Text 2 Britain's flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump,helping keep joblessness down and then,when the recovery began,allowing employment to rise.Yet one of its bendier bits is

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It is frequently assumed that the mechanization of work has a revolutionary effect on the livesof the people who operate the new machines and on the society into which the machines have beenintroduced. For example, it has been suggested that the employment of women in industry takethem out of the. household, their traditional sphere and fundamentally alter their position in society.In the nineteenth century, when women began to enter factories, Jules Simon, a French politician,warned that by doing so, women would give up their femininity. Fredrich Engels, however,predicted that women would be liberated from the"social, legal, and economic subordination" ofthe family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of "the whole femalesex .., into public industry." Observers thus differed concerning the social desirability ofmechanization's effects, but thev agreed that it would trmsiorm women's lives.
Historians, particularly thnse investigating the history of women, now seriously question thisassumption of transforming power. They conclude that such dramatic technological innovations asthe spinning jenny, the sewing tnachine, the typewriter, and the vacuum cleaner have not resultedin equally dramatic social changes in women's economic position or in the prevailing evaluation ofwomen's work. The employment of young women in textile mills during the Industrial Revolutionwas largely and extension of an older pattern of employment for young, single women as domestics.It was not the change in office technology, but rather the separation of secretarial work, previouslyseen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers, from administrative work that in the 1880'screated a new class of "dead end" jobs, thenceforth considered "women's work". The increase inthe numbers of married women enployed outside the home in the twentieth century, had less to dowith the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it didwith their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool ofsingle women worke, previously, in many cases, the only women employers would hire.
Women's work has changed considerably in the past 200 years, moving from the household tothe ofiice or the factory, and later becoming mostly white-collar instead of blue-collar work. Fundamentally, however, the conditions under which women work have changed little since the Industrial Revolution: the segregation of occupatious by gender, lower pay for women as a group,jobs that require relatively low levels of skill and offer women little opportunity for advancement all persist, while women's household labour remains demanding. Recent historical investigation has led to a major revision of the notion that lec.hnology is always inherently revolutionary in its effectson society. Mechanization may even have slowed any change in the traditional position of womeu both in the labour market and in the home.

Why did the numbers of married women employers increase in the 20th century?
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A．The mechanization of housework.
B．The married women have much spare time.
C．The employers don't want to hire the single women.
D．Because of their own economic uecessity and high marriage rates.

The colourful chalkboards and baskets of fruit that greet customers at the entrances of Whole Foods Market's shops paint a rosy picture.Yet shares in the American seUer of organic and natural food have fallen by more than 40%since hitting a peak last October,in a period when stock markets have been strong.41.It is not that the retailer is in immediate crisis:its latest quarterly figures,on July 30th,showed sales and profits both up a bit.And it is not that people are going off the idea of paying more for food produced without chemical fertilisers,pesticides or additives:the Intemational Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements reckons that the industry's worldwide revenues were a record of 63 biUion in 2012;and Techsci Research,a market-research firm,predicts that the American market for such foods-the world's largest-may grow by 14%by 2018.42.The problem is that at Whole Foods,shoppers have been paying way over the cost of regular produce,and its success in getting them to do so has now attracted a lot of competitors,from rival organics chains like Sprouts and Trader Joe's to mass-market retailers like Walmart and Costco.As a result,the pnce premium for organic produce is crashing down.On a recent shopping trip,a pound of organic apples cost 2.99 at Wbole Foods but just l.99 at Sprouts and even less at Costco.43.The firm has been trimming costs to keep its margins up,but the slump in its share price reflects investors'expectation that this cannot continue,that profits will suffer and that Whole Foods'dominance of the market is coming to an end.44.That the company has had to recall a number of products-in late July it and other grocers recalled plums and peaches suspected of contanunation with Listeria bacteria-has made it harder to maintain an air of superiority over its competitors.Organic foods'claim to superiority is questionable anyway.Both Britain's Food Standards Agency and the Annals of Internal Medicine,a journal,concluded after reviewing the extensive studies on the issue that there is no substantial difference in the nutriliousness of organics and non-organics.In some respects organics may be bad for the environment,because growing them uses land less efficiendy than non-organics.45.As for"natural"foods,there is no official definition of this,in America at least;so the label,which Whole Foods also applies to many products,is close to meaningless.Alan McHughen,a bota-nist at the University of California,Riverside,argues that the whole industry is"99%marketing;and public perception,"reeling people in through a fabricated concept of a time when food,and life in general,was simple and wholesome.If true,the trick has worked nicely for Whole Foods.But its success has attracted so many imitators that it is losing its uniqueness.Even recent speculation about a takeover bid has failed to lift its shares.It may insist its food is sustainable.But it seem8 its prices are not.43选？

