阅读建议：

1） 建议读者先按自己的节奏阅读文章并做完题目，再看文章分析及题目讲解。

文章及题目：

1.  The passage suggests that combing and carding differ from weaving in that combing and carding were

(A)  low-skill jobs performed primarily by women employees

(B)  low-skill jobs that were not performed in the home

(C)  low-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees

(D)  high-skill jobs performed outside the home

(E)  high-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees

2.  Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women’s concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?

(A)  Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.

(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons.

(C)  Women’s participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

(D)  The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children.

(E) Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to making cloths that required a high degree of skill to produce.

3.  The author of the passage would be most likely to describe the explanation provided by the human capital theory for the high concentration of women in certain occupations in the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry as

(A)  well founded though incomplete

(B)  difficult to articulate

(C)  plausible but poorly substantiated

(D)  seriously flawed

(E)  contrary to recent research

1. 文章初读：（各段首句）

第一段首句：

In the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry, women were employed primarily in low- paying, low-skill jobs. To explain this segregation of labor by gender,

economists have relied on the useful theory of human capital.

翻译：在 17 世纪的佛罗伦萨纺织业中，女性主要受雇于低报酬、低技能的工作。经济学家依靠人力资本 的有用理论来解释这种有性别造成的劳动歧视

评：陈述了一种现象：在 17 世纪的佛罗伦萨纺织业中，女性主要受雇于低报酬、低技能的工作。 可以推测本文是现象解释型文章，果然紧接着介绍了一种理论 theory of human capital。推 断文章就是围绕这个现象和这个理论展开。

There were, however, differences in pay scales that cannot be explained by the human capital theory.

翻译：然而，支付规模上存在的差异不能用这种人力资本理论解释。

评：以转折开头，提出人力资本理论存在的问题，把握文章整体结构：第一段用该理论解释了开 头陈述的现象，本段则指出该理论的问题，作者对该理论的态度比较全面和辩证。

2.  文章精读（精读各句，把握逻辑关系）

第一段：（标记重要逻辑关系词及态度评价词）

翻译：

在  17 世纪的佛罗伦萨纺织业中，女性主要受雇于低报酬、低技能的工作。经济学家依靠人力资本的

有用理论来解释这种有性别造成的劳动歧视。根据这个理论，人力资本投资通常会通过使人们在高新职位 上合格而使个人受益。然而，女性作为生儿育女者的角色使她们参与工作市场（与男性相比）受到干扰， 因此这减少了她们获得高技能工作培训的机会。此外，人力资本理论指出，因为女性的首要责任是抚养孩 子，所以女性选择可以在家中完成的工作，这揭示了为什么特定的低技能工作会聚集大量的女性工人，比 如说编织，但是其他工作中却没有这种现象，比如说纺梳或者纺车。

第二段：（标记重要逻辑关系词及态度评价词）

翻译：

然而，工资标准上的差异不能用人力资本理论解释。比如说，男性建筑工人的工资显著高于女性塔夫 绸织布工人。这两种低技能工作间的工资差异源于性别不同而引起的劳动分离：因为只有少数工作向女性 开放，在这些领域有大量的工人供给，而这种供过于求导致了女性工资更低而男性工资更高。

读完文章后，可做如下笔记，整理各句大意及句间关系：

l   17th Fl: women = low skill = low pay

l   Human cap. theory:

现象 1

现象 2

现象 3

u   skill=pay

u   women=child=low skill=low pay

u   women=child=homeàconcentration

u   cannot explain:

n   low skill: men pay > women

u   concentration àmen pay > women

评：文章对于 human capital theory 的整体评价是正评价。首先，手段提出该理论是，用了 useful 一

词来进行总体评价。然后说这个理论可以解释笔记中的现象 1 和现象 2. 然后，在第二段中说，虽然这个 理论不能解释现象 3，但是现象 2 却可以解释现象 3，因此这个理论是可以间接解释现象 3 的。

3.  做题：

1.  The passage suggests that combing and carding differ from weaving in that combing and carding were

(A)  low-skill jobs performed primarily by women employees

(B)  low-skill jobs that were not performed in the home

(C)  low-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees

(D)  high-skill jobs performed outside the home

(E)  high-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees

评：

1) 间接细节题：正确答案为(B)。原文在地 16 至 17 行提到了 weaving, combing, and carding; 这三种活动都是 low-skill jobs. 原文第 19 至 20 行说女性在特定低技能职位 上很集中因为这些职位可以让他们在家工作，从而不会影响她们的首要任务——看孩子。 于是可以推断，女性聚集的职位可以在家进行，而没有聚集的职位不能再进行。

2)  错项分析：

(A): 与原文相反：原文第 15 至 17 行暗示了女性主要从事纺织，但是 carding 和 combing 主要不是由女性从事，即是主要由男性从事。

(C): 无关选项：原文说 weaving, carding, combing 都是低技能工作，weaving 主要 由女性从事，carding, combing 主要由男性从事。选项说的是 combing, carding 和 weaving 的相同点而非不同点：男女工人都能从事（只是孰多孰少的问题）

(D) (E): 与原文相反：原文第 16 至 17 行说这三种工作都是低技能工作。

2.  Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the explanation provided by the human capital theory for women’s concentration in certain occupations in seventeenth-century Florence?

(A) Women were unlikely to work outside the home even in occupations whose hours were flexible enough to allow women to accommodate domestic tasks as well as paid labor.

(B) Parents were less likely to teach occupational skills to their daughters than they were to their sons.

(C) Women’s participation in the Florentine paid labor force grew steadily throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

(D)  The vast majority of female weavers in the Florentine wool industry had children. (E)Few women worked as weavers in the Florentine silk industry, which was devoted to

making cloths that required a high degree of skill to produce.

评：

1)  逻辑题 ：正确答案为 (A) 。 逻辑题特点很明显，其提问方式是： 虚拟语气

+strengthen/weaken…考查内容一定是题干和选项的因果关系。正确答案一定是原文 所给原因的反面。以本题为例，问题问的是人力资本理论对 17 世纪佛罗伦萨地区女性

集中在某些特定职业的解释，定为原文第 15 至 21 行：

果：女性在特定低技能职业集中度高，而在其他职业中没有这样的现象。

因：因为女性的首要职责是看孩子，所以对她们而言要获得高工作技能很困难，女性的 这种角色（看孩子）使得她们选择可以在家进行的工作方便照看孩子。

如果一份工作不能在家完成，但是基于女性充分弹性，让她们既有时间看孩子，又有时 间完成工作。这时如果女性还是选择可以在家进行的工作，那么人力资本理论的解释就 有问题了。也就是说，如果上述现象发生了，我们可以得出结论：无论工作是否影响女 性照看孩子，女性都选择了可以在家进行的工作，也就可以推理是否影响女性照看孩子 这个变量不是女性选择工作的原因。

2） 错项分析：

(B): 没有削弱，与人力资本理论一致

(C): 无关选项：与人力资本理论的解释无关