历年大学英语六级阅读理解真题及答案汇总.doc

上学吧： :// shangxueba 1990年1月大学英语六级阅读理解真题及答案 Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes) Passage One Questions 21 to 24 are based on the following passage: Automation refers to the introduction of electronic control and automatic operation of pro-ductive machinery. It reduces the human factors, mental and physical, in production, and is de-signed to make possible the manufacture of more goods with fewer workers. The development of automation in American industry has been called the quot;Second Industrial Revolutionquot;. Labour’s concern over automation arises from uncertainty about the effects on employ-ment, and fears of major changes in jobs. In the main, labour has taken the view that resistance to technical change is unfruitful. Eventually, the result of automation may well be an increase in employment, since it is expected that vast industries will grow up around manufacturing, main-taining, and repairing automation equipment. The interest of labour lies in bringing about the transition with a minimum of inconvenience and distress to the workers involved. AI~, union spokesmen emphasize that the benefit of the increased production and lower costs made possible by automation should be shared by workers in the form of higher wages, more leisure, and improved living standards. To protect the interests of their members in the era of automation, unions have adopted a number of new policies. One of these is the promotion of supplementary unemployment benefit plans. It is emphasized that since the employer involved in such a plan has a direct financial interest in preventing unemployment, he will have a strong drive for planning new installations so as to cause the least possible problems in jobs and job assignments. Some unions are working for dismissal pay agreements, requiring that permanently dismissed workers be paid a sum of money based on length of service. Another approach is the idea of the quot;improvement factorquot;, which calls for wage increa