Read the following passage carefully and answer the given questions.
Unemployment is a key index of economic slack and lost output. But it is not distributed in proportion to people’s ability to face it. It affects painfully the young, women, the unskilled as well as semiskilled, the black person, the older people, and underemployed people in rural areas.
The unemployment among specific groups means greater costs to society that can be calculated easily in hours of idleness or dollars of income lost. The other costs include disturbance of the careers and increased juvenile delinquency.
There is another cost of unemployment. For labors, continuous unemployment results in “share-the-work” pressures for shorter hours and escalate resistance to technological advances. On business side, the shortcomings of markets results in attempts to raise prices to cover increased costs and to pressures for protection against buying products from abroad.
QUESTIONS
- Unemployment is an index of
(A) the employment rate
(B) economic slack and lost output
(C) diminished resources
(D) over utilization of capacity - According to the passage, the unemployment falls most heavily upon all except the
(A) unskilled worker
(B) semiskilled worker
(C) black people
(D) white middle class - The cost to society of unemployment can be measured by all except
(A) disruption of careers
(B) idleness
(C) the death rate
(D) lost incomes - Serious unemployment results in labor groups to demand
(A) more jobs with shorter hours
(B) “no fire” policies
(C) higher wages to those employed
(D) cost-cutting solutions - A normal business reaction to a recession is to press for
(A) restrictive business practices
(B) protection against imports
(C) government action
(D) higher unemployment insurance
ANSWERS: ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION PRACTICE EXERCISE
- (B) economic slack and lost output
- (D) white middle class
- (C) the death rate
- (A) more jobs with shorter hours
- (B) protection against imports