一道到现在还没有定论的GWD题求教，GWD-8-Q27 ，求感兴趣的NN们指教！

lilydenris

GWD-8-Q25-Q28
Jon Clark’s study of the effect of the modernization of a telephone exchange on exchange maintenance work and workers is a solid contribution to a debate that encompasses two lively issues in the history and socialogy of technology: technological determinism and social constructivism. Clark makes the point that the characteristics of a technology have a decisive influence on job skills and work organization. Put more strongly, technology can be a primary determinant of social and managerial organization. Clark believes this possibility has been obscured by the recent sociological fashion, exemplified by Braverman’s analysis, that emphasizes the way machinery reflects social choices. For Braverman, the shape of a technological system is subordinate to the manager’s desire to wrest control of the labor process from the workers. Technological change is construed as the outcome of negotiations among interested parties who seek to incorporate their own interests into the design and configuration of the machinery. This position represents the new mainstream called social constructivism.
The constructivists gain acceptance by misrepresenting technological determinism: technological determinists are supposed to believe, for example, that machinery imposes appropriate forms of order on society. The alternative to constructivism, in other words, is to view technology as existing outside society, capable of directly influencing skills and work organization. Clark refutes the extremes of the constructivists by both theoretical and empirical arguments. Theoretically he defines “technology” in terms of relationships between social and technical variables. Attempts to reduce the meaning of technology to cold, hard metal are bound to fail, for machinery is just scrap unless it is organized functionally and supported by appropriate systems of operation and maintenance. At the empirical level Clark shows how a change at the telephone exchange from maintenance-intensive electromechanical switches to semi-electronic switching systems altered work tasks, skills, training opportunities, administration, and organization of workers. Some changes Clark
attriutes to the particular way management and labor unions negotiated the introduction of the technology, whereas others are seen as arising from the capabilities and nature of the technology itself. Thus Clark helps answer the question: “When is social choice decisive and when are the concrete characteristics of technology more important?”

GWD-8-Q27 :
The author of the passage uses the expression “are supposed to” in lines 34-35 primarily in order to


?suggest that a contention made by constructivists regarding determinists is Inaccurate
?define the generally accepted position of determinists regarding the implementation of technology
?engage in speculation about the motivations of determinists
?lend support to a comment critical of the position of determinists
?contrast the historical position of determinists with their position regarding the exchange modernization
GWD给的答案是B，我个人选的是A，翻阅以前的帖子前辈们也是纠结在这两个选项上，我选A的理由如下：
1。从全文看，作者的总态度是要为determinism证明的，也就是反对constructivism的曲解，所以这个supposed to 应当是“被曲解为”，反观B选项implementation of technology根本不是全文重点，也没有被generally accepted
2。在文中向前定位就可以找到misrepresent这个关键词，不是正好和inaccurate相对应吗？所以我坚定地选A
请问各位NN的看法如何？

sandychen168

这篇文章貌似og12上有吧？是选A没错的，og12中rc的第126题，是选A没错

gesteven

这篇文章好难啊……