上周没讲专题，我们这周补上，另外，我身体没什么事情，各位不用再问我问题前加句前言不搭后语的话：老师，听说你身体不好，一定要注意哦！天气太热了；我问你个问题。。。。，让我感觉前后内容完全脱节，还是直接问吧，别绕了，又绕不好！ Comparable worth, as a standard applied to eliminate inequities in pay, insists that the values of certain tasks performed in dissimilar jobs can be compared. In the last decade, this approach has become a critical social policy issue, as large numbers of private-sector firms and industries as well as federal, state, and local governmental entities have adopted comparable worth policies or begun to consider doing so. This widespread institutional awareness of comparable worth indicates increased public awareness that pay inequities--that is, situations in which pay is not "fair" because it does not reflect the true value of a job--exist in the labor market. However, the question still remains: have the gains already made in pay equity under comparable worth principles been of a precedent-setting nature or are they mostly transitory, a function of concessions made by employers to mislead female employees into believing that they have made long-term pay equity gains? Comparable worth pay adjustments are indeed precedent-setting. Because of the principles driving them, other mandates that can be applied to reduce or eliminate unjustified pay gaps between male and female workers have not remedied perceived pay inequities satisfactorily for the litigants in cases in which men and women hold different jobs. But whenever comparable worth principles are applied to pay schedules, perceived unjustified pay differences are eliminated. In this sense, then, comparable worth is more comprehensive than other mandates, such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Neither compares tasks in dissimilar jobs (that is, jobs across occupational categories) in an effort to determine whether or not what is necessary to perform these tasks--know-how, problem-solving, and accountability--can be quantified in terms of its dollar value to the employer. Comparable worth, on the other hand, takes as its premise that certain tasks in dissimilar jobs may require a similar amount of training, effort, and skill; may carry similar responsibility; may be carried on in an environment having a similar impact upon the worker; and may have a similar dollar value to the employer. Question #43. 281-01 (23269-!-item-!-188;#058&000281-01) Which of the following most accurately states the central purpose of the passage? (A) To criticize the implementation of a new procedure (B) To assess the significance of a change in policy (C) To illustrate how a new standard alters procedures (D) To explain how a new policy is applied in specific cases (E) To summarize the changes made to date as a result of social policy Many United States companies believe that the rising cost of employees' health care benefits has hurt the country's competitive position in the global market by raising production costs and thus increasing the prices of exported and domestically sold goods. As a result, these companies have shifted health care costs to employees in the form of wage deductions or high deductibles. This strategy, however, has actually hindered companies' competitiveness. For example, cost shifting threatens employees' health because many do not seek preventive screening. Also, labor relations have been damaged: the percentage of strikes in which health benefits were a major issue rose from 18 percent in 1986 to 78 percent in 1989. Health care costs can be managed more effectively if companies intervene in the supply side of health care delivery just as they do with other key suppliers: strategies used to procure components necessary for production would work in procuring health care. For example, the make/buy decision--the decision whether to produce or purchase parts used in making a product--can be applied to health care. At one company, for example, employees receive health care at an on-site clinic maintained by the company. The clinic fosters morale, resulting in a low rate of employees leaving the company. Additionally, the company has constrained the growth of health care costs while expanding medical services. Question #47. 323-01 (23463-!-item-!-188;#058&000323-01) The passage is primarily concerned with (A) providing support for a traditional theory (B) comparing several explanations for a problem (C) summarizing a well-known research study (D) recommending an alternative approach (E) criticizing the work of a researcher Dendrochronology, the study of tree-ring records to glean information about the past, is possible because each year a tree adds a new layer of wood between the existing wood and the bark. In temperate and subpolar climates, cells added at the growing season's start are large and thin-walled, but later the new cells that develop are smaller and thick-walled; the growing season is followed by a period of dormancy. When a tree trunk is viewed in cross section, a boundary line is normally visible between the small-celled wood added at the end of the growing season in the previous year and the large-celled spring wood of the following year's growing season. The annual growth pattern appears as a series of larger and larger rings. In wet years rings are broad; during drought years they are narrow, since the trees grow less. Often, ring patterns of dead trees of different, but overlapping, ages can be correlated to provide an extended index of past climate conditions. However, trees that grew in areas with a steady supply of groundwater show little variation in ring width from year to year; these "complacent" rings tell nothing about changes in climate. And trees in extremely dry regions may go a year or two without adding any rings, thereby introducing uncertainties into the count. Certain species sometimes add more than one ring in a single year, when growth halts temporarily and then starts again. The passage is primarily concerned with (A) evaluating the effect of climate on the growth of trees of different species (B) questioning the validity of a method used to study tree-ring records (C) explaining how climatic conditions can be deduced from tree-ring patterns (D) outlining the relation between tree size and cell structure within the tree (E) tracing the development of a scientific method of analyzing tree-ring patterns What kinds of property rights apply to Algonquian family hunting territories, and how did they come to be? The dominant view in recent decades has been that family hunting territories, like other forms of private landownership, were not found among Algonquians (a group of North American Indian tribes) before contact with Europeans but are the result of changes in Algonquian society brought about by the European-Algonquian fur trade, in combination with other factors such as ecological changes and consequent shifts in wildlife harvesting patterns. Another view claims that Algonquian family hunting territories predate contact with Europeans and are forms of private landownership by individuals and families. More recent fieldwork, however, has shown that individual and family rights to hunting territories form part of a larger land-use system of multifamilial hunting groups, that rights to hunting territories at this larger community level take precedence over those at the individual or family level, and that this system reflects a concept of spiritual and social reciprocity that conflicts with European concepts of private property. In short, there are now strong reasons to think that it was erroneous to claim that Algonquian family hunting territories ever were, or were becoming, a kind of private property system. Question #53. 351-01 (23751-!-item-!-188;#058&000351-01) The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) provide an explanation for an unexpected phenomenon (B) suggest that a particular question has yet to be answered (C) present a new perspective on an issue (D) defend a traditional view from attack (E) reconcile opposing sides of an argument Many people believe that because wages are lower in developing countries than in developed countries, competition from developing countries in goods traded internationally will soon eliminate large numbers of jobs in developed countries. Currently, developed countries' advanced technology results in higher productivity, which accounts for their higher wages. Advanced technology is being transferred ever more speedily across borders, but even with the latest technology, productivity and wages in developing countries will remain lower than in developed countries for many years because developed countries have better infrastructure and better-educated workers. When productivity in a developing country does catch up, experience suggests that wages there will rise. Some individual firms in developing countries have raised their productivity but kept their wages (which are influenced by average productivity in the country's economy) low. However, in a developing country's economy as a whole, productivity improvements in goods traded internationally are likely to cause an increase in wages. Furthermore, if wages are not allowed to rise, the value of the country's currency will appreciate, which (from the developed countries' point of view) is the equivalent of increased wages in the developing country. And although in the past a few countries have deliberately kept their currencies undervalued, that is now much harder to do in a world where capital moves more freely. Question #56. 549-01 (23894-!-item-!-188;#058&000549-01) The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) identify the origin of a common misconception (B) discuss the implications of a generally accepted principle (C) present information relevant in evaluating a commonly held belief (D) defend a controversial assertion against a variety of counterarguments (E) explain under what circumstances a well-known phenomenon occurs A recent study has provided clues to predator-prey dynamics in the late Pleistocene era. Researchers compared the number of tooth fractures in present-day carnivores with tooth fractures in carnivores that lived 36,000 to 10,000 years ago and that were preserved in the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles. The breakage frequencies in the extinct species were strikingly higher than those in the present-day species. In considering possible explanations for this finding, the researchers dismissed demographic bias because older individuals were not overrepresented in the fossil samples. They rejected preservational bias because a total absence of breakage in two extinct species demonstrated that the fractures were not the result of abrasion within the pits. They ruled out local bias because breakage data obtained from other Pleistocene sites were similar to the La Brea data. The explanation they consider most plausible is behavioral differences between extinct and present-day carnivores--in particular, more contact between the teeth of predators and the bones of prey due to more thorough consumption of carcasses by the extinct species. Such thorough carcass consumption implies to the researchers either that prey availability was low, at least seasonally, or that there was intense competition over kills and a high rate of carcass theft due to relatively high predator densities. Question #59. 560-01 (24039-!-item-!-188;#058&000560-01) The primary purpose of the passage is to (A) present several explanations for a well-known fact (B) suggest alternative methods for resolving a debate (C) argue in favor of a controversial theory (D) question the methodology used in a study (E) discuss the implications of a research finding

