GMAT_GRE_LSAT閱讀全集 -PASSAGE 30

[usamiyo]

*Since the early 1970's, historians have begun to devote serious attention to the working class in the United States. Yet while we now have studies of working-class communities and culture, we know
5) remarkably little of worklessness. When historians have paid any attention at all to unemployment, they have focused on the Great Depression of the 1930's. The narrowness of this perspective ignores the pervasive recessions and joblessness of the previous decades, as
10) Alexander Keyssar shows in his recent book. Examining the period 1870-1920, Keyssar concentrates on Massa- chusetts, where the historical materials are particularly rich, and the findings applicable to other industrial areas.
*
15 ) The unemployment rates that Keyssar calculates appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depres- sion standards: during the worst years, in the 1870's and 1890's, unemployment was around 15 percent. Yet Keyssar rightly understands that a better way to
20) measure the impact of unemployment is to calculate unemployment frequencies—measuring the percentage of workers who experience any unemployment in the course of a year. Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger.
*
25) Keyssar also scrutinizes unemployment patterns according to skill level, ethnicity, race, age, class, and gender. He finds that rates of joblessness differed primarily according to class: those in middle-class and white-collar occupations were far less likely to be unem-
30) ployed. Yet the impact of unemployment on a specific class was not always the same. Even when dependent onthe same trade, adjoining communities could have dramatically different unemployment rates. Keyssar uses these differential rates to help explain a phenomenon
35) that has puzzled historians—the startlingly high rate of geographical mobility in the nineteenth-century United States. But mobility was not the dominant working-class strategy for coping with unemployment, nor was assis- tance from private charities or state agencies. Self-help
40) and the help of kin got most workers through jobless spells.
* While Keyssar might have spent more time develop- ing the implications of his findings on joblessness for contemporary public policy, his study, in its thorough
45) research and creative use of quantitative and qualitative evidence, is a model of historical analysis.

1. The passage is primarily concerned with
(A) recommending a new course of investigation
(B) summarizing and assessing a study
(C) making distinctions among categories
(D) criticizing the current state of a field
(E) comparing and contrasting two methods forcalculating data

2. The passage suggests that before the early 1970's, whichof the following was true of the study by historians ofthe working class in the United States?
(A) The study was infrequent or superficial, or both.
(B) The study was repeatedly criticized for its allegedlynarrow focus.
(C) The study relied more on qualitative thanquantitative evidence.
(D) The study focused more on the working-classcommunity than on working-class culture.
(E) The study ignored working-class joblessness duringthe Great Depression.

3. According to the passage, which of the following is trueof Keyssar's findings concerning unemployment inMassachusetts?
(A) They tend to contradict earlier findings about suchunemployment.
(B) They are possible because Massachusetts has themost easily accessible historical records.
(C) They are the first to mention the existence of highrates of geographical mobility in the nineteenthcentury.
(D) They are relevant to a historical understanding ofthe nature of unemployment in other states.
(E) They have caused historians to reconsider the role ofthe working class during the Great Depression.

4. According to the passage, which of the following is trueof the unemployment rates mentioned in line 15
(A) They hovered, on average, around 15 percent duringthe period 1870-1920.
(B) They give less than a full sense of the impact ofunemployment on working-class people.
(C) They overestimate the importance of middle classand white-collar unemployment.
(D) They have been considered by many historians tounderestimate the extent of working-classunemployment.
(E) They are more open to question when calculated foryears other than those of peak recession.

5. Which of the following statements about theunemployment rate during the Great Depression can beinferred from the passage?
(A) It was sometimes higher than 15 percent.
(B) It has been analyzed seriously only since the early1970's.
(C) It can be calculated more easily than canunemployment frequency.
(D) It was never as high as the rate during the 1870's.
(E) It has been shown by Keyssar to be lower thanpreviously thought.

6. According to the passage, Keyssar considers which of thefollowing to be among the important predictors of thelikelihood that a particular person would be unemployed inlate nineteenth-century Massachusetts?Ⅰ. The person's classⅡ. Where the person lived or workedⅢ. The person's age
(A) Ⅰonly
(B) Ⅱonly
(C) Ⅰand Ⅱ only
(D) Ⅰand Ⅲ only
(E) Ⅰ,Ⅱ, and Ⅲ

7. The author views Keyssar's study with
(A) impatient disapproval
(B) wary concern
(C) polite skepticism
(D) scrupulous neutrality
(E) qualified admiration

8. Which of the following, if true, would most stronglysupport Keyssar's findings as they are described by theauthor?
(A) Boston, Massachusetts, and Quincy, Massachusetts,adjoining communities, had a higher rate ofunemployment for working-class people in 1870than in 1890.
(B) White-collar professionals such as attorneys had asmuch trouble as day laborers in maintaining a steadylevel of employment throughout the period 1870-1920.
(C) Working-class women living in Cambridge,Massachusetts, were more likely than working-classmen living in Cambridge to be unemployed for someperiod of time during the year 1873.
(D) In the 1890's, shoe-factory workers moved away inlarge numbers from Chelmsford, Massachusetts,where shoe factories were being replaced by otherindustries, to adjoining West Chelmsford, where theshoe industry flourished.
(E) In the late nineteenth century, workers of all classesin Massachusetts were more likely than workers of allclasses in other states to move their place ofresidence from one location to another within thestate.


Ans: BADBACED

這一題也很難, 請幫忙解釋文章再說什麼呢?

