2010年7月5日 星期一

RC_GWD28-Q25~26爭議題解析


文章日期:2010-07-05 02:07
GWD28-Q25 to Q26:

      Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies, arguing that prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employers were already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in the number of women workers.  Employers did create maternity-leave programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but not as a purely voluntary response in the absence of any government mandate.(看完這句有sense的同學應該要知道可能會有考點) In 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled thatemployers who allowed leaves for disabling medical conditions must also allow them for maternity and that failure to do so would constitute sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  As early as 1973, a survey found that 58 percent of large employers had responded with new maternity-leave policies.  Because the 1972 EEOC ruling was contested in court, the ruling won press attention that popularized maternity-leave policies.  Yet perhapsbecause the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.



Q25:                 
It can be inferred that the author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about government policy?

A.    Government policy is generally unaffected by pressures in the labor market.

文章並沒有討論到policy是否受到labor market壓力的影響
應該是在討論employers’ maternity-leave policies是由於政策還是雇主受到勞動市場影響
這篇文章一開始用many表達大眾觀點, 作者很明顯認為應該是政策而非勞動市場, 所以引用很多證據支持(EEOC, survey)

B.    The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened by sustained press attention.
C.    It is possible for a particular government policy to continue to have an impact after that policy has been eliminated.
D.    A given government policy can be counterproductive when that policy has already unofficially been implemented.
E.     The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened when the ruling is contested in court.


Yet perhaps because the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

這裡答案應該是C, 文章中我標出藍色字體部分主要是作者的意見, 作者在最後一句說最高法院後來推翻 EEOC ruling , 造成政客們忘了 EEOC ruling 的影響, 但是作者用failed to代表他不認同如此, 所以應該是作者認為雖然EEOC被推翻, 但是影響仍然存在

Q26:
The passage suggests that the relationship between the view of the author with respect to maternity leave policy prior to passage of the FMLA and the view of the politicians, business leaders, and scholars mentioned in lines 1-2 can best be characterized by which of the following statements?

A.    They agree that both the 1972 EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy and the increasing feminization of the workplace had an impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree about the relative importance of each factor.
B.    They agree that the EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy had an initial impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree over whether the Supreme Court’s striking down of the EEOC ruling weakened that impact.

politicians並沒有對EEOC發表同意意見, 作者只認為他們 have failed to recognize its effects

C.    They agree that creating maternity-leave programs was a necessary response to the needs of the increasing number of women workers but disagree about whether maternity should be classified as a disabling medical condition.
D.    They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about employers’ motivations for doing so.
E.     They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about how widespread those programs were.


Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies, arguing that prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employers were already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in the number of women workers.
Employers did create maternity-leave programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s(作者同意部分, 注意這就是教過的表讓步), but not as a purely voluntary response in the absence of any government mandate.