When Jane Matheson started work at Advanced Electronics Inc. 12 years ago, (61) she laboured over a microscope, hand-welding tiny electronic computers and turned out 18 per hour. Now she tends the computerized machinery that turns out high capacity memory chips at the rate of 2,600 per hour. Production is up, profits are up, her income is up and Mrs. Matheson says the work is far less strain on her eyes.

But the most significant effect of the changes at AEI was felt by the workers who are no longer there. Before the new computerized equipment was introduced, there were 940 workers at the plant. Now there are 121. (62) A plant follow-up survey showed that one year after the layoffs only 38% of the released workers found new employment at the same or better wages. Nearly half finally settled for lower pay and more than 13% are still out of work. The AEI example is only one of hundreds around the country which forge intelligently ahead into the latest technology, but leave the majority of their workers behind.

(63) Its beginnings obscured by unemployment caused by the world economic slow-down, the new technological unemployment may emerge as the great socio-economic challenge of the end of the 20th century. One corporation economist says the growth of “machine job replacement” has been with us since the beginning of the industrial revolution, but never at the pace it is now. The human costs will be astonishing. (64) “It’s humiliating to be done out of your job by a machine and there is no way to fight back, but it is the effort to find a new job that really hurts.” Some workers, like Jane Matheson, are retrained to handle the new equipment, but often a whole new set of skills is required and that means a new, and invariably smaller set of workers. (65) The old workers, trapped by their limited skills, often never regain their old status and employment. Many drift into marginal areas. They feel no pride in their new work. They get badly paid for it and they feel miserable, but still they are luckier than those who never find it.

(66) The social costs go far beyond the welfare and unemployment payments made by the government. Unemployment increases the chances of divorce, child abuse, and alcoholism, a new federal survey shows. Some experts say the problem is only temporary... that new technology will eventually create as many jobs as it destroys. (67) But futurologist Hymen Seymour says the astonishing efficiency of the new technology means there will be a simple and direct net reduction in the amount of human labor that needs to be done. “We should treat this as an opportunity to give people more leisure. It may not be easy, but society will have to reach a new unanimity on the division and distribution of labor,” Seymour says. He predicts most people will work only six-hour days and four-day weeks by the end of the century. But the concern of the unemployed is for now. (68) Federally funded training and free back-to-school programs for laid-off workers are under way, but few experts believe they will be able to keep up with the pace of the new technology. For the next few years, for a substantial portion of the workforce, times are going to be very tough indeed.

1989年参考答案

I: Structure and Vocabulary (15 points)

1. [B] 2. [C] 3. [D] 4. [B] 5. [A]

6. [C] 7. [A] 8. [C] 9. [D] 10. [D]

11. [B] 12. [B] 13. [D] 14. [B] 15. [B]

II: Reading Comprehension (20 points)

16. [A] 17. [B] 18. [D] 19. [C] 20. [D]

21. [A] 22. [C] 23. [D] 24. [A] 25. [B]

III: Cloze Test (10 points)

26. [A] 27. [A] 28. [C] 29. [B] 30. [D]

31.

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