Beyond the Factory: Child Labor in the Cities...

Beyond the Factory: Child Labor in the Cities

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, factory owners faced few restrictions on the way they employed their children workers, who were between the age of 7 and 12. Gradually laws came into being.

The first child-labor laws were passed at the state level in America and usually focused on both required education and a minimum age for employment. And added rules limited the length of the workday for children. Pennsylvania, for example, limited the workday to 10 hours for children under 12. However, government officials cared little whether businesses followed the law. In fact one group of children was left entirely unprotected by labor laws -- the children of immigrant families.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, piecework appeared, for which people were paid by the piece. Significant numbers of women sewed baby dresses or men's neckties and made the artificial flowers used to decorate hats. Piecework turned homes into factories that were free from the law, and countless children worked long hours alongside their mothers and old sisters.

Manufactures exploited the system shamelessly and paid the lowest wages they could. Embroidering (刺绣) a silk dress, which was a 10-day job, might generate a five-dollar payment. In the case of "willowing", workers needed to add more strands to ostrich feathers used on hats to make them longer and more graceful. The first willowers were paid 15 cents per inch, but a few months later, the pay was reduced to 13 cents. Within three years, willowers were earning only three cents per inch.

In order to survive under these circumstances, pieceworkers had even their youngest children help them. In one Italian neighborhood, a three-year-old girl helped her mother sew clothes. In another case, a child of eight who had lived in New York for three years had never been to school at all and could speak almost no English. Slowly child labor laws brought these abuses to an end.

31. The first child-labor laws required ______.

A. workplace safety and conditions

B. minimum payment and age

C. education and working time

D. minimum payment and schooling

32. Manufactures who hired women to do piecework ______.

A. were kind and concerned employers

B. were sometimes called "willowers"

C. usually paid the lowest salary

D. forced children to turn home into factories

33. "Willowing" was a kind of ______.

A. handwork activity           B. workplace

C. payment requirement              D. workers

34. By raising the example of the three-year-old girl's experience in the last paragraph, the author intended to ______.

A. show how poor the situations were for children workers

B. blame those adult pieceworkers for allowing children to work

C. attract attention to protect young children

D. emphasize the importance of educating young children

35. Which of the following sentences best summarizes the passage?

A. The first child-labor laws were limited due to working at the state level.

B. Early child-labor laws offered no protection to children who worked at home.

C. Some immigrant children did not learn English because of their piecework.

D. Child-labor laws should have come into being before children became workers.

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

Federal Child Labor Standards for Teenagers

Teenage labor in the United States

Federal Law sets child labor standards affecting teenage workers in the private companies and in federal, state, and local governments.

How can injuries be prevented?

Demand Training

Insist on adequate supervision（监督）and easy access to a supervisor at all times．

Demand sufficient training on equipment and chemicals you are required to use．Refuse to use unknown materials or machinery that is broken or improperly set up．

Wear protective equipment

Always use whatever protective equipment is supplied．Protective clothing includes non-slip shoes, gloves and other specific job-related protective gear．

Request reasonable protective equipment if it is not provided automatically．

Know your environment

Ask about workplace hazards and precautions（预防措施）that can help prevent injuries．

Workplace hazards are objects and situations present at your job that could potentially hurt you．Recognize safety hazards such as slippery floors, unsafe ladders, sharp knives, and heavy lifting．

Know the law

　　　 Learn about federal and state laws governing employment for teenagers and make you’re your supervisor enforces them．

How many working hours are allowed?

Teenagers （ages 14-15） may total no more than

■3 hours on a school day．

■18 hours in a school week．（A school week is any week in which school attendance is required for any part of four or more days．）

■8 hours on a non-school day．

■40 hours m a non-school week．

What are the responsibilities?

    Employers and employees share the responsibility for keeping the workplace safe and healthy．As a teenage worker, you can do your part by taking these steps:

■Follow rules．

■Use safety equipment．

■Keep your work area clean．

■Report all injuries．

■Inform a supervisor if you feel sick．

■Report safety problems．

1.If a teenager is asked to work with equipment out of order, he or she should　　　　　 _．

A． demand enough training　　　　　　　　 B． refuse to work with the equipment

C． ignore the instructions on the machine　 D． ask for necessary protective tools

2.All of these are examples of workplace hazards EXCEPT　　　　　　 .

A． sharp knives　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B． heavy lifting

C． slippery floors　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D． steady ladders

3.According to the passage, which of the following should a teenage worker do in the workplace?

A． Depend on his own in any case．

B． Deal with his injuries himself．

C． Contact a supervisor when feeling uncomfortable．

D． Use any tool in hand．

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Never put the medicine________the reach of your little child in case he takes it by mistake.

A．beyond　                     B．within

C．across　                     D．from

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

The old lady could give the child sympathy, ________ any practical help would be beyond her.

A．or　　　　　　     　 B．so　　　　　　

C．and　　　　　　     　 D．but

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中的两项为多余选项。

We’d better develop our interest in English at the beginning of our study. 　 1.　 We may feel good when we can say something simple in English.

2.　 So we must make some plans before study. And we should certainly carry out these plans in our study.

3.　 Our notes are much thinner than the books so that we can learn them by heart easily and can often review and read them. We may also record our notes on tapes so as to listen to them easily.

Reading a newspaper is the best thing to improve your English. 4. It will help you keep in touch with a lot of subjects in English.

