Text 4 Many people talked of the 288,000 new jobs the Labor Department reported for June,along with the drop in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent,as good news.And they were right.For now it appears the economy is creating jobs at a decent pace.We still have a long way to go to get back to full employment,but at least we are now finally moving forward at a faster pace.However,there is another important part of the jobs picture that was largely overlooked.There was a big jump in the number of people who report voluntarily working part-time.This figure is now 830,000（4.4 percent）above its year ago level.Before explaining the connection to the Obamacare,it is worth making an important distinction.Many people who work part-time jobs actually want full-time jobs.They take part-time work because this is all they can get.An increase in involuntary part-time work is evidence of weakness in the labor market and it means that many people will be having a very hard time making ends meet.There was an increase in involuntary part-time in June,but the general direction has been down.Involuntary part-time employment is still far higher than before the recession,but it is down by 640,000（7.9percent）from its year ago level.We know the difference between voluntary and involuntary part-time employment because people tell us.The survey used by the Labor Department asks people if they worked less than 35 hours in the reference week.If the answer is“yes”,they are classified as working part-time.The survey then asks whether they worked less than 35 hours in that week because they wanted to work less than full time or because they had no choice.They are only classified as voluntary part-time workers if they tell the survey taker they chose to work less than 35 hours a week.The issue of voluntary part-time relates to Obamacare because one of the main purposes was to allow people to get insurance outside of employment.For many people,especially those with serious health conditions or family members with serious health conditions,before Obamacare the only way to get insurance was through a job that provided health insurance.However,Obamacare has allowed more than 12 million people to either get insurance through Medicaid or the exchanges.These are people who may previously have felt the need to get a full-time job that provided insurance in order to cover themselves and their families.With Obamacare there is no longer a link between employment and insurance.
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主旨题【命题思路】这是一道主旨题。主要考查考生对全文主题的把握，要求考生能用具有概括性的语言全面总结全文中心思想。【直击答案】本题难度稍大，建议归纳各段要点，综合排除得出正确答案。文章首段指出目前的失业率呈现出下降的趋势；第二段提出在这种失业率下降的好现象中，我们忽略了那些自愿（voluntary）参加兼职工作的人。第三段就自愿兼职工作者和非自愿兼职工作者的区别展开描述。最后两段表明，那些自愿参加兼职工作的人是因为有了一项名为Obamacare的政策，该政策旨在使那些没有全职工作的人也有可能获得保险，从而提升就业率。可见，全文都是围绕美国的就业形势展开讨论。故A项正确。【干扰排除】B项无中生有。C项中的“Medicaid”仅出现在文章结尾，属于细节干扰。D项与作者立场相反，故排除。
