高译教育—NAATI考试英文题库(十)

高译教育—NAATI考试英文题库（十）

The social impact of technology

There is no doubt that technological change brings about social change. The Industrial revolution saw many people displaced from their land, to find work in crowded city factories. Serfdom was abolished and the population shifted from villages to the cities. Strong family ties, self sufficiency and the right to occupy land were replaced with uncertain tenancy of land, dependency on trade and a weakening of the family unit. Economically, goods and money abounded, and trade flourished. The merchant class profited from the wealth that was generated on the backs of the displaced population of urban workers. Children were sent to work in factories, in order for families to make enough money to live. The peasant class worked long hard hours in poor conditions with no security. The Industrial revolution led to the alienation of the working class and although many union battles have since led to the adoption of better working conditions, the effects of the Industrial revolution remain. The family unit is even more vulnerable today with soaring divorce rates, high rates of teenage suicide, most of society are either heavily mortgaged to banks or paying high rents, and no one can be self-sufficient in a world governed by free trade.

Advances in technology, is generally not equitably shared within society.

People with money have more opportunity to acquire technology, which enables them to acquire even more wealth. Technology leads to greater social economic division. Laborers are viewed as commodities and expendable. Technology leads to alienation because it can create jobs that require no specialist knowledge.

To date, since the industrial revolution we have seen technology used to the detriment of society. The right to occupy land has become a privilege that must be worked for and earned and now the battle is on to control all the world's food and textiles through genetically modified seeds and animals. The insidious part of GM is that there is no recall once it is released into the environment. Salmon that will grow ten times faster than normal salmon will destroy river systems, as their unfair genetically modified advantage will see all smaller life forms extinguished, and genetically modified crops that are dependent on pesticides will contaminate organic, heritage seeds that have sustained people for thousands of years. Seeds will no longer be able to be harvested and replanted but the farmer will have to buy new seed every year from GM seed makers. This fight is more important than the fight over open source because it involves the right of people everywhere to have clean, safe food that has not been genetically altered. Essentially GM is a tax on everyone because a patent will be on every seed and seeds are made to be

sterile the following year. This is something to become angry about. The greedy corporations and individuals that want control over our food, water and land, do not care about the irreversible damage to the environment, people and animals that they cause.

We have the right to eat tomatoes that are free of fish DNA, meat and milk that is free of human DNA, pigs that haven't been grown to harvest anthrax antibodies. They will never be able to prove the safety of GM food and no long term studies have been done. Nor will GM solve the problem of soil erosion, and pollution of rivers from artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Only a return to responsible organic and biodynamic farming practices will solve these problems. Courts are not keen to pursue pesticide makers for poisoning farmers, or GM seed makers for monopolizing the world's seeds through patents, through genetic engineering that not only renders the seed worthless for replanting the next year but also contaminates non-GM crops by cross pollination. Already the majority of the world's seed stock is controlled by a handful of corporations.

Resisting the tide of technological change is impossible. Of course it is possible to do business without a website or email or mobile phone or a fax machine. People have been doing business well before any of these gadgets were invented. But business today is about competition, and

technology is about leverage. Technology can lead to alienation if it is not widely dispersed in society. The Industrial age saw the concentration of technology in the hands of the rich and powerful, allowing them to dominate and subdue the population into harsh working conditions and the social impact of the Internet and computers is only just beginning, will it challenge the status quo or will it lead to greater population control?

Large enterprises embrace accredited training

A national study into accredited industry training programs found that large organizations make solid returns from accessing these training resources.

The study, financed through the Commonwealth-funded National V ocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation program and commissioned by the National Center for V ocational Education Research (NCVER) was led by Associate Professor Erica Smith from Charles Sturt University (CSU).

The research found that access to these programs can significantly improve an organization's training systems and skills profile, prompting a call for increased marketing of these formally accredited training programs to all enterprises, especially small and medium sized business. The project found that enterprises which used nationally recognized

training—formally accredited training programs and courses—tended to be large organizations with substantial numbers of staff in particular occupations. Further, their industrial relations tended to be based on enterprise agreements rather than awards.

"The use of formal qualifications for training employees has grown quite rapidly over the past ten years but the reasons why enterprises choose to take up this option has never been studied on a large scale before," said Associate Professor Erica Smith.

"The project has therefore attracted considerable interest from national and state training authorities," added Professor Smith.

The CSU research team led by Professor Smith found that nationally recognized training is most effective when it becomes integrated into the organization's human resource management systems, which needs the support of senior management and their strategic planning.

The resear ch project also identified the importance of an ‘evangelist’ who is committed to qualifications for workers and is able to interpret the often complex national training system to managers.

The research involved focus groups in Sydney, Melbourne and Wagga Wagga in south western NSW, case studies in 12 enterprises across Australia , and a survey of all registered training organizations based in enterprises.

On the nose

Australia’s wine industry must move up,not sideways

It had to happen. Australian wine, for so long the new kid on the block, is being labelled the neighbourhood bully. In Europe,anti-globalisation food activists, who are as often as not a front for local producer interests, reckon the great Aussie drop, mass produced and inexpensive, is obliterating their traditional varieties. In this campaign they are aided and abetted by some high-profile wine writers, who dismiss much of our product as indistinguishable low-end plonk. And then there is the new fashion for wine connoisseurship prompted by the success of the film Sideways. For Australian primary producers, all too adept themselves at mounting populist scare-campaigns against international competition –see today's feature on vegetable farmers – it all looks like a nasty case of the biter bit.

And as if this was not bad enough, soon our vintners may be facing new competitive pressure in their major export markets from mass-produced wine made in China and other countries with low labour costs. Clearly what the industry needs is a new burst of what made it a global heavyweight in the first place: energy and innovation. At the mass-produced end, winemakers are going to have to find ways of reducing costs to stay competitive against new entrants from South Africa

and China. Meanwhile, we are going to have to counter the propaganda that we produce dull, predictable wine, and that will take vintnering as well as marketing skill.

And as if this was not bad enough, soon our vintners may be facing new competitive pressure in their major export markets from mass-produced wine made in China and other countries with low labour costs. Clearly what the industry needs is a new burst of what made it a global heavyweight in the first place: energy and innovation. At the mass-produced end, winemakers are going to have to find ways of reducing costs to stay competitive against new entrants from South Africa and China. Meanwhile, we are going to have to counter the propaganda that we produce dull, predictable wine, and that will take vintnering as well as marketing skill.

Unfortunately, government policies are not helping. Having over-encouraged investment in broadacre vineyards via tax breaks in the 1990s, now the Howard Government imposes a wine equalization tax structured in such a way that it hits mid-sized wineries –which drive most of the research and development – much harder than the boutique wineries on one side or the giants on the other. As reported in The Australian today, the very techniques that turned Australian wine into an industry worth nearly $3 billion annually are now being taught to Chinese

vintners. When they eventually rise up to challenge their teachers in the market for commodity wines, we will need to be able to respond – with quality.