In 1970, before he became a blues legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan was working as a dishwasher in Dallas. One of his jobs was cleaning out the trash bin. To do it, Vaughan had to stand on some large wooden barrels, which were for the kitchen crew to dump hot grease(油脂). One day, while he was cleaning, the top of a barrel suddenly gave and he fell in.

Luckily for Vaughan, it had been a while since the last grease dump, so the stuff had cooled and he was able to safely climb out of the barrel. However, the next day, Vaughan’s boss fired him for breaking the barrel. The young man could have been severely injured, and he lost his job for his trouble.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. National surveys suggest that burns, cuts, falls and other injuries are extremely common in the fast food industry, where underpaid people are placed under intense pressure to work quickly.

Then there’s wage theft—employers trying to avoid paying workers what they’re legally entitled to. According to the Economic Policy Institute, federal and state agencies recovered $933 million for victims of wage theft in 2012 alone and that’s just for the workers who successfully pursued their cases.

People with power—employers, managers and owners of businesses big and small—quite often do mistreat their workers. And they do it because there are no consequences to fear and workers often can’t leave a job without putting their livelihood at risk. So they daren’t speak out their voice.

So we also need social institutions—a universal basic income, wage allowance, a job guarantee, truly universal health care and more—that give workers an alternative to depend on in the market for income. And we need a strong labor movement that can credibly punish employers if they don’t give workers a fair share and press the government to enforce the law.

【小题1】Why was Vaughan able to escape serious injury?

A．The barrel did not have a cover.

B．His colleagues rescued him in time.

C．The temperature of the stuff was low.

D．He immediately broke the barrel and ran away.

【小题2】What does the underlined word “iceberg” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Employers treat their employees badly.

B．Employees may easily get injured while working.

C．Competition is much fiercer in fast food industry.

D．Employees fail to defend their rights through laws.

【小题3】What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．The potential consequences of wage theft.

B．The reasons for the phenomenon of wage theft.

C．The conflict between employers and employees.

D．The complaints from employees about wage theft.

【小题4】What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Employees should work harder to improve income.

B．Vaughan was fired owing to his negative attitude to work.

C．It’s unnecessary for employees to be in conflict with employers.

D．Some measures should be taken to protect employees’ interests.