Reading comprehension home Exercise- 09, PASSAGE B

8.       It can be inferred from the passage that the ‘ unfinished revolution “ the author refers to the

A.      Entry of women in to the industrial labour market

B.      Recognition that work done by women as homemakers should be compensated at rates comparable to those prevailing in the service sector of the economy

C.      Development of a new definition of femininity unrelated to the economic forces of industrialism

D.      Emancipation of women wage earners from gender-determined job allocation

9.       The passage supports which of the following statements about hiring policies in the United States?

A.      After a crisis many formerly “male “jobs are reclassified as “female” jobs.

B.      Industrial employers generally prefer to hire women with previous experience as homemakers.

C.      Post –Second World War hiring policies caused women to lose many of their wartime gains in employment opportunity.

D.      Even war industries during the Second World War were reluctant to hire women for factory work.

10.   Which of the following words best expresses the opinion of the author of the passage concerning the notion that women are more skilful than men in carrying out detailed tasks?

A.      “patient”

B.      “repetitive”

C.      “hoary”

D.      “homemaking”

11.   Which of the following best describes the relationship of the final paragraph to the passage as a whole?

A.      The central idea is reinforced by the citation of evidence draw from twentieth-century history.

B.      The central idea is restated in such a way as to form a transition to a new topic for discussion.

C.      The central idea is restated and juxtaposed with evidence that might appear to contradict it.

                                  D.      A partial exception to the generalizations of the central idea is dismissed as unimportant.


Answer:

8.       D     the first paragraph explains that historians focused on factory work on the assumption that it was gender-blind and emancipator in effect. However, the paragraph concedes, emancipation has been less profound than expected, for not even industrial wage labour has escaped continued sex segregation in the workplace. The phrase this unfinished revolution appears in the next sentence and it refers back to continued sex segregation in the workplace. Here the passage implies that the author believes the revolution is unfinished because jobs are still allocated to women on the basis of their sex.

9.       C   The last sentence of the passage states that, once World War II was over, men returned to take the “male” jobs that women had been temporarily allowed to master. Thus the gains women had been allowed to make during the war (despite continued job segregation) were lost to them after men returned to work.

10.    C    This question asks about the author’s attitude. Word choice may reveal attitude, as it does here when the author describes the hoary stereotypes about women that mill owners perpetuated. Hoary means old- literally white with age – and so the stereotypes are being dismissed by the author as old- fashioned, even obsolete.

11.    A    consider the final paragraph in the context of the whole passage to evaluate its relationship to the whole. The first two paragraphs examine job segregation in an unspecified but earlier time. The final paragraph brings the reader into the twentieth century, when, as the example drawn from World War II shows, job segregation persisted. Thus, the final paragraph updates and reinforces the author’s about the persistence of job segregation.