5. Learn by heart the whole sentences and the phrases that contain the new words so that we may know how to use the words.

If time permits, we may read a mini Chinese-English dictionary carefully from cover to cover, which may help us widen our sight and master knowledge in all ways.

A. Read a little from a newspaper every day.

B. Don’t read books without making notes.

C. Carefully write an e-mail in English.

D. It’s easy to develop an interest in English study.

E. The more, the better.

F. Plans are always very necessary.

G. Never just memorize single English words.

高三英语信息匹配中等难度题查看答案及解析

We typically associate the word “science” with a person in a white coat doing experiments in a laboratory. Ideally, experiments should play as big a role in the human sciences as they do in the natural sciences; but in practice this is not usually the case. The are at least three reasons for this.

1．Human scientists are often trying to make sense of complex real world situations in which it is simply impossible to run controlled experiment.

2．The artificiality of some of the experiments that can be conducted may make the behavior of the participants abnormal.

3．There are moral reasons for not conducting experiments that have a negative effect on the people who participate in them.

Faced with the above difficulties, what are human scientists to do? One solution is to wait for nature to provide the appropriate experimental conditions. We can, for example, learn something about how a normal brain functions by looking at people who have suffered brain damage; and we can gain some understanding into the roles played by genes and the environment by studying twins, who have been separated at birth and brought up in different families. In the case of economics, economic history can provide us with a bank of-admittedly not very well-controlled-experimental data.

However, human scientists do not just sit around waiting for natural experiments to arise. They also think of some experiments of their own. Suppose you want to know how a baby sees the world. We cannot, of course, ask the baby since it has not yet learnt to speak. So it might seem that all we can do is guess. People usually won’t change their mind until it was found out that babies tend to stare at surprising things longer than at unsurprising ones. This key understanding was like opening a window on to the developing mind. There was now a way of testing babies’ expectations and getting some idea of how they are six months old, babies can already do the following things: figuring out that objects consist of parts that move together being aware of the difference between living and non-living things and even doing simple arithmetic work.

1.What is true about the natural sciences and the human sciences according to this passage?

A．Both human scientists and natural scientists can run controlled experiments.

B．Experiments done by human scientists and natural scientists are artificial.

C．Both human and natural science experiments should be of the same importance.

D．It’s not moral to conduct human science experiments.

2.What do we know about human scientists from this passage?

A．They are white coat scientists.

B．They have more experimental sources than natural scientists.

C．They conduct experiments passively.

D．They face more difficulties in carrying out their research.

3.Which of the following experiments belongs to human science experiment?

for a fun and easy science experiment. Try creating a

B．                 Taste Without Smell Put your senses to the test

with this simple experiment that shows the

importance of your sense of smell.

your lung volume by completing this experiment.

D．                 Make a Rainbow Use sunlight and water to

that will teach kids how rainbows work while they

enjoy a fun activity

4.What does the author tell us in this passage?

A．ABCs about the science experiment.

B．Some knowledge of science.

C．Some differences between the human sciences and the natural sciences.

D．The similarity of the natural sciences and the human sciences.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

_______ foreign trade recovering, the recent labor shortage in the southeast of China has

become a hot topic.

A. As               B. Upon             C. With            D. For

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 55 million people in the U. S. are “gig workers" which is more than 35 percent of the U. S. workforce. That number is projected to jump to 43 percent by 2020.

People are drawn to gig work（零工）because it brings in a little extra income without a major time commitment. And recent technologies like Skype, Slack, and Dropbox have made the gig life a reality, giving you maximum freedom, an ideal work-life balance, and the chance to pursue your passions.

If you're thinking of joining the gig economy, it's never been easier. One of the great things about the gig economy is that you don't have a boss breathing down your neck. As a freelancer, you no longer have to cater to a company culture or work schedule that might cause physical or emotional stress. Instead, you get to choose the type of work you do and who you work with. But this degree of freedom requires a corresponding amount of discipline. With no boss to make sure you're on task, it's all on you.

A lot of gig workers start their careers by hopping on a project because the employer is desperate and in need of help. On the employer's end, it's tough to take on people for higher management positions when the pool of talent is full of gig workers who haven't been given an opportunity to improve their skills. Businesses have to evolve to learn how to account for an influx（(涌入）of temporary workers. It is harder for gig workers to become skilled and get promoted.

The workforce is becoming more advanced and educated by the day. You have to keep learning and keep up with industry trends to maintain a competitive edge. This is true even for people in traditional office settings, but it's critical if you're your own boss.

1.What made the gig life a reality?

A.Greater work-life balance. B.New technologies.

C.A little extra money. D.Maximum freedom.

2.What does the underlined phrase “breathing down your neck” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A.Making you unable to breathe freely.

B.Standing very close behind you.

C.Threatening you by saying something.

D.Monitoring you closely.

3.What can we infer from the last but one paragraph?

A.Employers should invest in training the temporary workers.

B.Gig workers start their jobs out of passion.

C.It's hard for employers to employ people for higher positions.

D.It's hard for gig workers to develop skills.

4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A.The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Gig Economy

B.The Challenges of the Gig Economy

C.The Increase of the Gig Economy

D.The Reason for the Gig Economy

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Doctors in this hospital recommended that the patient ______ some light manual labor.

A. do           B. did          C. doing                D. done

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Many companies in Guangdong are facing a serious labor ________ following the Rabbit Year’s Spring Festival.

A．lack　     B．shortage

C．absence　     D．storage

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析