A. benefits B. displaced C. employed D. eventually
E. impact F. jobless G. primarily H. productive
I. prosperity J. responsive K. rhythm L. sentiments
M. shrunk N. swept O. withdrawn
Innovation, the elixir (灵丹妙药) of progress, has always cost people their jobs. In the Industrial Revolution hand weavers were
31
aside by the mechanical loom. Over the past 30 years the digital revolution has
32
many of the mid-skill jobs that supported 20th-century middle-class life. Typists, ticket agents, bank tellers and many production-line jobs have been dispensed with, just as the weavers were.
For those who believe that technological progress has made the world a better place, such disruption is a natural part of rising
33
. Although innovation kills some jobs, it creates new and better ones, as a more
34
society becomes richer and its wealthier inhabitants demand more goods and services. A hundred years ago one in three American workers was
35
on a farm. Today less than 2% of them produce far more food. The millions freed from the land were not rendered
36
, but found better-paid work as the economy grew more sophisticated. Today the pool of secretaries has
37
, but there are ever more computer programmers and web designers.
Optimism remains the right starting-point, but for workers the dislocating effects of technology may make themselves evident faster than its
38
. Even if new jobs and wonderful products emerge, in the short term income gaps will widen, causing huge social dislocation and perhaps even changing politics.
Technology"s
39
will feel like a tornado (旋风), hitting the rich world first, but
40
sweeping through poorer countries too. No government is prepared for it.