Explanation

20) The passage is primarily concerned with discussing the opposition to, and the advocacy and adoption of, 40-hour workweeks during the 1920s; therefore Choice D is the correct answer. Because the passage lays out different viewpoints but does not consider their relative merits, Choice A is not correct. The passage does not discuss the benefit to workers of a 40-hour workweek or the opinion or role of labor unions on the issue, so Choices B, C, and E are incorrect.

21) Choice C is the correct answer. The mention of “automobiles” is directly followed by the observation that it is a product whose use requires leisure. Thus it
can be inferred that one factor leading Ford to advocate shorter hours is that workers with newfound leisure time would become consumers of his product. There is no indication that Ford was unlike other employers in encouraging employees to consume their own products, so Choice B is incorrect. Choice A is incorrect because the passage does not say that Ford’s business was highly profitable. Choices D and E are incorrect because the mention of automobiles is not connected to the likelihood or success of different types of unions in securing shorter hours.

22) The sentence mentioning this boast is followed by an explanation that although the number of workers with 40-hour weeks increased significantly, most of this gain could be attributed to just a few unions. Since the author is seemingly correcting a misimpression—that this increase involved many unions—Choice B is the correct answer. Because the passage does not suggest that the statistics themselves are questionable, Choices A and C are incorrect. Since the passage makes no mention of the total number of AFL members, Choice E cannot be correct. Choice D is incorrect because the boast makes no reference to the building trades’ unions.

23) The sentence in question states that the reformers had to portray reduced hours as “an antidote” to the rigors of scientific management. Since an antidote can negate or reverse ill effects, Choice B, which states that the effects of scientific management (previously described as “rigorously routinizing” jobs) can be mitigated by workweek reduction, is the correct choice. Choice A is incorrect because there is no evidence that the reformers made negative claims about the effect of changes on working conditions; similarly, since no mention is made of the reformers’ attitudes towards increases in pay, Choice E cannot be correct. The passage states something similar to Choice D, but this is not put into the mouths of the reformers, so that choice is incorrect. Choice C might seem appealing, since the debate on productivity is couched as one between scientific management and workweek reduction. But the reformers are claiming that the two can be combined to increase production. Therefore Choice C is incorrect.