大全30/63，关于失业率的，百思不得其解，望指点

atlantiswind

Passage 30 (30/63)

Since the early 1970’s, historians have begun to devote serious attention to the working class in the United States. Yet while we now have studies of working-class communities and culture, we know remarkably little of worklessness. When historians have paid any attention at all to unemployment, they have focused on the Great Depression of the 1930’s. The narrowness of this perspective ignores the pervasive recessions and joblessness of the previous decades, as Alexander Keyssar shows in his recent book. Examining the period 1870-1920, Keyssar concentrates on Massachusetts, where the historical materials are particularly rich, and the findings applicable to other industrial areas.

The unemployment rates that Keyssar calculates appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depression standards: during the worst years, in the 1870’s and 1890’s, unemployment was around 15 percent. Yet Keyssar rightly understands that a better way to measure the impact of unemployment is to calculate unemployment frequencies—measuring the percentage of workers who experience any unemployment in the course of a year. Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger.

Keyssar also scrutinizes unemployment patterns according to skill level, ethnicity, race, age, class, and gender. He finds that rates of joblessness differed primarily according to class: those in middle-class and white-collar occupations were far less likely to be unemployed. Yet the impact of unemployment on a specific class was not always the same. Even when dependent on the same trade, adjoining communities could have dramatically different unemployment rates. Keyssar uses these differential rates to help explain a phenomenon that has puzzled historians—the startlingly high rate of geographical mobility in the nineteenth-century United States. But mobility was not the dominant working-class strategy for coping with unemployment, nor was assistance from private charities or state agencies. Self-help and the help of kin got most workers through jobless spells .

While Keyssar might have spent more time developing the implications of his findings on joblessness for contemporary public policy, his study, in its thorough research and creative use of quantitative and qualitative evidence, is a model of historical analysis.



2. The passage suggests that before the early 1970’s, which of the following was true of the study by historians of the working class in the United States?

(A) The study was infrequent or superficial, or both.

(B) The study was repeatedly criticized for its allegedly narrow focus.

(C) The study relied more on qualitative than quantitative evidence.

(D) The study focused more on the working-class community than on working-class culture.

(E) The study ignored working-class joblessness during the Great Depression.

答案是A，但是我觉得E更加准确，文中蓝色部分说we know remarkably little of worklessness，不是就是说ignored joblessness吗？

4. According to the passage, which of the following is true of the unemployment rates mentioned in line 15?

(A) They hovered, on average, around 15 percent during the period 1870-1920.

(B) They give less than a full sense of the impact of unemployment on working-class people.

(C) They overestimate the importance of middle class and white-collar unemployment.

(D) They have been considered by many historians to underestimate the extent of working-class unemployment.

(E) They are more open to question when calculated for years other than those of peak recession.

请问文中说unemployment是被低估了，但是并没说研究不够全面，B选项何以得出？而D选项underestimate不正是这个意思吗

5. Which of the following statements about the unemployment rate during the Great Depression can be inferred from the passage?

(A) It was sometimes higher than 15 percent.

(B) It has been analyzed seriously only since the early 1970’s.

(C) It can be calculated more easily than can unemployment frequency.

(D) It was never as high as the rate during the 1870’s.

(E) It has been shown by Keyssar to be lower than previously thought.

这题跟第2题有点像，从at least by Great Depression standards这句，我理解的被低估的是他得计算标准而不是数字本生，那么A并不一定对

而B选项依然从蓝色的那句可以退出



请教大牛我的思路有什么问题

doudoucc

答案是A，但是我觉得E更加准确，文中蓝色部分说we know remarkably little of worklessness，不是就是说ignored joblessness吗？
Comments:童鞋，Yet while we now have studies of working-class communities and culture, we know remarkably little of worklessness.这句是讲现在,讲now. 完全是你的理解问题。
请问文中说unemployment是被低估了，但是并没说研究不够全面，B选项何以得出？而D选项underestimate不正是这个意思吗
comments:b是说unemployment考虑不周全，这个一看就是正确选项的特征。作为一个有水平的作家要有复杂态度，不能肤浅。文中说失业率看起来低，但是如果考虑unemployment frequencies，那问题就严重了。至于你说的d选项，这一段只有一个Keyssar的态度，哪来的many historians 。

第五题，首先，unemployment was around 15 percent。然后作者说考虑到有的人失业频繁，可能你统计的时候没有失业，但是实际上他经常失业，如果考虑这个，Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger.
答案a用sometimes 非常贴切，体现了出题人了复杂思维。

atlantiswind

谢回帖，现在前2个题都明白了，还是对文章和选项理解不到位。
第5题，我还是有疑问，我读来读去也没体会出你说的这层意思

我的疑惑如下
appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depression standards  这句话就可以看出经济大萧条的失业率更高吗？
Given this perspective, joblessness looms much larger. 这里指的joblessness难道不是大萧条前的失业情况吗，这不是跟第5题问的大萧条的失业率没有关系了吗？
是不是理解上面有什么地方我忽略了。。。

doudoucc

你是不是没有正确理解modest.The unemployment rates that Keyssar

calculates appear to be relatively modest, at least by Great Depression

standards  //Keyssar计算的失业率看起来相对还好，至少按照大萧条的标准来

看是这样。意识是大萧条远不只
15 percent。然后作者说考虑到有的人失业频繁，可能你统计的时候没有失业，

但是实际上他经常失业，如果考虑这个，Given this perspective, joblessness

looms much larger.

atlantiswind

感谢你详细的解答！
总算想通了~~ 这里的standard就是指的unemployment rate，没有结合上下句，主观臆断了，感谢~

blacksmith

agree