Passage Three At last, unemployment is easing. But thelatest low rate-hovering below 6 percent obscures a deeper, longer-termproblem: "skills mismatches" in the labor force, which will onlyworsen in years to come. According to the most recent figures, 9.3 millionAmericans are unemployed, but 4.8 million jobs stand empty because employerscan't find people to fill them. With new technology transforming work across arange of sectors, more and more businesses are struggling to find workers withthe skills to man new machines and manage new processes. One solution has enchanted employers,educators, and policymakers on both sides of the aisle: European-styleapprenticeship. I've just come back from Germany, where Ivisited some half dozen apprenticeship programs at brand-name companies likeDaimler, Siemens,and Bosch, and the metaphor I came away with is a nativetree-flourishing, productive, highly adapted to its local climate zone, butunlikely to take root or grow in a climate as different as the America's. Thisdoesn't mean we shouldn't adapt the German model. But it's not going to bequick or easy. The U.S. has its own tradition ofapprenticeship going back many years. But like most kinds of vocationaleducation, it fell out of fashion in recent decades-a victim of our obsessionwith college and concern to avoid anything that resembles tracking. Today inAmerica, fewer than percent of young people train as apprentices, the overwhelmingmajority in the construction trades. In Germany, the number is closer to 60percent-in fields as diverse as advanced manufacturing, IT, banking, andhospitality. And in Europe, what's often called "dual training" is ahighly respected career path "Dual training"captures theidea at the heart of every apprenticeship: Trainees split their days betweenclassroom instruction at a vocational school and on-the-job time at a company.The theory they learn in class is reinforced by the practice at work. They alsolearn work habits and responsibility and, if all goes well, absorb the cultureof the company. Trainees are paid for their time, including in class. Thearrangement lasts for two to four years, depending on the sector. And bothemployer and employee generally hope it will lead to a permanent job-for employers,apprentices are a crucial talent pool. The first thing you notice about Germanapprenticeships: The employer and the employee still respect practical work.German firms don't view dual training as something for struggling students orat-risk youth. "This has nothing to do with corporate socialresponsibility, "an HR manager at Deutsche Bank told the group I was with,organized by an offshoot of the Goethe Institute. "I do this because I needtalent. So too at Bosch.
We can learn from Paragraph 1 that in the U.S._____
A、the unemployment rate is dropping
B、there are more and more people being laid off
C、the unemployed workers are leading an easy life
D、the problem of skills mismatches will be easily solved
【正确答案】：A
