差距。C项的意思是说在最穷的那部分人中女性比男性多,这一句话显然是在传达女性贫穷问题十分严重,这与第二段的主旨吻合。故选项C正确。
单选题 According to Para. 3, which of the following is true?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:细节题。短文第三段最后一句指出A woman born in 1940 who is at the bottom of the income distributionhas seen her life expectancy shrink by 2.1 years relative to the same low-income women born 20 years earlier.即同属于低收入群体,1940年出生的人要比1920年出生的人的期望寿命缩短2.1年。故选项D正确。
单选题 Each of the following belongs to the "wage theft" EXCEPT______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:细节题。根据短文第五段可知,“偷减工资”包括三种情况,即薪水低于最低收入水平、加班不加钱、多干不给钱。选项B“员工生病或怀孕没有得到补助”在文中没有提及。故选项B正确。
单选题 Which is the necessary way to solve women' s poverty?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:推断题。短文第四段和第五段分别提出了两种解决贫困的办法,一是提高女性的受教育水平,二是政府加强对企业中“偷减工资”的监管力度。那么正确的选项一定要对应至少一条信息。故选项A正确。
单选题 What' s the author' s attitude toward low-income women?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:态度题。短文主旨是女性贫困问题,首先通过科学实验说明贫穷会对女性产生消极影响,随后又介绍了两种解决女性贫困的方法,一是提高女性受教育水平,二是加强对企业不法行为的监督规范。全文客观而全面地阐述女性贫困这一社会问题,故选项D正确。