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  3. With the usual flood of immigrants from non-English-speaking countries, there comes a multicultural work force. Along with this

With the usual flood of immigrants from non-English-speaking countries, there comes a multicultural work force. Along with this

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问题     With the usual flood of immigrants from non-English-speaking countries, there comes a multicultural work force. Along with this diversity comes resentment felt by natives in the marketplace. Feelings of antagonism surface when accents are strong or foreign languages are used that some workers cannot understand. There is now a clash of forces in the workplace; the battle is centered around English-only policies. A growing number of workers are alleging discrimination on the basis of language.
    The federal law prohibiting job discrimination comes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964(Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. National-origin discrimination makes it illegal to discriminate against an individual because of birthplace, ancestry, culture or linguistic characteristics common to a specific ethnic group. A rule requiring that employees speak only English on the job may violate Title VII unless an employer shows that the requirement is necessary for conducting the business. If the employer believes such a rule is necessary, employees must be informed of when English is required and the consequences for violating the rule.
    Donna Fernandez, language rights attorney at the Employment Law Center of San Francisco, finds that language discrimination is very prevalent in the workplace. Fernandez states that the biases may include "English-only policies when the employee’s primary language is other than English" or "some people may be treated differently because they speak with an accent."
    It is illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee because of language. However, the increase in language discrimination suits indicates that employers are treating employees speaking with an accent or in a foreign language differently. "Many companies don’t know they are breaking the law with the English-only policies," says Fernandez. The law in this area is still developing and many courts consider these policies to be a form of discrimination on the basis of race or national origin.(National origin refers to the country that a person, or that person’s ancestors, came from.)Employees can challenge a speak-English-only policy if: the rule is applied to employees who speak no English; they have difficulty speaking English; or the policy creates, or is part of, a work environment that is hostile toward national origin minority employees. An employer must show some "business necessity" for the policy. Even if there is a business need, the policy is still illegal if there are less discriminatory alternatives to the policy.
    Sibylle Gruber, assistant professor of English at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz., finds that employees may feel they are viewed as less intelligent if they cannot speak English perfectly. "Workers may miss out on promotions to positions of authority if they can’t express themselves or communicate clearly," says Gruber. Often, there are subtle prejudices against some accents more than others. Speaking with a French or British accent is less frowned upon than a Spanish or Vietnamese accent. By not promoting employees because of an accent or language bias, a ghetto effect is created in the work force, keeping certain accents and immigrants in low-level positions.
According to the author, language discrimination lawsuits are______.
选项 A、widespread in today’s workplace
B、a surprise to most companies involved
C、growing in number
D、indicative of the need to develop stronger laws
答案C
解析 属信息推断题。题目中的关键词language discrimination lawsuits出现在第四段第二句：然而，语言歧视引起的诉讼案的增加说明雇主不能一视同仁地对待说英语带口音或说外语的雇员。由此可知，选项C正确，growing in number是原文increase的同义表达。选项A与第三段第一句不符(工作场所普遍存在语言歧视)；选项B与第四段第三句不符(许多公司不知道他们把英语作为工作场所唯一语言的政策违反了法律)；由第四段第四句(这一领域的法律正在形成，许多法庭认为这些政策是基于种族和原国籍的一种歧视)可推出需要发展的是更公正的法律，而非更强硬的法律(stronger law)。因此，选项D错误。
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