When A. Philip Randolph assumed the leadership of the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, he began a ten-year

battle to win recognition from the Pullman Company, the

largest private employer of Black people in the United

(5) States and the company that controlled the railroad

industry’s sleeping car and parlor service. In 1935 the

Brotherhood became the first Black union recognized by a

major corporation. Randolph’s efforts in the battle helped

transform the attitude of Black workers toward unions and

(10) toward themselves as an identifiable group; eventually,

Randolph helped to weaken organized labor’s antagonism

toward Black workers.

In the Pullman contest Randolph faced formidable

obstacles. The first was Black workers’ understandable

( 15) skepticism toward unions, which had historically barred

Black workers from membership. An additional obstacle

was the union that Pullman itself had formed, which

weakened support among Black workers for an

independent entity.

(20) The Brotherhood possessed a number of advantages,

however, including Randolph’s own tactical abilities. In

1928 he took the bold step of threatening a strike against

Pullman. Such a threat, on a national scale, under Black

leadership, helped replace the stereotype of the Black

(25)worker as servant with the image of the Black worker as

wage earner. In addition, the porters’ very isolation aided

the Brotherhood. Porters were scattered throughout the

country, sleeping in dormitories in Black communities;

their segregated life protected the union’s internal

(30) communications from interception. That the porters were a

homogeneous group working for a single employer with

single labor policy, thus sharing the same grievances from

city to city, also strengthened the Brotherhood and encour-

aged racial identity and solidarity as well. But it was only

(35) in the early 1930’s that federal legislation prohibiting a

company from maintaining its own unions with company

money eventually allowed the Brotherhood to become

recognized as the porters’ representative.

Not content with this triumph, Randolph brought the

(40)Brotherhood into the American Federation of Labor, where

it became the equal of the Federation’s 105 other unions.

He reasoned that as a member union, the Brotherhood

would be in a better position to exert pressure on member

unions that practiced race restrictions. Such restrictions

were eventually found unconstitutional in 1944.

109. The passage suggests which of the following about the response of porters to the Pullman Company’s own union?

(A) Few porters ever joined this union.

(B) Some porters supported this union before 1935.

(C) Porters, more than other Pullman employees, enthusiastically supported this union.

(D) The porters’ response was most positive after 1935.

(E) The porters’ response was unaffected by the general skepticism of Black workers concerning unions.

答案是B。但对OG的D的解释不明白："Choice D is incorrect: in fact the passage suggests that the porters' attitude was less positive after R's union achieved recognition in 1935."

文章中L34-38不是明确表示：But it was only in the early 1930’s that federal legislation prohibiting acompany from maintaining its own unions with company money eventually allowed the Brotherhood to become recognized as the porters’ representative.

三十年代初法令后就已经被工人所认可，为什么在1935年工人对工会的态度还是less positive???

请帮忙指点一下，谢谢！

MM请注意提干讲的是the response of porters to the Pullman Company’s own union, not the response to Brotherhood Union.所以D和文章内容相反！

个人建议：选项中看到only, most等词要注意一下，一般都不是正确选项（不是绝对）！文章没有讲过关于response most positive的时候，even 是less也不能得出most，只能得出more。这也是为啥only/most等往往不是答案的原因，因为需要原文有严密的推导证明这一点或者明确说明这个咚咚是most/only等等，这也是为啥文章only，most等词要注意的原因之一。