[dibert8]

*I)提出之前的缺失,並引介某研究改進了此缺失
*II)~*IV)細述研究內容,並給予正面評價

1. The passage is primarily concerned with
(A) recommending a new course of investigation
(B) summarizing and assessing a study
(C) making distinctions among categories
(D) criticizing the current state of a field
(E) comparing and contrasting two methods for calculating data

main idea 題
(A) 沒有 recommending
(C) 不是 among categories
(D) too specific
(E) 沒提 'methods' for calculating data
=> (B) 字面完全符合

[dibert8]

2. The passage suggests that before the early 1970's, which of the following was true of the study by historians of the working class in the United States?
(A) The study was infrequent or superficial, or both.
(B) The study was repeatedly criticized for its allegedly narrow focus.
(C) The study relied more on qualitative than quantitative evidence.
(D) The study focused more on the working-class community than on working-class culture.
(E) The study ignored working-class joblessness during the Great Depression.

推論題
(B) 只被 AK 批評一次 (line 8), 不是 repreatedly
(C) (D) 無謂的比較
(E) 正相反
=> (A)

定位 line 1
Since the early 1970's, historians have begun to devote serious attention to the working class in the United States.
表示 1970's 前沒什麼研究 (infrequent)

Yet while we now have studies of working-class communities and culture, we know
5) remarkably little of worklessness.
表示研究很膚淺 (little = superficial)

[dibert8]

3. According to the passage, which of the following is true of Keyssar's findings concerning unemployment in Massachusetts?
(A) They tend to contradict earlier findings about such unemployment.
(B) They are possible because Massachusetts has the most easily accessible historical records.
(C) They are the first to mention the existence of high rates of geographical mobility in the nineteenth century.
(D) They are relevant to a historical understanding of the nature of unemployment in other states.
(E) They have caused historians to reconsider the role of the working class during the Great Depression.

細節題
(A) 沒提
(B) 極端字眼 most
(C) 極端字眼 first
(E) 沒提
=> (D)

定位
Examining the period 1870-1920, Keyssar concentrates on Massa- chusetts, where the historical materials are particularly rich, and the findings applicable to other industrial areas.
relevant = applicable; states = areas

[dibert8]

4. According to the passage, which of the following is true of the unemployment rates mentioned in line 15
(A) They hovered, on average, around 15 percent duringthe period 1870-1920.
(B) They give less than a full sense of the impact ofunemployment on working-class people.
(C) They overestimate the importance of middle classand white-collar unemployment.
(D) They have been considered by many historians to underestimate the extent of working-class unemployment.
(E) They are more open to question when calculated for years other than those of peak recession.

細節題
(A) 15% 是 worst ,不是 average
(C) (D) (E) 無謂的比較
=> (B)

定位 (考 yet)
Yet Keyssar rightly understands that a better way to
20) measure the impact of unemployment is to calculate unemployment frequencies—... Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger.

[dibert8]

5. Which of the following statements about the unemployment rate during the Great Depression can be inferred from the passage?
(A) It was sometimes higher than 15 percent.
(B) It has been analyzed seriously only since the early1970's.
(C) It can be calculated more easily than can unemployment frequency.
(D) It was never as high as the rate during the 1870's.
(E) It has been shown by Keyssar to be lower than previously thought.

推論題
(B) 武斷字眼 only
(C) 無謂的比較
(D) 武斷字眼 never
(E) 無謂的比較 (沒提 previously thought 是如何)
=> (A)

定位 (考 *II.1)
15 ) The unemployment rates that Keyssar calculates appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depres- sion standards: during the worst years, in the 1870's and 1890's, unemployment was around 15 percent.

[dibert8]

6. According to the passage, Keyssar considers which of the following to be among the important predictors of the likelihood that a particular person would be unemployed in late nineteenth-century Massachusetts?Ⅰ. The person's class Ⅱ. Where the person lived or worked Ⅲ. The person's age
(A) Ⅰonly
(B) Ⅱonly
(C) Ⅰand Ⅱ only
(D) Ⅰand Ⅲ only
(E) Ⅰ,Ⅱ, and Ⅲ

information (細節)題
He finds that rates of joblessness differed primarily according to class:
...
Keyssar uses these differential rates to help explain a phenomenon
35) that has puzzled historians—the startlingly high rate of geographical mobility in the nineteenth-century United States.
=> (C): 沒提 age

[dibert8]

7. The author views Keyssar's study with
(A) impatient disapproval
(B) wary concern
(C) polite skepticism
(D) scrupulous neutrality
(E) qualified admiration

作者態度題 (考 while ,重點在後)
While Keyssar might have spent more time develop- ing the implications of his findings on joblessness for contemporary public policy, his study, in its thorough
45) research and creative use of quantitative and qualitative evidence, is a model of historical analysis.
態度: (+)
(A) -
(B) -
(C) -
(D) 0
(E) +

[dibert8]

8. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly support Keyssar's findings as they are described by the author?
(A) Boston, Massachusetts, and Quincy, Massachusetts, adjoining communities, had a higher rate of unemployment for working-class people in 1870 than in 1890.
(B) White-collar professionals such as attorneys had as much trouble as day laborers in maintaining a steadylevel of employment throughout the period 1870-1920.
(C) Working-class women living in Cambridge,Massachusetts, were more likely than working-classmen living in Cambridge to be unemployed for someperiod of time during the year 1873.
(D) In the 1890's, shoe-factory workers moved away in large numbers from Chelmsford, Massachusetts,where shoe factories were being replaced by other industries, to adjoining West Chelmsford, where the shoe industry flourished.
(E) In the late nineteenth century, workers of all classes in Massachusetts were more likely than workers of all classes in other states to move their place of residence from one location to another within the state.

information 題
(A) 無謂的比較
(B) White-collar 應該比 day laborers 不易失業
(C) 沒提 women
(E) 跟 other states 作無謂的比較
=> (D): line 35, geographical mobility 的現象