What is the passage mainly about?

Dividing a job into specialized steps greatly raises output, though it can narrow the worker's experience. (Specialization 'multiplies what a society can make,' but 'can also narrow the work of the individual.')

In the pin example, what can the same number of people produce once the work is divided?

Thousands of pins (Splitting the steps means 'the same number of people can produce thousands.')

The passage suggests that narrow, well-defined tasks:

Are easier to hand over to a machine. (A narrow task makes it 'easier to see how a machine might do it,' preparing the ground for automation.)

In 'the total output can rise,' the word "output" most nearly means:

the amount produced ('Output' is what gets made - here, the number of pins produced.)

The Division of Labor: Level 4 Reading Comprehension Questions

Why is a modern economy so astonishingly productive? A large part of the answer is an idea that sounds almost too plain to matter: the division of labor. When a complex job is broken into small steps, and each worker performs just one of them, the total output can rise far beyond what the same people would manage each working alone.

The classic illustration is the making of a pin. One person working from start to finish might complete only a handful in a day. But split the work - one draws the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts, a fourth sharpens the point, a fifth grinds the head - and the same number of people can produce thousands. Nothing about the workers changed. Only the arrangement of their effort did.

The gains come from several sources. A worker repeating one task grows quick and skilled at it. No time is lost switching between different tools and motions. And once a task is narrow and well defined, it becomes easier to see how a machine might do it, which is how specialization quietly prepares the ground for automation.

There is a cost hidden in the benefit. A person who performs one tiny motion all day may learn it perfectly while understanding the whole less and less. The division of labor multiplies what a society can make, but it can also narrow the work of the individual until skill and meaning pull apart.

Comprehension questions