Day 18

英文重現

In addition, the human capital theory explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home.

——GMAT OG 2015, Reading Comprehension, Passage 11

解析

1.句子的主語和謂語很明顯，是“the theory explains”，但是其后所接的“why”引導的賓語從句比較復雜，我們可以先用A代替；將整個句子簡化為“the theory explains A by positing that…”。大家在遇到長難句時，應該首先找出句子骨架結構，再分別分析各項具體內容。

2.“explains”后面一長串都是“why”引導的賓語從句，我們也要先找出句子的主

干來。不難看出賓語從句是一個“there be”句型，兩個“such as”后面的內容分別對“low-skill jobs”和“others”進行舉例說明（根據前面的“low-skill jobs”可推測出，“others”應該指的是“other low-skill jobs”，只有前面出現過的名詞才可以在后面再次出現時省略），后面的“by positing that…in the home”是方式狀語。把這些次要信息去掉以后，我們可以將賓語從句簡化為“why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, but not in others”。

3.我們再來分析“by positing that…”這一長串的內容。大家注意到沒有，在“positing”后面的賓語從句中，原文沒有用逗號斷句，所以我們需要自行斷句，在“rearing”和“women”之間加個逗號，這樣句子的結構就比較清晰了：前面的“because of their primary responsibility in child rearing”作后面的“women took occupations that could be carried out in the home”的原因狀語。

詞義辨析

參考翻譯

除此以外，通過指出女性因為在育兒中擔任主要責任，所以會接受能在家中完成的工作，人力資本理論解釋了為什么女性工作者大多集中在某些低技術含量的工作中，比如織布，而不是在其他諸如紡紗前的纖維梳理等（無法在家中完成的）工作中。

實戰演練

In the seventeenth-century Florentine textile industry, women were employed primarily in low-paying, low-skill jobs. To explain this segregation of labor by gender, economists have relied on the useful theory of human capital. According to this theory, investment in human capital—the acquisition of difficult job-related skills—generally benefits individuals by making them eligible to engage in well-paid occupations. Women's role as child bearers, however, results in interruptions in their participation in the job market (as compared with men's) and thus reduces their opportunities to acquire training for highly skilled work. In addition, the human capital theory explains why there was a high concentration of women workers in certain low-skill jobs, such as weaving, but not in others, such as combing or carding, by positing that because of their primary responsibility in child rearing women took occupations that could be carried out in the home.

The passage suggests that combing and carding differ from weaving in that combing and carding were

(A) low-skill jobs performed primarily by women employees.

(B) low-skill jobs that were not performed in the home.

(C) low-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees.

(D) high-skill jobs performed outside the home.

(E) high-skill jobs performed by both male and female employees.

答案：B

答案解析

這道題相對比較簡單，根據“combing”、“carding”以及“weaving”可定位到句子“In addition, …in the home”，理解清楚該句中“others”指代“other low-skill jobs”后，即可首先排除選項D“在家之外所做的高技能工作”和選項E“由男性和女性員工所做的高技能工作”；而文中“because of”后面的內容解釋了女性為什么會“weaving”，而不“combing and carding”，因此“because of”后邊的內容其實暗示了這兩類工作的差別：

“that (weaving) could be carried out in the home”，所以“combing and carding”應該是“不能在家中做的低技能工作”，即選項B。

其他兩個選項意思為：

A.“主要由女性員工從事的低技能工作”。

C.“由男性和女性員工從事的低技能工作”。