As nanny(保姆), cook, cleaner, shopper, driver, and gardener, she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores(家务活) which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost €349.
At over €18,000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population, including train drivers, firemen, prison officers, and social worker. Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into a even higher pay league. According to a stud, she earns €457 a week – at nearly €24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists.
Researchers put a price on each chore, then tried to find out how long the average person takes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week on housework – with looking after the children (17.9hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.9 hours each) the most time-consuming(费时).
A wife with a part-time job still works and average of 59 hours a week at home. Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace. The good news is that these hours sharply as children get older. While the average mother with child under one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten.
Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said, “Paying the housewives may not be practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps through the tax. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t understand this. For example, my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans the kitchen – that’s the real test.”
【小题1】Who earns most according to the text?A．A social worker.B．A fireman.C．A gardener.D．A teacher.【小题2】 We lean from the text that looking after children .A．takes more time than doing any other houseworkB．means more duties than being a teacherC．requires the mother to be well-educatedD．prevents the mother from working outside【小题3】According to the text, a housewife with a baby less than one year old may work .A．66 hours a weekB．71 hours a weekC．80 hours a weekD．90 hours a week【小题4】By mentioning her husband, Karen Williams wants to show that .A．housework is no easy jobB．her husband has no time to clean the kitchenC．a housewife needs to be paid for cleaningD．the kitchen is hard to cleanD
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(答案→)D
解析：
【小题1】归纳判断题，第二自然段的第一句和第三句可得出答案。
【小题2】细节判断题，从第三段最后一句可知道答案。
【小题3】细节判断题，第四段第三句可知道答案。
【小题4】推理判断题，从最后一段Paying the housewives may not be practical和Running a house takes a lot of time and most husband don’t understand this.可推断出答案。