2014届高考英语一轮复习限时阅读训练31.docVIP

2014届高考英语一轮复习限时阅读训练31 （A） Employment practices often reflect the needs of employers several decades ago. Times have changed. And so has the Canadian workforce. Yet many employment practices have not kept pace with this change. For example, some work environments and washrooms designed for able-bodied workers seldom accommodate people who use a wheelchair. Modernizing these practices is what employment equality is about. For example, making sure work benches and washrooms are adapted for disabled people entering the workplace paves the way for workers who become disabled on the job. By doing so, any given group of people formerly discriminated against—now has access to better employment opportunities. The objective, of course, is to make the workplace reflect Canadian society. However, this does not necessarily mean setting and enforcing quotas(实行配额）. Rather, it means identifying the barriers to employment and designing measures, with achievable goals and clear timetables, to remove them. For example, according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees—Canada’s largest union, it would be unrealistic in the short term to insist that because half of the working age population is women, that half of the employees of an engineering firm should be women. At this moment, there would not be enough qualified female engineers. A reasonable numerical goal would be based on the number of women who actually are engineers（8%） and those who are studying to become engineers（25%）. A short term goal of 13% would be appropriate without running the risk of hiring unqualified people. Equally important is to ensure people who have been disadvantaged the chance to become qualified for new opportunities. If aboriginal people（土著居民）, for example, can’t qualify for certain jobs because they haven’t had access to appropriate educational opportunities, then an employment equality program would have to address that problem with training programs. Employment laws in this country cannot b