The home service industry in Beijing is expected to become more attractive both as a job and as an industry.
Sources at the Beijing People’s Political Consultative Conference said resistance to home service work is melting away from minds of the city’s laid-off workers. The Conference suggested the establishment of municipal (市政的) centers which supervise (监督) property management, household mending and installation, and house keeping services. Modern city life is creating a need for industrialization home services. This will create job opportunities for laid-off workers, said vice director of the Social Judicial Committee of the Conference.
Beijing residents have long desired a home service industry. The demand is expected to drive new economic growth. There are few high quality home help services in Beijing and customers are always complaining.
In the past, few laid-off workers in Beijing desired to work as home helpers, jobs largely taken by young women from the countryside. At the same time, some city residents have not felt safe trusting rural girls with modern household machines or with their small children. Many people would pay more for reliable house keepers who are more familiar with city life, but they have had no way of getting one, even though the city is home to thousands of laid-off workers.
By the end of June this year, there were 30,600 jobless workers in the city. Most of them are women in their 40’s, who are not blessed with particular skills and who have had their work ethics (准则) shaped by the planned economy. Many of them were at a loss when they first realized they had lost their jobs and a way of life they had got used to for decades. They never imagined being laid off by state owned enterprises; they never considered other kinds of employment. For them, the private sector (部门) meant taking risks; house-keeping implied lower social status. Gao Yunfang, 44, is a pioneer who is breaking the ice. She sells the Beijing Morning Post in the morning, and works at two households in the afternoon. She earns 1,000 yuan per month. So she no longer worries about her daughter’s tuition at a university in Shanghai.
1. What is talked about in the passage?
A. Home service. B. Modern city life. C. Laid-off workers. D. Social status.
2. What does the word “ laid-off” in the passage mean?
A. Heavily-burdened. B. Old C. Inexperienced. D. Jobless.
3. Why didn’t the laid-off workers like to do home services in the past?
A. Low salary. B. Lower social status.
C. Dirty working condition. D. Too much extra work.
4. Why were many laid-off workers at a loss?
A. Because they didn’t get used to the new way of life.
B. Because they are too old to find a new job.
C. Because they dislike being laid off.
D. Because they think they lost their social status.
III. 阅读理解
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D选项中，选出最佳选项。
I’ve written 14 movies. My characters smoke in many of them, and they look cool and glamorous doing it. Smoking was an integral（必需的） part of many of my screenplays because I was a heavy smoker. It was part of a bad-boy image I’d cultivated for a long time— smoking, drinking, partying, rock ’n’ roll.
Smoking, I once believed, was every person’s right. The second-hand smoke was non-existent problem invented by professional do-gooders. I put all these views into my plays.
Remembering all this, I find it hard to forgive myself. I have been an accomplice (帮凶) to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did.
Eighteen months ago I was diagnosed with throat cancer, the result of a lifetime of smoking. I am alive but disabled. Much of my larynx (喉) is gone. I have some difficulty speaking; others have some difficulty understanding me.
I haven’t smoked or drunk for 18 months now, though I still take it day by day and pray for help. I believe in prayer and exercise. I have walked five miles a day for a year, without missing even one day. Quitting smoking and drinking has taught me the hardest lesson I’ve ever learned about my own weakness; it has also given me the greatest affection and empathy(同感) for those still addicted.
I don’t think smoking is every person’s right anymore. I think smoking should be as illegal as heroin. I’m no longer such a bad boy. I go to church on Sunday. I’m desperate to see my four boys grow up. I want to do everything I can to undo the damage I have done with my own big-screen words and images.
Screen writers know, too, that some movie stars are more likely to play a part if they can smoke —because they are so addicted to smoking that they have difficulty stopping even during the shooting of a scene.
My hands are bloody; so are Hollywood’s. My cancer has caused me to attempt to cleanse me. I don’t wish my fate upon anyone in Hollywood, but I beg that Hollywood should stop putting it upon millions of others.
1. The main idea of this passage probably is _________.
A. the writer is ashamed of the bad effects his screenplays have had on human beings
B. the writer’s smoking experience nearly killed himself
C. the bad effects that Hollywood screenplay have brought to children
D. the determination of the writer to overcome his illness
2. How do you think the writer has realized his mistake?
A. So many people have found the habit of smoking due to his plays.
B. His plays have brought great harm to teenagers.
C. He himself suffered greatly from smoking.
D. His screenplays have been doing more and more harm to human beings.
3. What is the writer determined to do in future?
A. He has made up his mind to give up smoking forever.
B. He will try his best to prevent others from writing screen plays encouraging smoking.
C. He will try his best to bring up his four children.
D. He has decided to write his screenplays without smoking scenes.
4. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. the writer will soon be recovered from his illness thanks to his exercise
B. the writer will soon die because of his deadly disease
C. smoking will be got rid of in all Hollywood films
D. smoking in Hollywood films is still doing great harm to human beings
. -- You see, our plan has been totally ruined!
-- Dear me, I _______ his advice.
|
A．would rather have taken |
B．would rather not take |
|
C．must have taken |
D．can’t have taken |
With the help of the soldiers, many people ______ in the ruins were saved.
|
A．trapping |
B．having trapped |
C．to be trapped |
D．trapped |
After a day’s walk in the desert, the explorers reached the camp, _______.
|
A．tired and hungrily |
B．tiring and hungry |
|
C．tiredly and hungrily |
D．tired and hungry |
. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player _________.
|
A．of all times |
B．of all the time |
C．of all the times |
D．of all time |
