Chinese reports say the country’s vast pool of cheap labor is getting smaller, which could hurt an economy that heavily depends on labor-intensive manufacturing.

The academy’s research shows that China’s rural labor surplus, the source of migrant workers for the country’s factories, is about 50 million people—far less than the previously estimated 150 to 200 million.

Jonathan Unger, director of the Contemporary China Center at the Australian National University, says fewer rural residents are willing to leave their farms today. This is partly because there are more employment opportunities in rural areas, and because agricultural prices have gone up.

“And at the same time taxes in the countryside, fees in the countryside have gone down because of new sets of government policies,” he explained. “So people are not eagerly forced in the way they were five, six years ago to leave the farm in order to earn enough money for their families.”

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says another reason for the reduced labor pool is the country’s population policy, which allows city residents to have just one child, and farmers up to two if the first one is a girl.

A UN study predicts that China’s workforce will reach its top in 2015 and then gradually drop. Some of China’s major manufacturing areas, such as Guangdong Province, already face labor shortages.

Some economists think these shortages are, at least for now, a regional rather than a national problem. Sun Mingchun, an economist with investment bank Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong, points out that there are still millions of people in China who can not find work.

57. According to the academy’s research, China’ rural labor surplus today is about _______.

A. 150 million      B. 50 million      C. 200 million      D. 175 million

58. The reason why many rural residents don’t leave their farms today is ________.

A. the farmers are older than before.

B. the farmers are lazier than before

C. the farmers have much more money

D. there are more employment opportunities and agricultural prices have gone up

59. Which of the following is TURE according to the passage?

A. A study of UN estimates China’s workforce will come to the top in 2015.

B. No a study shows millions of people can’t find work in China.

C. The country’s population policy isn’t a reason for the reduced labor.

D. Five years ago, few farmers left their homes to earn money for supporting their families.

60. According to some economists, the shortage of Chinese workforce __________.

A. is a national problem                     B. is a regional problem

C. is not a problem                         D. can be solved easily

 

“Most experiences of absent-mindedness ,forgetting where you left something or wondering why you just entered a room , are caused by a simple lack of attention, ” says Schacter. “You’re supposed to remember something, but you haven’t encoded(编码) it deeply.”

 Encoding, Schacter explains, is a special way of paying attention to an event that has a major impression on recalling it later. Failure to encode properly can create troublesome situations. If you put your mobile phone in a pocket, for example, and don’t pay attention to what you did because you’re involved in a conversation, you’ll probably forget that the phone is in the jacket now hanging in your cupboard.  “Your memory itself isn’t failing you, ” says Schacter, “Rather, you didn’t give your memory system the information it needed.”  http://wx.jtyjy.com/

 Lack of interest can also lead to absent -mindedness. “A man who can recite sports statistics from 30 years ago, ” says Zelinski, “ may not remember to drop a letter in the mailbox.”Women have slightly better memories than men, possibly because they pay more attention to their environment, and memory depends on just that.

  “Visual cues( 视觉提示 )can help prevent absent--mindedness, ”says Schacter, “But be sure the cue is clear and available. ”If you want to remember to take a medicine with lunch, put the pill bottle on the kitchen table—don’t leave it in the medicine box and write yourself a note that you keep in a pocket.

  Another common experience of absent - mindedness: walking into a room and wondering why you’re there. Most likely, you were thinking about something else. “Everyone does this from time to time, ”says Zelinski. “The best thing to do is to return to where you were before entering the room, and you’ll likely remember.”

1.The writer of the passage thinks that encoding properly is very important because ________.

  A. it enables us to recall something from our memory

  B. it slows down the process of losing our memory

  C. it helps us understand our memory system better

  D. it helps us to get back to where we were

2.One possible reason why women have a little better memories than men is that________.

  A. they rely more on the environment

  B. they have a wider range of interests

  C. they have an unusual power of focusing their attention

  D. they are more interested in what’s happening around them

3.Why can a note in the pocket hardly serve as a reminder? ________.

  A. It will easily get lost

  B. It is out of your sight

  C. It’s not clear enough for you to read

  D. It might get mixed up with other things

4.From the last paragraph we can learn that________.

  A. repetition might help improve our memory

  B. memory depends to a certain extent on the environment

  C. we’d better return to where we were if we forget things

  D. we should think about something else while doing one thing

5.The passage is mainly about ________.

  A. the memory system of persons

  B. a way of encoding and recalling

  C. the causes of absent-mindedness

  D. the impression of the environment on memory

 

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