六级标准阅读4150.doc

第四十一篇：(Unit?11,Passage?1) In?the?last?12?years?total?employment?in?the?United?States?grew?faster?than?at?any?time?in?the?peacetime?history?of?any?country?–?from?82?to?110?million?between?1973?and?1985?–?that?is,?by?a?full?one?third.?The?entire?growth,?however,?was?in?manufacturing,?and?especially?in?no?–?blue-collar?jobs… This?trend?is?the?same?in?all?developed?countries,?and?is,?indeed,?even?more?pronounced?in?Japan.?It?is?therefore?highly?probable?that?in?25?years?developed?countries?such?as?the?United?States?and?Japan?will?employ?no?larger?a?proportion?of?the?labor?force?I?n?manufacturing?than?developed?countries?now?employ?in?farming?–?at?most,?10?percent.?Today?the?United?States?employs?around?18?million?people?in?blue-collar?jobs?in?manufacturing?industries.?By?2010,?the?number?is?likely?to?be?no?more?than?12?million.?In?some?major?industries?the?drop?will?be?even?sharper.?It?is?quite?unrealistic,?for?instance,?to?expect?that?the?American?automobile?industry?will?employ?more?than?one?–third?of?its?present?blue-collar?force?25?years?hence,?even?though?production?might?be?50?percent?higher. If?a?company,?an?industry?or?a?country?does?not?in?the?next?quarter?century?sharply?increase?manufacturing?production?and?at?the?same?time?sharply?reduce?the?blue-collar?work?force,?it?cannot?hope?to?remain?competitive?–?or?even?to?remain?“developed.”?The?attempt?to?preserve?such?blue?–?collar?jobs?is?actually?a?prescription?for?unemployment… This?is?not?a?conclusion?that?American?politicians,?labor?leaders?or?indeed?the?general?public?can?easily?understand?or?accept.?What?confuses?the?issue?even?more?it?that?the?United?States?is?experiencing?several?separate?and?different?shifts?in?the?manufacturing?economy.?One?is?the?acceleration?of?the?substitution?of?knowledge?and?capital?for?manual?labor.?Where?we?spoke?of?mechanization?a?few?decades?ago,?we?now?speak?of?“robotization?“?or?“automation.”?This?is?actually?more?a?change?in?terminology?than?a?change?in?reality.?When?Henry?