questions 76 to 80 are based on the following passage:
ours has become a society of employees. a hundred years or so ago onlyone out of every five americans at work was employed, i.e., worked forsomebody else. today only one out of five is not employed but working forhimself. and when fifty years ago"being employed"meant working as afactory labourer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasinglya middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding aprofessional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills.indeed, two things have characterized american society during these lastfifty years: middle-class employees have been the fastest-growing groupsin our working population -- growing so fast that the industrial worker,that oldest child of the industrial revolution, has been losing in numeri-cal importance despite the expansion of industrial production.
yet you will find little if anything written on what it is to be anemployee. you can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to geta job or how to get a promotion. you can also find a good deal of workin a chosen field, whether it be the mechanist’s trade or book keeping(?á??). every one of these trades requires different skills, sets differentstandards, and requires a different preparation. yet they all have em-ployeeship in common. and increasingly, especially in the large businessor in the government, employeeship is more important to success than thespecial professional knowledge or skill. certainly more people fail becausethey do not know the requirements of being an employee than because theydo not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher youclimb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work,the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization ratherthan on technical abilities or professional knowledge.
76. it is implied that fifty years ago _______.
a) eighty per cent of american working people were employed in factories
b) twenty per cent of american intellectuals were employees
c) the percentage of intellectuals in the total work force was almost
the same as that of industrial workers
d) the percentage of intellectuals working as employees was not so
large as that of industrial workers
77. according to the passage, with the development of modern industry,
_______.
a) factory labourers will overtake intellectual employees in number
b) there are as many middle-class employees as factory labourers
c) employers have attached great importance to factory labourers
d) the proportion of factory labourers in the total employee
population has decreased.
ours has become a society of employees. a hundred years or so ago onlyone out of every five americans at work was employed, i.e., worked forsomebody else. today only one out of five is not employed but working forhimself. and when fifty years ago"being employed"meant working as afactory labourer or as a farmhand, the employee of today is increasinglya middle-class person with a substantial formal education, holding aprofessional or management job requiring intellectual and technical skills.indeed, two things have characterized american society during these lastfifty years: middle-class employees have been the fastest-growing groupsin our working population -- growing so fast that the industrial worker,that oldest child of the industrial revolution, has been losing in numeri-cal importance despite the expansion of industrial production.
yet you will find little if anything written on what it is to be anemployee. you can find a great deal of very dubious advice on how to geta job or how to get a promotion. you can also find a good deal of workin a chosen field, whether it be the mechanist’s trade or book keeping(?á??). every one of these trades requires different skills, sets differentstandards, and requires a different preparation. yet they all have em-ployeeship in common. and increasingly, especially in the large businessor in the government, employeeship is more important to success than thespecial professional knowledge or skill. certainly more people fail becausethey do not know the requirements of being an employee than because theydo not adequately possess the skills of their trade; the higher youclimb the ladder, the more you get into administrative or executive work,the greater the emphasis on ability to work within the organization ratherthan on technical abilities or professional knowledge.
76. it is implied that fifty years ago _______.
a) eighty per cent of american working people were employed in factories
b) twenty per cent of american intellectuals were employees
c) the percentage of intellectuals in the total work force was almost
the same as that of industrial workers
d) the percentage of intellectuals working as employees was not so
large as that of industrial workers
77. according to the passage, with the development of modern industry,
_______.
a) factory labourers will overtake intellectual employees in number
b) there are as many middle-class employees as factory labourers
c) employers have attached great importance to factory labourers
d) the proportion of factory labourers in the total employee
population has decreased.