想请问下May老师，这道题怎么做出答案C？

请陆老师回答一下这一题为什么选B。我选了E。

请陆老师回答一下。这一题我错选了B。取yes，就是收入来自于commuter的是有季节性波动的。意思不就是旅游旺季，人多拥挤，commuter就会到港口来坐ferry，旅游淡季，人少，commuter就还是toll road不会来港口，支持原文；取no，就是没有季节性波动，说明无论是旅游旺季还是淡季，拥不拥挤，搭乘不搭乘ferry都不会影响commuter来不来这里吃饭，驳斥原文。 而C选项说的是港口吸不吸引tourist，但是原文argument说的是通过将commuter直接带到港口来增加收入，这和tourist有什么关系呢？感谢老师解答。

请陆老师回答一下。这一题我选了A，为什么正确答案是E。我首先判断第一句话是pre-evidence，第二句话是counter argument，第三句话的黑体字是conclusion，后半句是premise。 我觉得因为第一个黑体字是“all automobile dealers…”也是属于数据的，第二句话反驳了critics的观点。所以选了A。

请慧雯老师回答一下这一题为什么选C，A选项中as也有因为的意思 ，麻烦您分析一下其他选项。感谢解答！

请慧雯老师回答一下这一题为什么选B，我选了D。为什么需要用完成时态和被动形式以及为啥要加一个since呢？感谢解答！

请张慧雯老师回答一下这篇阅读的两题。 第一题，我定位到第二段（因为整个就是the first explanation”）。但是后面看到选项BCD好像还要定位到第四段“in 1840, about… was rough the same”这两个地方。但是我不知道精准定位是在哪里。然后还是不太懂这篇文章的意思，以及这一题为什么选C。 第二题，看到题干就觉得好难定位，通篇好像都要读，没办法快速根据题干来定位，结果还错选了A。请老师解答一下这一题的突破点以及为啥选D。

请王文静老师回答一下。请问一下这一题为什么选B。我选了E是因为前面说科学家猜测黄蜂被这种气味所吸引，但是后面说in this study，只有grassy odors释放出来了，说明这种气味肯定与grassy odors这种气味不一样。而B说这种气味没有grassy scent，但是原文又说科学家猜测黄蜂是被an odor，reminiscent of cut grass，that is released as the catepillar feeds，意思不就是这种气味类似于cut grass吗？那为什么还会选B。

请张慧雯老师回答一下。这一题为什么不选D，形容词修饰的动词一般不是系动词吗？为啥这一题会选E。感谢回答！

请陆旭老师回答一下。图片中的这一题为什么不可以选C，我的理解是这个研究是30年前做的，所以不适用于当今的情况，不具备说服力。