SAMPLE 21

[法律類]

　　Defenders of special protective labor legislation for women often maintain that eliminating such laws would destroy the fruits of a century-long struggle for the protection of women workers. Even a brief examination of the historic practice of courts and employers would show that the fruit of such laws has been bitter: they are, in practice, more of a curse than a blessing.

　　Sex-defined protective laws have often been based on stereotypical assumptions concerning women’s needs and abilities and employers have frequently used them as legal excuses for discriminating against women. After the Second World War, for example, businesses and government sought to persuade women to vacate jobs in factories, thus making room in the labor force for returning veterans. The revival or passage of state laws limiting the daily or weekly work hours of women conveniently accomplished this. Employers had only to declare that overtime hours were a necessary condition of employment or promotion in their factory, and women could be quite legally fired, refused jobs, or kept at low wage levels, all in the name of “protecting” their health. By validating such laws when they are challenged by lawsuits, the courts have colluded over the years in establishing different, less advantageous employment terms for women than for men, thus reducing women’s competitiveness on the job market. At the same time, even the most well-intentioned lawmakers, courts, and employers have often been blind to the real needs of women. The lawmakers and the courts continue to permit employers to offer employee health insurance plans that cover all known human medical disabilities except those relating to pregnancy and childbirth.

　　Finally, labor laws protecting only special groups are often ineffective at protecting the workers who are actually in the workplace. Some chemicals, for example, pose reproductive risks for women of childbearing years: manufacturers using the chemicals comply with laws protecting women against these hazards by refusing to hire them. Thus the sex-defined legislation protects the hypothetical female worker, but has no effect whatever on the safety of any actual employee. The health risks to male employees in such industries cannot be negligible, since chemicals toxic enough to cause birth defects in fetuses or sterility in women are presumably harmful to the human metabolism. Protective laws aimed at changing production materials or techniques in order to reduce such hazards would benefit all employees without discriminating against any.

　　In sum, protective labor laws for women are discriminatory and do not meet their intended purpose. Legislators should recognize that women are in the work force to stay and that their needs — good health care, a decent wage, and a safe workplace — are the needs of all workers. Laws that ignore these facts violate women’s rights for equal protection in employment.

　　1. According to the author, which of the following resulted from the passage or revival of state laws limiting the work hours of women workers?

　　[A] Women workers were compelled to leave their jobs in factories.

　　[B] Many employers had difficulty in providing jobs for returning veterans.

　　[C] Many employers found it hard to attract women workers.

　　[D] The health of most women factory workers improved.

　　2. The author places the word “protecting” in quotation marks in line 9, paragraph 2 most likely in order to suggest that

　　[A] she is quoting the actual wording of the laws in question.

　　[B] the protective nature of the laws in question should not be overlooked.

　　[C] protecting the health of workers is important to those who support protective labor laws.

　　[D] the laws in question were really used to the detriment of women workers, despite being overtly protective in intent.

　　3. The text suggests that which of the following is a shortcoming of protective labor laws that single out a particular group of workers for protection?

　　[A] Such laws are often too weak to be effective at protecting the group in question.

　　[B] Such laws are usually drafted by legislators who do not have the best interests of workers at heart.

　　[C] Such laws exert no pressure on employers to eliminate hazards in the workplace.

　　[D] Compliance with such laws is often costly for employers and provokes lawsuits by employees claiming discrimination.

　　4. According to the first paragraph of the text, the author considers which of the following to be most helpful in determining the value of special protective labor legislation for women?

　　[A] A comparative study of patterns of work-related illnesses in states that had such laws and in states that did not.

　　[B] An estimate of how many women workers are in favor of such laws.

　　[C] An analysis of the cost to employers of complying with such laws.

　　[D] A study of the actual effects that such laws have had in the past on women workers.

　　5. The author implies that which of the following is characteristic of many employee health insurance plans?

　　[A] They cover all the common medical conditions affecting men, but only some of those affecting women.

　　[B] They lack the special provisions for women workers that proposed special labor laws for women would provide.

　　[C] They pay the medical costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth only for the spouses of male employees, not for female employees.

　　[D] They meet minimum legal requirements, but do not adequately safeguard the health of either male or female employees.

