分析2015届高考英语二轮专题训练阅读理解a.docxVIP

PAGE PAGE 3 2015 届高考英语二轮专题训练：阅读理解（ 23） A A new age is coming. Call it what you will: the service economy, the information age, the knowledge society. It all translates to a fundamental change in the way we work. Already we’re partly there, the percentage of people who earn their living by making things has fallen dramatically in the Western World. Today the majority of jobs in America, Europeand Japan are in the service industry, and the number is on the rise. More women are in the work force than ever before. There are more part-time jobs. More people are self-employed. But the range of the economic transformation can’t be measured by numbers alone, because it also is giving rise to important new way of thinking about the nature of work itself. Long-held ideas about jobs and careers, the skills needed to succeed, even the relation between individuals and employers— all these are being challenged. We have only to look behind us to get some sense of what may lie ahead. No one looking ahead 20 years possibly could have foreseen theways in which a single invention, the chip, would transform our world thanks to its applications in personal computers, digital communications and factory robots. Tomorrow’s achievements in biotechnology, artificial intelligence or even some still unimagined technology could produce a similar wave of dramatic changes. But one thing is certain: information and knowledge will become even more valid, and the people who possess it, whether they work in manufacturing or services, will have the advantage and produce the wealth. Computer knowledge will become as basic a requirement as the ability to read and write. The ability to solve problems by applying information instead of performing routine tasks will be valued above all else. If you cast your mind ahead 10 years, information service will be superior. It will be the way you do your job. A characteristic of the new age mentioned in the passage is that . the service industry mainly relies