57. When people book tickets, they are .

A. required to offer their email address

B. likely to be told the schedule for the event

C. required to decide when to enter the Auditorium

D. likely to enjoy a discount if they promise to come to the event early

B

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet debatable social policy questions.

In many ways, our social statistics overstate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same horrible consequences today as it did in the 1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of survival, and when there were fewer effective social programs for those failing in the tabor market. Increasing wealth, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing dominance of secondary earners among the unemployed and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably relieved the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overestimate the scale of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the majority are from multiple-eamer, relatively well-off families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market'problems.

Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or long-time unemployment frequently interact to weaken the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the y^ar is several times that unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment totals, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly,disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and non-cash transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.

As a result of such conflicting evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be counteracted(抵消)by job creation and economic stimulation. There is only one area of agreement in this debate~that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one of their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems. ’

58. In Pararaph 2, the author contrasts the 1930’s with the present in order to show that .

A. more people were unemployed in the 1930，s

B. unemployment is more intolerable today

C. social programs are more in need now

D. income level has increased since the 1930’s

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

A. A majority of low-wage workers receive earnings from more than one job.

B. Repetition of short-term unemployment mainly contributes to people’s loss of working capacity.

C. Many unemployed people are from families where other members are working.

D. Labor market hardship is understated because fewer individuals are jobless than counted.

60. It can be inferred from the passage that the effect of income transfers is often not felt by .

A. those doing a low-paid, part-time job

B. children in single-eamer families

C. workers who have just retired

D. full-time workers who become unemployed

61. Which of the following is the principal topic of the passage?

A. What causes labor market problems that result in suffering.

B. Why income statistics are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty.

C. When poverty, employment, and earnings figures agree with each other.

D. How statistics give an unclear picture of the labor-market-related suffering.

C

Fed up with constantly having to recharge or replace batteries in your ever-expanding electronic devices? The solution may be just a few steps away.

“Energy harvesting” promises to power countless consumer devices, often with nothing more than your body’s movement or heat. Dozens of companies around the world already offer such products, but many experts believe the market for the technology could explode due to electronic devices being developed for the Internet of Things.

“It’s huge，” said Graham Martin, CEO of the EnOcean Alliance, a San Ramon-based group of businesses that promotes wireless energy-harvesting technologies. With the Internet of Things expected to combine billions of devices, “if they are all battery-powered, we’ll have a problem because there’s not enough lithium(锂)in the world，” he added. “So a lot of them will have to use energy harvesting.”

Among the most basic forms of the technology is body power. When certain materials are squeezed or stretched, the movement of their atoms creates an electrical charge. Automatic watches have employed the concept for decades, for example, by winding themselves when their user moves their arm. Now, the concept is being considered for a number of other devices.

In a contest seeking visionary ideas for wearable technologies, Intel awarded $5,000 for a concept to change the temperature difference between a person’s body and a special piece of clothing they’d wear into electricity for mobile devices.

Using sound to power devices is another energy-harvesting variation. Stanford University engineers are testing smart microchips that create electricity from ultrasound to power implantable devices that can analyze a person’s nervous system or treat their diseases.

A textile research association in Spain is proposing to obtain electricity from radio waves that flow around everyone to power sensors sewn into clothes, which can monitor a person's heartbeat or other vital signs. Research firm lDTechEx has estimated that annual global sales of energy-harvesting products could hit $2.6 billion by 2024, while WinterGreen Research predicts sales of $4.2 billion by 2019.

Obtaining stable energy from devices can be complex, however. For one thing, the motion that generates the electricity has to be constant to be useful. Moreover, the amount of power the devices produce depends on the person using them，according to a Columbia University study. It determined that taller people on average provide about 20 percent more power than shorter ones when walking, running or cycling.

It’s also unclear how eagerly consumers might welcome energy-harvesting products. While such devices are expected to cost less than battery-powered alternatives when compared over many years, experts say, people may continue buying ones with batteries merely because those would be cheaper in the short term.