　[答案與考點解析]

　　1. 【答案】A

　　【考點解析】這是一道指代詞題型�？忌�可根��(jù)題干中的“the passage or revival of state laws limiting the work hours of women workers”將本題迅速定位在第二段的第三句，該句中的指代詞“this”暗示本題的正確答案應該在第二段的第二句。這樣就可以找出本題的正確答案A。考生在解題時一定要注意指代詞。

　　2. 【答案】D

　　【考點解析】本題是一道標點符號題。英語作為一種語文，標點符號是非常重要的。在原文中“protecting”一詞被打上引號，其含義是“所謂的保護”，作者所表達的真實含義是“沒有起到保護作用的保護”。由此可見本題的正確答案應該是D�？忌�在解題時要重視標點符號，尤其是一些特殊的標點符號。

　　3. 【答案】C

　　【考點解析】本題是一道歸納推導題型�？忌�可根��(jù)題干中的“protective labor laws that single out a particular group of workers for protection”將本題的答案信息迅速確定在第三段的第一句，從第三段的內(nèi)容(尤其是第三段的首尾兩句)判斷本題的正確答案應該是C。考生在解題時首先要具備審題定位的能力，然后要善于歸納和總結(jié)段落的細節(jié)信息。

　　4. 【答案】D

　　【考點解析】這是一道細節(jié)推導題。本題的題干以將本題的答案信息來源確定在第一段，第一段的第二句是本題正確答案D的準確信息來源也是全文的中心主旨句�？忌�在解題時一定要時時牢記全文的中心主旨句，尤其是在迷失解題思路時。

　　5. 【答案】A

　　【考點解析】這是一道細節(jié)推導題。根據(jù)本題題干中的“employee health insurance plans”可將本題的答案信息來源迅速確定在第二段的尾句，從第二段尾句的內(nèi)容可判斷本題的正確答案應該是A。考生在解題時一定要把審題定位放在第一位。

　　[參考譯文]

　　婦女勞動特別保護法的辯護者經(jīng)常堅持認為，廢除這種法律就會破壞一個世紀以來為保護婦女工人而斗爭的成果。但是，只要對法庭案例和雇主的歷史作短暫回顧，就能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)這些法律的成果是多么的令人不愉快：實際上，這種法律與其說是一件好事，不如說是一種災禍。

　　以性別為界限的保護性法律通常是根據(jù)有關(guān)婦女的需要和能力的陳腐性假想為基礎的，而且雇主也經(jīng)常使用這些法律作為他們歧視婦女的合法借口。例如，第二次世界大戰(zhàn)之后，企業(yè)和政府都企圖說服婦女離開她們的工廠中的工作，從而為回國的老兵們在勞動力市場中空出位子。恢復或通過限制婦女每天或每周工作時間的州法律，很容易地就實現(xiàn)了上述的目標。雇主只需聲稱超時加班是在他們的工廠進行工作或提升的必要條件，這樣婦女就被合法地解雇，被拒絕給予工作或者保持一種較低的工資水平，所有這些都以“保護”婦女健康的名義得以實現(xiàn)。當受到法律訴訟時，法庭在過去數(shù)年中一直與雇主合謀共同建立一種男女不同的，對婦女更為不利的雇傭條件，從而降低了婦女在就業(yè)市場上的競爭力。同時，即使那些最善意的立法者、法庭和雇主也經(jīng)常對婦女的真實需求視而不見。法律制定者和法庭都繼續(xù)允許雇主向雇員提供這樣的健康保險計劃，它包含了所有已知的人類疾病，但卻未包括那些與懷孕和生育相關(guān)的醫(yī)療內(nèi)容。

　　最后，那些只保護特殊群體的勞動法在保護實際工作中的工人方面經(jīng)常是無效的。例如，某些化學物質(zhì)會對懷孕期間的婦女造成生育上的危險。使用這些化學物品的制造商們就會遵守保護婦女避免這些危險的法律而拒絕雇傭她們。因此這種特別界定的法律保護了假設中的婦女工人，但對工人實際的任何安全問題都沒有作用。在這些工廠中，對男性工人健康的危險也不能被忽略，既然那些化學毒素能導致胎兒的生育缺陷或使婦女不育，那么推而廣之，其必然會對人類的新陳代謝有害。目的在于減少這種危險的保護性法律，會改變生產(chǎn)原料或生產(chǎn)技術(shù)，從而給所有雇員帶來好處，而又不歧視任何一類雇員。

　　總而言之，為婦女制定的勞動保護法是帶有歧視性的，而且并沒達到它們預期的目的。立法者應該認識到，婦女是勞動力的一部分，而且她們的需求(如良好的健康保健，體面的工資收入，以及安全的工作環(huán)境)同時也是所有工人的需求。那些忽略這些事實的法律就會破壞婦女在就業(yè)中享受平等保護的權(quán)利。