A.Crisis Seems Far
B.The Firm Is At Risk
C.More Rivals Join In
D.Natural Foods Are Unreal

请阅读短文，完成此题。
It is frequently assumed that the mechanization of work has a revolutionary effect on the livesof the people who operate the new machines and on the society into which the machines have beenintroduced. For example, it has been suggested that the employment of women in industry takethem out of the. household, their traditional sphere and fundamentally alter their position in society.In the nineteenth century, when women began to enter factories, Jules Simon, a French politician,warned that by doing so, women would give up their femininity. Fredrich Engels, however,predicted that women would be liberated from the"social, legal, and economic subordination" ofthe family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of "the whole femalesex .., into public industry." Observers thus differed concerning the social desirability ofmechanization's effects, but thev agreed that it would trmsiorm women's lives.
Historians, particularly thnse investigating the history of women, now seriously question thisassumption of transforming power. They conclude that such dramatic technological innovations asthe spinning jenny, the sewing tnachine, the typewriter, and the vacuum cleaner have not resultedin equally dramatic social changes in women's economic position or in the prevailing evaluation ofwomen's work. The employment of young women in textile mills during the Industrial Revolutionwas largely and extension of an older pattern of employment for young, single women as domestics.It was not the change in office technology, but rather the separation of secretarial work, previouslyseen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers, from administrative work that in the 1880'screated a new class of "dead end" jobs, thenceforth considered "women's work". The increase inthe numbers of married women enployed outside the home in the twentieth century, had less to dowith the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it didwith their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool ofsingle women worke, previously, in many cases, the only women employers would hire.
Women's work has changed considerably in the past 200 years, moving from the household tothe ofiice or the factory, and later becoming mostly white-collar instead of blue-collar work. Fundamentally, however, the conditions under which women work have changed little since the Industrial Revolution: the segregation of occupatious by gender, lower pay for women as a group,jobs that require relatively low levels of skill and offer women little opportunity for advancement all persist, while women's household labour remains demanding. Recent historical investigation has led to a major revision of the notion that lec.hnology is always inherently revolutionary in its effectson society. Mechanization may even have slowed any change in the traditional position of womeu both in the labour market and in the home.

The best title of the passage may be
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A．The Influence of Mechanization
B．The Status of Women is Changing
C．Changes of Women's Work
D．Are Women and Men Equal

请阅读短文，完成此题。
It is frequently assumed that the mechanization of work has a revolutionary effect on the livesof the people who operate the new machines and on the society into which the machines have beenintroduced. For example, it has been suggested that the employment of women in industry takethem out of the. household, their traditional sphere and fundamentally alter their position in society.In the nineteenth century, when women began to enter factories, Jules Simon, a French politician,warned that by doing so, women would give up their femininity. Fredrich Engels, however,predicted that women would be liberated from the"social, legal, and economic subordination" ofthe family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of "the whole femalesex .., into public industry." Observers thus differed concerning the social desirability ofmechanization's effects, but thev agreed that it would trmsiorm women's lives.
Historians, particularly thnse investigating the history of women, now seriously question thisassumption of transforming power. They conclude that such dramatic technological innovations asthe spinning jenny, the sewing tnachine, the typewriter, and the vacuum cleaner have not resultedin equally dramatic social changes in women's economic position or in the prevailing evaluation ofwomen's work. The employment of young women in textile mills during the Industrial Revolutionwas largely and extension of an older pattern of employment for young, single women as domestics.It was not the change in office technology, but rather the separation of secretarial work, previouslyseen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers, from administrative work that in the 1880'screated a new class of "dead end" jobs, thenceforth considered "women's work". The increase inthe numbers of married women enployed outside the home in the twentieth century, had less to dowith the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it didwith their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool ofsingle women worke, previously, in many cases, the only women employers would hire.
Women's work has changed considerably in the past 200 years, moving from the household tothe ofiice or the factory, and later becoming mostly white-collar instead of blue-collar work. Fundamentally, however, the conditions under which women work have changed little since the Industrial Revolution: the segregation of occupatious by gender, lower pay for women as a group,jobs that require relatively low levels of skill and offer women little opportunity for advancement all persist, while women's household labour remains demanding. Recent historical investigation has led to a major revision of the notion that lec.hnology is always inherently revolutionary in its effectson society. Mechanization may even have slowed any change in the traditional position of womeu both in the labour market and in the home.

