We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people think that craft no longer exists.
One of the ways these people wrongly support their view is by pointing to 100-year-old homes which are still solid, and arguing that it is the craftsmanship that is responsible for their durability. “Homes in those days were well-built,” they say. No doubt these homes were well-built, but what these people have done is mix up the quality of material used in the house with the quality of the craftsmanship.
Homes today could be built to last just as long as those old homes if people were willing or able to pay the price. For example, most people can no longer afford solid oak stairways, although they were once fairly common in older homes. Nor can they afford the high labor cost of employing a carpenter to build the stairway. Yet if someone can pay the high cost, there are still plenty of carpenters around able to make those stairways. And not only would these carpenters know how to build them, they would probably do a better job than carpenters of old.
One thing the modern carpenter has which enables him to do a better job is much more advanced tools. Such tools as laser beams and powerplanes help them lay out a house better and make more precision cuts on the wood. Also, it is not uncommon say more to find carpenters with college degrees and carpenters with a solid knowledge of mathematics, which would enable them to deal with more difficult house designs.
The problem of modern quality, then, really boils down to the problem of material, for the modern carpenter is just as able to produce craftsmanship as the carpenter of fifty years ago, but only if given proper material.
小题1: Compared to the carpenters in the past, modern carpenters are .
A．more successful
B．more learned
C．more imaginative
D．more hardworking小题2: What does the underlined work “they” (paragraph 2) refer to?
A．Carpenters who are fond of oak stairways.
B．Carpenters who have college degrees.
C．People who think highly of carpenters of old.
D．People who think that modern material is of low quality.小题3:What does the third paragraph mainly discuss?
A．People in the past preferred to use oak to build stairways.
B．It is now expensive to employ a carpenter.
C．Modern houses last as long as the old ones.
D．Good carpenters still exist in modern times.小题4: What would be the best title for the text?
A．Is Craft Dead?
B．Craft, Back to Life?
C．History of Craftsmanship
D．Carpenters Today and Yesterday