福建外语考试中级英语口笔译考试题二

 Questions 25~30

　　One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor's salary will be higher than a bus conductor's wages. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, he engineer and the teacher have in common is that they have devoted¹ several years of their lives to studying in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively² that these skills and these years, when they were studying instead of earning money, should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig labourer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.

　　Another factor we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man's work is, regardless of the talents he may bring to it. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say selling secondhand cars or improving the taste of toothpaste by adding a red stripe to it. Yet it is almost certain that the used car salesman earns more than the nurse and the research chemist earns more than the schoolteacher.

　　Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic wage'', and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying monotony of his work. It is significant that those jobs which are traditionally regarded as "vocations³'' nursing, teaching and the Church, for example continue to be poorly paid, while others ' such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.

　　25. The professional man, such as the doctor, should be well-paid because_______________.

　　(A) he has spent several years learning how to do his job

　　(B) his work involves much greater intelligence than, say, a bus conductor's

　　(C) he has to work much harder than most other people

　　(D) he knows more than other people about his subject

　　26. It is difficult to compare a doctor and a miner because_________________.

　　(A) a miner's work is not as useful as a doctor's　(B) each is a specialist in his own field

　　(C) a miner has to learn just as many skills to be able to do his job well

　　(D) a miner's job is less skilled but on the other hand it is more dangerous

　　27. You can compare an engineer with a teacher because_________________.

　　(A) they both do useful work

　　(B) they both earn the same kind of salary

　　(C) one does socially important work and the other does dangerous work

　　(D) they have both spent several years in training

　　28. As far as rewarding people for their work is concerned, the writer thinks that___________.

　　(A) people doing manual work should be double paid

　　(B) we should pay people according to their talents

　　(C) we should pay for socially-useful work, regardless of the person's talent

　　(D) qualified⁴ people should be the highest paid

　　29. The argument of the “psychic wage" is used to explain why_______________.

　　(A) people who do socially important work are not always well paid

　　(B) people who do monotonous⁵ jobs are highly paid

　　(C) you should not try to compare the pay of different professions

　　(D) some professional people are paid more than others

　　30. We learn from the passage that a man who does a boring, repetitive job__________.

　　(A) receives less money than he deserves

　　(B) should receive more money as a compensation for the drudgery of his work

　　(C) can only expect more money if his job is a highly-skilled one

　　(D) has no interest in his work apart from the money he receives for doing it

1 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

2 instinctively   

adv.本能地

参考例句：

• As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近，她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 vocations   

n.（认为特别适合自己的）职业( vocation的名词复数 )；使命；神召；（认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的）信心

参考例句：

• The term profession originally denoted a limited number of vocations. 专业这个术语起初表示数量有限的职业。 来自辞典例句
• I understood that Love encompassed all vocations, that Love was everything "." 我明白爱含有一切圣召，爱就是一切。 来自互联网

4 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

5 monotonous   

adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的

参考例句：

• She thought life in the small town was monotonous.她觉得小镇上的生活单调而乏味。
• His articles are fixed in form and monotonous in content.他的文章千篇一律，一个调调儿。