4、The loss of a job can have a very serious impact on the individual. The immediate effect, of course, is a sharp drop in income. Unemployment benefits(失业津贴)typically offer less than half the individual’s previous earnings, and many people are not even entitled to these benefits━for example, the self-employed, recent graduates who have not held a steady job in the previous year, and people who have been unemployed for a long period. The economic pressure on the jobless is very severe, particularly for those who have young children or long-term commitments for expenses for houses and education.

But the effects of unemployment are not merely financial; they are also social and psychological. As one out-of-work teacher puts it: “It’s difficult when you strip away(去掉)all the things that supposedly hold you together in terms of an identity. Your work, your money, whatever is power to you, whatever is responsibility, whatever means freedom and choice.” I had to ask myself, “Who am I now?  What will I do now?” All too often, long-term unemployment may thrust the individual into boredom, despair, ill-temper, and perhaps, conflict with other family members. Even those who keep their jobs are affected by rates of unemployment, for they begin to fear for own future. Lacking the confidence that workers have in times of full employment, they negotiate less aggressively for improvements in pay or working conditions, for they and the employers know that if they do not like the job as it is, others will gladly take it. Unemployment is always accompanied, in fact, by underemployment━the situation in which people are working either for extremely low wages or at jobs below their level of skill.

 

68．It can be inferred from the passage that unemployment benefits are given to ______.

A．people who are self-employed but now unemployed

B．recent graduates who have not held a steady job in the previous year

C．people who have been unemployed for a long period

D．people who have been unemployed for a short period

69．According to the passage, ______                         .

A．the loss of a job can have little impact on the individual

B．unemployment benefits are normally about the same as a person’s previous earnings

C．unemployment benefits are normally less than half of a person’s previous earnings

D．the economic pressure on the jobless is typically not very severe

70．By “underemployment”(Line 12, Para. 2), the writer means the situation in which ______.

A．people are unemployed or low skills are required

B．some people are unemployed and poorly paid 

C．people are working for less than eight hours a day

D．people are working for low wages or at jobs below their level of skill

71．The best title for the passage would be ______            .

A．The Financial Effect of Unemployment         B．The Social Effect of Unemployment

C．The Psychological Effect of Unemployment  D．The Effects of Unemployment