GMAT考试阅读资料(七)g

Passage 43

　　Historians of women‘s labor¹ in the United States at first　largely disregarded the story of female service workers-women earning wages in occupations such as salesclerk.domestic servant， and office secretary. These historians（5） focused instead on factory work，primarily because it seemed so different from traditional，unpaid² “women’s　 work” in the home，and because the underlying³ economic forces of industrialism were presumed to be gender-blind　 and hence emancipatory⁴ in effect. Unfortunately， emanci-（10）pation has been less profound than expected， for not even　 industrial wage labor has escaped continued sex segre-gation in the workplace.
　　To explain this unfinished revolution in the status of women，historians have recently begun to emphasize the（ 15） way a prevailing⁵ definition of femininity often etermines the kinds of work allocated⁶ to women，even when such　 allocation is inappropriate to new conditions. For instance，early textile-mill entrepreneurs，in justifying⁷ women‘s　 employment in wage labor， made much of the assumption（20）that women were by nature skillful at detailed⁸ tasks and　 patient in carrying out repetitive chores；the mill owners thus imported into the new industrial order hoary⁹ stereo-　 types associated with the homemaking activities they presumed to have been the purview¹⁰ of women. Because（25） women accepted the more unattractive new industrial tasks more readily than did men，such jobs came to be regarded as female jobs. And employers，who assumed that women’s “real” aspirations¹¹ were for marriage and family life.　 declined to pay women wages commensurate with those of（30）men. Thus many lower-skilled，lower-paid，less secure jobs came to be perceived as “female.”
　　More remarkable¹² than the origin has been the persistence¹³ of such sex segregation¹⁴ in twentieth-century industry. Once　an occupation came to be perceived as “female.” employers（35）showed surprisingly little interest in changing that　perception， even when higher profits beckoned¹⁵. And despite　the urgent need of the United States during the Second　World War to mobilize its human resources fully，job segregation by sex characterized even the most important40）war industries. Moreover，once the war ended，employers　quickly returned to men most of the “male” jobs that women had been permitted to master.

　　1. According to the passage， job segregation by sex in the United States was
　　　（A） greatly diminlated by labor mobilization during the Second World War
　　　（B） perpetuated¹⁶ by those textile-mill owners who argued in favor of women‘s employment in wage labor
　　　（C） one means by which women achieved greater job security
　　　（D） reluctantly challenged by employers except when the economic advantages were obvious
　　　（E） a constant source of labor unrest in the young textile industry

　　2. According to the passage， historians of women‘s labor focused on factory work as a more promising¹⁷ area of　research than service-sector¹⁸ work because factory work
　　　（A） involved the payment of higher wages
　　　（B） required skill in detailed tasks
　　　（C） was assumed to be less characterized by sex segregation
　　　（D） was more readily accepted by women than by men
　　　（E） fitted the economic dynamic of industrialism better

　　3. It can be inferred from the passage that early historians of women‘s labor in the United States paid little　attention to women’s employment in the service sector　of the economy because
　　　（A） the extreme variety of these occupations made it very difficult to assemble meaningful statistics about them
　　　（B） fewer women found employment in the service sector than in factory work
　　　（C） the wages paid to workers in the service sector were much lower than those paid in the industrial sector
　　　（D） women‘s employment in the service sector tended to be much more short-term than in factory work
　　　（E） employment in the service sector seemed to have much in common with the unpaid work associated with homemaking

　　4. The passage supports which of the following statements　about the early mill owners mentioned in the second　paragraph？
　　　（A） They hoped that by creating relatively¹⁹ unattractive “female” jobs they would discourage women from losing interest in marriage and family life.
　　　（B） They sought to increase the size of the available labor force as a means to keep men‘s to keep men’s  wages low.
　　　（C） They argued that women were inherently suited to do well in particular kinds of factory work.
　　　（D） They thought that factory work bettered the condition of women by emancipating²⁰ them from dependence²¹ on income earned by men.
　　　（E） They felt guilty about disturbing the traditional division of labor in family.

　　5. It can be inferred from the passage that the “unfinished revolution” the author mentions in line 13 refers to the
　　　（A） entry of women into the industrial labor market
　　　（B） recognition that work done by women as homemakers should be compensated²² at rates comparable to those prevailing in the service sector of the economy
　　　（C） development of a new definition of femininity unrelated to the economic forces of industrialism
　　　（D） introduction of equal pay for equal work in all professions
　　　（E） emancipation²³ of women wage earners from gender-determined job allocation

　　6. The passage supports which of the following statements about hiring policies in the United States？
　　　（A） After a crisis many formerly²⁴ “male” jobs are reclassified as “female” jobs.
　　　（B） Industrial employers generally prefer to hire women  with previous experience as homemakers.
　　　（C） Post-Second World War hiring policies caused women to lose many of their wartime gains in employment opportunity.
　　　（D） Even war industries during the Second World War were reluctant to hire women for factory work.
　　　（E） The service sector of the economy has proved more nearly gender-blind in its hiring policies than has the manufacturing sector.

　　7. Which of the following words best expresses the opinion　of the author of the passage concerning the notion that　women are more skillful than men in carrying out　detailed tasks？
　　　（A） “patient” （line 21）
　　　（B） “repetitive” （line 21）
　　　（C） “hoary” （line 22）
　　　（D） “homemaking” （line 23）
　　　（E） “purview” （line 24）

　　8. Which of the following best describes the relationship of the final paragraph to the passage as a whole？　
　　　（A） The central idea is reinforced by the citation²⁵ of evidence drawn²⁶ from twentieth-century history.
　　　（B） The central idea is restated in such a way as to form a transition to a new topic for discussion.
　　　（C） The central idea is restated and juxtaposed with evidence that might appear to contradic it.
　　　（D） A partial exception to the generalizations²⁷ of the central idea is dismissed as unimportant.
　　　（E） Recent history is cited to suggest that the central idea‘s validity is gradually diminishing.