[GMAT网络课程语法笔记]1.Added to the increase in hourly wages requested last July, the railroad employees are now seeking an expanded program of retirement benefits. （A）Added to the in...+阅读

参考答案KEYS:

Passage 1: AEEBC DCAE

Passage 2: ECDBB DC

Passage 3: ACBBC DB

Passage 1

Prior to 1975, union efforts to anize public sectorclerical workers, most of whom are women, were somewhat limited. The factors foring unionization drives seem to he been either the presence of large numbers of workers, as in New York City, to make it worth the effort, or the concentration of small numbers in one or two locations, such as a hospital, to make it relatively easy. Receptivity to unionization on the workers' part was also a consideration, but when there were large numbers involved or the clerical workers were the only unanized group in a jurisdiction, the multioccupational unions would often try to anize them regardless of the workers' initial receptivity. The strategic reasoning was based, first, on the concern that politicians and administrators might play off unionized against nonunionized workers, and, second, on the conviction that a fully unionized public work force meant power, both at the bargaining table and in the legislature. In localities where clerical workers were few in number, were scattered in several workplaces, and expressed no interest in being anized, unions more often than not ignored them in the pre-1975 period.

But since the mid-1970's, a different strategy has emerged. In 1977, 34 percent of government clerical workers were represented by a labor anization, pared with 46 percent of government professionals, 44 percent of government blue-collar workers, and 41 percent of government service workers. Since then, however, the biggest increases in public-sector unionization he been among clerical workers. Between 1977and 1980, the number of unionized government workers in blue-collar and service occupations increased only about 1.5 percent, while in the white-collar occupations the increase was 20 percent and among clerical workers in particular, the increase was 22 percent.

What accounts for this upsurge in unionization among clerical workers? First, more women he entered the work force in the past few years, and more of them plan to remain working until retirement age. Consequently, they are probably more concerned than their predecessors were about job security and economic benefits. Also, the women's movement has succeeded in legitimizing the economic and political activism of women on their own behalf, thereby producing a more positive attitude toward unions. The absence of any parable increase in unionization among private-sector clerical workers, however, identifies the primary catalyst-the structural change in the multioccupational public-sector unions themselves. Over the past twenty years, the occupational distribution in these unions has been steadily shifting from predominantly blue-collar to predominantly white-collar. Because there are far more women in white-collar jobs, an increase in the proportion of female members has acpanied the occupational shift and has altered union policy-making in for of anizing women and addressing women's issues.

1.According to the passage, the public-sector workers who were most likely to belong to unions in 1977 were(A) professionals

(B) managers

(C) clerical workers

(D) service workers

(E) blue-collar workers 2.The author cites union efforts to achieve a fully unionized work force (line 13-19) in order to account for why

(A) politicians might try to oppose public-sector union anizing

(B) public-sector unions he recently focused on anizing women

(C) early anizing efforts often focused on areas where there were large numbers of workers

(D) union efforts with regard to public-sector clerical workers increased dramatically after 1975

(E) unions sometimes tried to anize workers regardless of the workers' initial interest in unionization