1. 试题：
Text 1
Reskilling is something that sounds like a buzzword but is actually arequirement if we plan to have a future where a lot of would-be workers do notget left behind.
We know we are moving into a period where the jobs in demand will changerapidly, as will the requirements of the jobs that remain. Research by the WEFdetailed in the Harvard Business Review, finds that on average 42 percent of the“core skill” within job roles will change by 2022.That is a very short timeline,so we can only imagine what the changes will be further in the future.
The question of who should pay for reskilling is a thorny one. Forindividual companies, the temptation is always to let go of workers whose skillsare no longer demand and replace them with those whose skills are. That does notalways happen. AT&T is often given as the gold standard of a company whodecided to do a massive reskilling program rather than go with a fire-and-hirestrategy ultimately retraining 18,000 employees. Prepandemic, other companiesincluding Amazon and Disney had also pledged to create their own plans. When theskills mismatch is in the broader economy though, the focus usually turns togovernment to handle. Efforts in Canada and elsewhere have been arguably languidat best, and have given us a situation where we frequently hear of employersbegging for workers even at times and in regions where unemployment is high.
With the pandemic, unemployment is very high indeed. In February, at 3.5per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively, unemployment rates in Canada and theUnited States were at generational lows and worker shortages were everywhere. Asof May, those rates had spiked up to 13.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent, andalthough many worker shortages had disappeared, not all had done so. In themedical field, to take an obvious example, the pandemic meant that there werestill clear shortages of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel.
Of course, it is not like you can take an unemployed waiter and train himto be doctor in few weeks, no matter who pays for it. But even if you cannotclose that gap, maybe you can close others, and doing so would be to the benefitof all concerned. That seems to be the case in Sweden, where the pandemickick-started a retraining program where business as well as government had arole.
Reskilling in this way would be challenging in a North American context.You can easily imagine a chorus of "you can’t do that" because teachers ornurses or whoever have special skills, and using any support staff who has beenquickly trained is bound to end in disaster. Maybe. Or maybe it is somethingthat can work well in Sweden, with its history of co-operation between business,labour and government, but not in North America where our history is verydifferent. Then again, maybe it is akin to wartime, when extraordinary thingstake place, but it is business as usual after the fact. And yet, as in war thepandemic is teaching us that many things, including rapid reskilling, can bedone if there is a will to do them. In any case, Swedens’ work force is now moreskilled, in more things, and more flexible than it was before.
Of course, reskilling programs, whether for pandemic needs or thepostpandemic world, are expensive and at a time when everyone’s budgets are leanthis may not be the time to implement them. Then again, extending income supportprograms to get us through the next months is expensive, too, to say nothing ofthe cost of having a swath of long-term unemployed in the POST-COVID years Giventhat, perhaps we should think hard about whether the pandemic can jump-start usto a place where reskilling becomes much more than a buzzword.
21. Research by the World Economic Forum suggests
A. an increase in full-time employment
B. an urgent demand for new job skills
C. a steady growth of job opportunities
D. a controversy about the “core skills”
【答案】B。根据题干信息定位到文章第二段第二句，WEF对应 World Economic Forum，finds that对应suggestthat，后面提到，平均下来，有42%的工作中的核心技能会变化(on average 42 percent of the “core skill” withinjob roles will change)，故而选B，change对应B选项中的new。
【干扰项】文章第二段只提到了对需求中的工作的变化，并未提到数量增长，故而排除A和C选项;文章第二段第二句提到了对核心技能变化的要求，但并没有提到有争议，故而排除D选项。
22. AT&T is cited to show
A. an alternative to the fire-and-hire strategy
B. an immediate need for government support
C. the importance of staff appraisal standards
D. the characteristics of reskilling program
【答案】A。根据题干信息AT&T定位至第三段第四句。is often given as the gold standard对应题干中的iscited to show，a company后面的定语从句揭示答案，即“决定做大量的重塑技能的项目，而不是不断地解聘再招聘”，ratherthan否定的内容是A选项的fire-and-hire strategy，相当于对alternative进行了同意替换，故而选A。
【干扰项】B选项governmentsupport对应内容为第二段第六句，该句提到的内容确实是一些公司因为技能不匹配而向政府求助，但这部分内容与AT&T无关，定位点不对。文章并未提到对员工的评价标准，属于无中生有，故而排除C选项。AT&T的例子是用来将reskillingprogram来替代解聘雇佣的政策，这里并未具体提到这个项目本身的特点，属于无中生有，故而排除D选项。
23. Efforts to resolve the skills mismatch in
Canada
A. have driven up labour costs
B. have proved to be inconsistent
C. have met with fierce opposition
D. have appeared to be insufficient
【答案】D。根据题干信息efforts和Canada定位至第三段最后一句have beenlanguid，提到了这些措施缓慢，后半句提到了雇主急需雇员，但是当地的失业率仍然高，这说明加拿大的措施并没有起到很好的作用，所以对应D选项的insufficient，即不足、不充分。
【干扰项】文章第三段尾句提到了合格劳动力的短缺，但并未提到劳动力成本和提高的问题，属于无中生有，故而排除A选项;最后一句提到的矛盾是失业率居高不下和合格劳动力短缺的矛盾，而不是加拿大的措施自身的矛盾问题，属于张冠李戴，故而排除B选项;文章也没有提到反对的意见，所以排除C选项。
24. We can learn from Paragraph 4 that there was
A. a call for policy adjustment.
B. a change in hiring practices.
C. a lack of medical workers.
D. a sign of economic recovery.
【答案】C。文章第四段尾句提到meant that，后面提到了shortage of，对应C选项的lack of，doctors, nursesand other medical personnel对应medical workers。故而C选项为该句的同意替换。
【干扰项】文章第三段结尾提到了加拿大在这方面政策的失败，第四段并未涉及到与policy相关的
问题，故而排除A选项;第四段开头提到了失业率的上升，但并未涉及到雇佣政策的变化，而文章第一段提到的是核心技能变化的需求，故而排除B选项;整段提到的不是失业率上升，就是缺少合格的劳动力，都是负面信息，并且也与经济复苏没有任何关系，属于无中生有，故而排除D选项。
25. Scandinavian Airlines decided to
A. Great job vacancies for the unemployed.
B. Prepare their laid-off workers for other jobs.
C. Retrain their cabin staff for better services.
D. finance their staff's college education.