The underlined word "innovations" in Para.2 may be replaced by
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A．efficiency
B．productivity
C．innovations
D．transforming

请阅读短文，完成此题。
It is frequently assumed that the mechanization of work has a revolutionary effect on the livesof the people who operate the new machines and on the society into which the machines have beenintroduced. For example, it has been suggested that the employment of women in industry takethem out of the. household, their traditional sphere and fundamentally alter their position in society.In the nineteenth century, when women began to enter factories, Jules Simon, a French politician,warned that by doing so, women would give up their femininity. Fredrich Engels, however,predicted that women would be liberated from the"social, legal, and economic subordination" ofthe family by technological developments that made possible the recruitment of "the whole femalesex .., into public industry." Observers thus differed concerning the social desirability ofmechanization's effects, but thev agreed that it would trmsiorm women's lives.
Historians, particularly thnse investigating the history of women, now seriously question thisassumption of transforming power. They conclude that such dramatic technological innovations asthe spinning jenny, the sewing tnachine, the typewriter, and the vacuum cleaner have not resultedin equally dramatic social changes in women's economic position or in the prevailing evaluation ofwomen's work. The employment of young women in textile mills during the Industrial Revolutionwas largely and extension of an older pattern of employment for young, single women as domestics.It was not the change in office technology, but rather the separation of secretarial work, previouslyseen as an apprenticeship for beginning managers, from administrative work that in the 1880'screated a new class of "dead end" jobs, thenceforth considered "women's work". The increase inthe numbers of married women enployed outside the home in the twentieth century, had less to dowith the mechanization of housework and an increase in leisure time for these women than it didwith their own economic necessity and with high marriage rates that shrank the available pool ofsingle women worke, previously, in many cases, the only women employers would hire.
Women's work has changed considerably in the past 200 years, moving from the household tothe ofiice or the factory, and later becoming mostly white-collar instead of blue-collar work. Fundamentally, however, the conditions under which women work have changed little since the Industrial Revolution: the segregation of occupatious by gender, lower pay for women as a group,jobs that require relatively low levels of skill and offer women little opportunity for advancement all persist, while women's household labour remains demanding. Recent historical investigation has led to a major revision of the notion that lec.hnology is always inherently revolutionary in its effectson society. Mechanization may even have slowed any change in the traditional position of womeu both in the labour market and in the home.

Which of the following statement is Not true?
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A．Now the phenomenon of choosing employees by gender does no longer exist.
B．Women have little opportunity for promotion.
C．Women are needed to do much housework.
D．Women always get low pay in their occupations.

The world economic recession put an ____ end to the steel market upturn that began in 2002.

A.irregular
B.illegal
C.abrupt
D.absurd

Text 2 Britain's flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump,helping keep joblessness down and then,when the recovery began,allowing employment to rise.Yet one of its bendier bits is causing politicians to fret.Ed Miliband,the leader of the Labour Party,has promised a crackdown on"zero_hours contracts"if he wins the next election.The government has launched a consultation.Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need,with no prior notice.In theory,at least,people can refuse work.Fully l.4m jobs were based on these contracts in January 2014,according to a snapshot taken by the Office for National Statistics.That is just 4%of the total,but the share rises to a quarter in the hospitality business.The contracts are useful for firms with erratic pattems of demand,such as hotels and restaurants.They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery-allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff,who would be more costly to make redundant if things went wrong.Flexibility suits some workers,too.According to'one survey,47%of those employed on zero-hours contracts were content to have no minimum contracted hours.Many of these workers are in full-time education.The ability to tum down work is important to students,who want to revise（or sit in the sun）at this time of year.Pensioners keen for a little extra income can often live with the uncertainty of not having guaranteed hours.Yet that leaves more than a quarter of workers on zero-hours contracts who say they are unhappy with their conditions.Some of this is cyclical.During recessions,a dearth of permanent positions forces people into jobs with no contracted hours even if they do not want them（the govemment has just said that unemployed people who refuse to accept zero-hours contracts could be cut off from benerits）.Underemployment is particularly prevalent among these workers,35%of whom would like more hours compared with 12%in other jobs.As the economy recovers,many should be able to renegotiate their contracts or find permanent jobs.But the recovery will not cause unwanted zero hours contracts to disappear.Some workers will never have much negotiating power:they are constrained by geography,family commitments and lack of competition for their skills among a small number of big employers.Zero-hours contracts make it easier for employers to abuse their labour-market power.Some use them to avoid statutory obligations such as sick and maternity pay.Workers are penalised for not being available when requested.And some contracts contain exclusivity clauses which prevent workers from taking additionaljobs.These can harm other employers as well as workers,and actually reduce labour market flexibility.That,at least,is worth doing away with.
Which ofthe following is the best title ofthis text?

A.Zero-hours Contract-Lack of Flexibility
B.Zero-hours Contract-an Out-of-date Policy
C.Zero-hours Contract-an Illegal Policy
D.Zero-hours Contract-a Challenging Way Against Permanent Job