2772- (42，55/63)

Passage 42 (42/63)

Historians sometimes forget that history is continually being made and experienced before it is studied, interpreted, and read. These latter activities have their own history, of course, which may impinge in unexpected ways on public events. It is difficult to predict when “new pasts” will overturn established historical interpretations and change the course of history.

In the fall of 1954, for example, C. Vann Woodward delivered a lecture series at the University of Virginia which challenged the prevailing dogma concerning the history, continuity, and uniformity of racial segregation in the South. He argued that the Jim Crow (Jim Crow: n. 〈贬〉黑人) laws of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries not only codified traditional practice but also were a determined effort to erase the considerable progress made by Black people during and after Reconstruction in the 1870’s. This revisionist view of Jim Crow legislation grew in part from the research that Woodward had done for the NAACP legal campaign during its preparation for Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court had issued its ruling in this epochal desegregation case a few months before Woodward’s lectures.

The lectures were soon published as a book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Ten years later, in a preface to the second revised edition, Woodward confessed with ironic modesty that the first edition “had begun to suffer under some of the handicaps that might be expected in a history of the American Revolution published in 1776.” That was a bit like hearing Thomas Paine apologize for the timing of his pamphlet Common Sense, which had a comparable impact. Although Common Sense also had a mass readership, Paine had intended to reach and inspire: he was not a historian, and thus not concerned with accuracy or the dangers of historical anachronism. Yet, like Paine, Woodward had an unerring sense of the revolutionary moment, and of how historical evidence could undermine the mythological tradition that was crushing the dreams of new social possibilities. Martin Luther King, Jr., testified to the profound effect of The Strange Career of Jim Crow on the civil rights movement by praising the book and quoting it frequently.

这段文章我读得迷迷糊糊，NN们为我讲一下结构。

Passage 55 (55/63)

(This passage was adapted from an article written in 1992.)

Some observers have attributed the dramatic growth in temporary employment that occurred in the United States during the 1980’s to increased participation in the workforce by certain groups, such as first-time or reentering workers, who supposedly prefer such arrangements. However, statistical analyses reveal that demographic changes in the workforce did not correlate with variations in the total number of temporary workers. Instead, these analyses suggest that factors affecting employers account for the rise in temporary employment. One factor is product demand: temporary employment is favored by employers who are adapting to fluctuating demand for products while at the same time seeking to reduce overall labor costs. Another factor is labor’s reduced bargaining strength, which allows employers more control over the terms of employment. Given the analyses, which reveal that growth in temporary employment now far exceeds the level explainable by recent workforce entry rates of groups said to prefer temporary jobs, firms should be discouraged from creating excessive numbers of temporary positions. Government policymakers should consider mandating benefit coverage for temporary employees, promoting pay equity between temporary and permanent workers, assisting labor unions in organizing temporary workers, and encouraging firms to assign temporary jobs primarily to employees who explicitly indicate that preference.

7.     The passage mentions each of the following as an appropriate kind of governmental action EXCEPT（应该是D）

(A) getting firms to offer temporary employment primarily to a certain group of people

(B) encouraging equitable pay for temporary and permanent employees

(C) facilitating the organization of temporary workers by labor unions

(D) establishing guidelines on the proportion of temporary workers that firms should employ（A）

(E) ensuring that temporary workers obtain benefits from their employers

为什么8题选A？

Passage42

1段提出一个新历史研究可能产生对老观点的反对．2,3段是个大例子说明1段的观点．

Passage55

我同意GEMJ的观点选D

Government policymakers should consider mandating benefit coverage for temporary employees（D), promoting pay equity between temporary and permanent workers（B), assisting labor unions in organizing temporary workers（C), and encouraging firms to assign temporary jobs primarily to employees who explicitly indicate that preference（A).

对于42篇，我想说一个观点．

1.什么例子跳过不读，绝对不可行，例如这篇文章，你要是想跳过例子，那就别读了．2,3段就是个大例子．

2.这种文章术语称为结论说明行．结论至关重要，一般后面的例子比结论要难理解的多，大例子读完你连文章的结论都不知道是什么了．所以一定始终记住文章的结论，例子内容不懂不要紧，但一定要知道是支持结论还是反对结论．

3.此文还不是最恶性的，看看GRE-90/04-A-L(Long)，第一句是结论．后面就是例子．这个例子跳过不读，那可真傻了

同感！有时候结论读得迷迷糊糊，还得靠例子来理解一下，要不一头雾水！