Question

One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wage. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig(钻油机) in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and teacher have is many years of training in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years, when they were studying instead of earning money, should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.

Another factor we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is, regardless of the talents he may bring to it. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling secondhand cars or improving the taste of toothpaste by adding a red stripe to it. Yet it is almost certain that the used car salesman earns more than the nurse, and that research chemist earns more than the school teacher.

Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic(精神的) wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying monotony(单调) of his work. It is significant that that those jobs which are traditionally regarded as “vocations” --- nursing, teaching and the Church, for example --- continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.

Although the amount of money that people earn is in reality largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point for such an investigation would be to try to decide the ratio which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicate by two factors: firstly by the “social wage”, i.e, the welfare benefits which every citizen receives; and secondly, by the taxation system, which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Allowing for these two things, most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities become disillusioned, and might even end up by emigration(移民) (the so-called “brain-drain” is an evidence that this can happen). If it is more, the gap between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead social tensions and ultimately to violence.

1. The professional man, such as the doctor, should be well paid because ______.

A. he has spent several years learning how to do his job

B. his work involves much great intelligence than, say, a bus conductor’s

C. he has to work much harder than most other people

D. he knows more than other people about his subject

2. The “brain-drain” is an evidence that ______.

A. well-educated people are prepared to emigrate whenever they can get a better paid job

B. people with jobs or responsibility expect to be highly paid

C. high taxation is a useful and effective instrument of social justice

D. the poor are generally more patriotic(爱国的) than the rich

3. As far as rewarding people for their work is concerned, the writer, believes that ______.

A. we should pay for socially-useful work, regardless of the person’s talent

B. we should pay people according to their talents

C. market forces will determine how much a person is paid

D. qualified people should be the highest paid

4. The argument of the “psychic wage” is used to explain why ______.

A. people who do socially important work are not always well paid

B. people who do monotonous jobs are highly paid

C. you should not try to compare the pay of different professions

D. some professional people are paid more than others

Answer 1

【小题1】A

【小题2】B

【小题3】C

【小题4】A