小安第五篇求助~~~~~

turbidtear

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.
Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.
As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate—that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.

7.        According to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figures to over-predict the amount of economic hardship is the
(A) recurrence of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers
(B) possibility that earnings may be received from more than one job per worker
(C) fact that unemployment counts do not include those who work for low wages and remain poor
(D) establishment of a system of record-keeping that makes it possible to compile poverty statistics
(E) prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which others are employed
第7题答案为什么是E？我觉得是B，原文第一段就有

9.        Which of the following, if true, is the best criticism of the author’s argument concerning why poverty statistics cannot properly be used to show the effects of problems in the labor market?
(A) A short-term increase in the number of those in poverty can indicate a shortage of jobs because the basic number of those unable to accept employment remains approximately constant.
(B) For those who are in poverty as a result of joblessness, there are social programs available that provide a minimum standard of living.
(C) Poverty statistics do not consistently agree with earnings statistics, when each is taken as a measure of hardship resulting from unemployment.
(D) The elderly and handicapped categories include many who previously were employed in the labor market.
(E) Since the labor market is global in nature, poor workers in one country are competing with poor workers in another with respect to the level of wages and the existence of jobs.
这题答案是A，是不是因为A提供了一个事实，证明statistic是有效的？这题不是很明白，求解释~~

谢谢~

wangxung815

7. 题目问的是：unemployment and earnings figures
B选项是our social statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship的其中一个原因。
第一段最后三行才是题目要问的：
Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.

第二个题应该是问你哪个是对作者观点最有力的批评。

turbidtear

wangxung815 发表于 2015-5-8 02:28
7. 题目问的是：unemployment and earnings figures
B选项是our social statistics exaggerate the degree  ...

第七题，问的就是one factor causes over-predict, 那么B是一个原因，也就是one factor。E的话，去掉插入语，就是prevalence of members of families in which others are employed.根据第一段最后三行，怎么体现出prevalence?

第九题，你说的没错，是反驳作者的观点。作者的观点是statistic无效，A就是找个statistic有效的evidence去criticize，是这个意思吗？

谢谢！

lizzykin

第9题：作者说poverty statistics不能够有效的说明labor market是因为它包括了那些本身就没有工作的人。 A选项的意思是：因为那些本来就没有工作能力的人一直是固定的，所以当贫困状况加剧的时候就可以说明，另外那部分有工作能力的人面临了job shortage,所以说poverty statistics是能够说明问题的，所以反驳了作者的说辞。这是我自己的理解，这题真的想了好久...

Fiona1233

第九题为什么呢 看不懂 不能理解其中的逻辑 作者认为数据的问题是什么呢