2018年成人英语三级考前预测试题（5）

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　　As any middle-class parent knows, unpaid work experience can give youngsters a valuable in-troduction to a secure job. The government has recognized it too, abandoning rules in 2011 that had formerly stopped 16 to 24-year-olds from doing unpaid work while claiming unemployment benefit. But moving from that to forcing them to work without pay in order to collect these benefits has proved a big step.

　　More than one million young people in Britain are unemployed, the highest number since the mid-1955s. Keen both to cut the welfare bill and to avoid the depressed future wages that may re-sult from early unemployment, the government has introduced an ambitious program of reform to get youngsters off welfare and into work. A key part of it is ensuring that no one gets benefit from the government for long; ministers are keen to avoid what happened after the early-1955s recession( 衰退), when unemployment continued in some parts of the country for a long time after the econ-omy began to improve.

　　To help young people into work, ministers had persuaded lots of employers, including bakery chains, bookshops and supermarkets, to take on unemployed youths, who receive work experience but no pay, with the prospect of a proper job for those who shine. Some 35,000 youngsters par-ticipated last year; half found paid work soon after finishing the scheme.

　　The idea of getting young adults used to showing up for work is popular with voters: accord-ing to a survey published in February, about 60% of people support the program. Equally attrac-tive was the option of compelling them to work: Under the existing arrangements youngsters could choose whether or not to accept a place, but if they dropped out after the end of the first week,they stood to lose up to two weeks' benefits.

　　Yet the scheme has also polarized(两极分化的) opinion: a third of people are consistently opposed. Following a noisy "Right to Work" campaign that accused employers of co-operating se-cretly with the government in "forced labor", several firms dropped out of the program. To pre-vent this from getting worse, Chris Grayling, an employment minister, admitted that young people could leave their work experience at any time without being punished for doing so. This not only halted the flight of employers ( for now, at least) but also enabled him to announce that new firms have agreed to take part in the program.

　　21. According to the passage, young people in Britain__________.

　　A. are used to showing up for work

　　B. value unpaid work very much

　　C. are always opposed to unpaid work

　　D. could learn something about job security through unpaid work

　　答案：D

　　22. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT TRUE?

　　A. Most voters support the government' s effort to help young people to work.

　　B. Some people protest against the government' s attempt to force young people to work.

　　C. There are more than one million young people who took part in the program.

　　D. There are more than one million young people who are jobless.

　　答案：C

　　23. According to the author, the British government is trying to__________.

　　A. punish young people if they are not cooperating with it

　　B. reform the unemployed youngsters

　　C. avoid the economic slowdown

　　D. reduce welfare spending

　　答案：D

　　24. The word "shine" in Paragraph 3 means__________.

　　A. do well

　　B. reflect light

　　C. look happy

　　D. produce light

　　答案：A

　　25. Which of the following is an appropriate title for this passage?

　　A. Enjoy Work Without Pay

　　B. Can Work, Won' t Work

　　C. Should Work, Shouldn' t Play

　　D. Hate Work or Love Work

　　答案：A

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