B
Ever since I was a small girl in school, I’ve been aware of what the school textbooks say about Indians. I am an Indian and, naturally, am interested in what the schools teach about natives of this land.
One day, I read that a delicacy(美味) of American Indian people was dried fish, which , according to the textbook, tasted “like an old shoe, or was like chewing on dried leather.” To this day I can remember my surprise, my anger and my sadness at reading these words. We called this wind-dried fish “sleet-shus”, and to us, it was our favorite delicacy and, indeed, did not taste like shoe leather, and didn’t rot our teeth and bring about the various dietary problem that trouble Indian people in modern times. It took many hours of long and hard work to cure the fish in just this particular fashion. Early fur traders and other non-Indians must have agreed, for they often had this food as they traveled around isolated areas.
I brought the textbook home to show it to my father, leader of my tribe at that time. On this particular day, he told me in his wise and modest manner that the outside world did not understand Indian people, and that I should not let it prevent me from learning the good parts of education.
At a later time in my life, I had brought a group of Indian people to the country fairgrounds to sell Indian-made arts and crafts. My group was excited to make some money by selling Indian handicrafts. We thanked the man who showed us to our booth and told him it was nice of him to remember the people of the Indian community. The man expanded a little and remarked that he liked Indian people. “In fact,” he went on to state, “we are bringing some professional Indians to do the show!”
As we stood there in shock, listening to this uninformed outsider, I looked at my dear Indian companion, an eighty-year-old woman who could well remember the great chiefs of the tribe who once owned all the land of this country before the white man came bringing “civilization”, which included diseases and pollution. My friend said not a word, but took the hurt as Indian people have done for many years.
Of course, we all knew that the “professional Indian” were not Indians at all, but dressed in leather and dancing their own dances. And, anyway, how does one become a “professional Indian”?
45.Which of the following statements about “sleet-shus” is true?
A.It tasted like an old shoe.
B.Eating it was like chewing on dried leather.
C.It was delicious but bad for our teeth.
D.It must have brought pleasure to Indians as well as early business men.
46.What does the writer mean by saying “how does one become ‘a professional Indian’”?
A.Only the Indians know how to become professional Indians.
B.The outside civilization can help and Indian become a professional Indian.
C.An Indian is a born professional Indian.
D.The outside civilization can help white people become professional Indians.
47.After reading the passage, you don’t know __________.
A.what the writer’s profession is
B.what upset the writer and her friend at the county fair
C.why the writer went to the county fair
D.the writer’s attitude to the so-called civilization
48.This story is primarily about ___________.
A.customs of native Americans
B.how textbooks describe native Americans.
C.misunderstanding between people from different cultures
D.how an Indian becomes a “professional Indian”
An important question about eating out is who pays for the meal. If a friend of yours asks you to have lunch with him. You may say something like this, “I’m afraid it’ll have to be some place cheap, as I have very little money.” The other person may say, “OK, I’ll meet you at McDonald’s.” This means that two agree to go Dutch, that is, each person pays for himself. He may also say, “Oh, no. I want to take you to lunch at Johnson’s”, or “I want you to try the steak(牛排) there. It’s great.” This means the person wants to pay for both of you. If you feel friendly towards this person, you can go with him and you needn’t pay for the meal. You may just say, “Thank you. That would be very nice.”
American customs about who pays for dates(约会) are much the same as in other parts of the world. In the old days, American women wanted men to pay for all the meals. But, today, a university girl or a woman in the business world will usually pay her own way during the day. If a man asks her to dinner or a dance outside the working hours, it means “come as my guest”. So as you can see, it is a polite thing to make the question clear at the very beginning. In the old days _______ often paid for all the meals.
A.women | B.men |
C.university students | D.businessmen |
“To go Dutch” means to _______.
A.go to play outside | B.eat out |
C.pay for oneself | D.go to a cheaper eating place |
“McDonald’s” here means _______.
A.a tea house | B.a gate |
C.an office | D.an eating place |
If you feel friendly to the person, _______.
A.you should pay for him | B.you needn’t pay for him |
C.you can accept his invitation | D.you can’t accept his invitation |
We’d better know who will pay for the meal _______.
A.at the beginning | B.at the end |
C.in the middle of the meal | D.after drinking |
Any mistake made in the printing of a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A mistake on one inexpensive postage stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a half times its original value.
The mistake was made more than a hundred years ago in the British colony of Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to a London printer — Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue stamps.
Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball was planned at Mauritius’ Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local printer was instructed to copy the design for the stamps. He accidentally inscribed the words “Post Office” instead of “Post Paid” on the several hundred stamps that he printed.
Today there are only twenty-six of these misprinted stamps left fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds and twelve Two Penny Blues. Because of the Two Penny Blue’s rareness and age, collectors have paid as much as $16 800 for it.Over a century ago, Mauritius _______.
A.was an independent country |
B.belonged to India |
C.was one of the British colonies |
D.was a small island in the Pacific Ocean |
The mistake on the stamps was made _______.
A.in Mauritius | B.at Mauritius Government House |
C.in a post office | D.in London |
Stamp collectors have paid 16 800 for _______.
A.fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds |
B.twelve Two Penny Blues |
C.one One Penny Orange-Red |
D.one Two Penny Blue |
Before the early 1960’s people interested in the differing roles of the left and right hemispheres(半球) of the brain depended almost entirely on facts drawn from animal research, form studies of patients with one-sided brain damage. But it was possible to find out which brain hemisphere was most involved in speech and other functions in normal people by having them listen to two different words coming to the two ears at the same time. This became known as the “dichotic listening” procedure. When several word pairs are given in a row, people are unable to report them all, and most right-handers prefer to report, and report more correctly, words given to their right ears. This seems to be related to the fact that signals from the right ear, although sent to both hemispheres, are better sent to the left hemisphere which controls speech. People who have speech represented(回忆) in the right hemisphere, a very unusual occurrence even in left-handed people, more correctly report what their left ears hear.
In contrast to the right-ear advantage for speech, there is generally a left-ear advantage for another type of auditory(听觉的) signal: music. When right-handed people listen to melodic patterns they report them better from the left ear.Which of the following would be the most proper title for the passage?
A.An Introduction to Speech Damage in Patients with Brain Damage. |
B.An Investigation into the Role of the Brain’s Hemispheres. |
C.An Analysis of Left and Right-handed People. |
D.An Examination of “Dichotic Listening”. |
The “dichotic listening” procedure could best be described as hearing _______.
A.two different words in the same ear twice |
B.the same word twice in the same ear |
C.two different words in different ears |
D.two different words twice in two ears |
according to the passage, right-handed people normally _______.
A.have better hearing in their both ears |
B.have little difficulty in reporting words given to their right ears |
C.are unable to report word pairs given to their left ears |
D.correctly report word pairs given in a row |
according to the passage, music is best appreciated when heard by _______.
A.the left ear of right-handers |
B.people with a left-ear advantage |
C.left-handers in their right ears |
D.right-handed people who understand melodic patterns |
“It was all his own idea, ” says Pat Peters, the 38-year-old wife of Palo Alto, California high school football coach Bob Peters, 39. Bob had just drawn up a “motherhood contract” -a document(文件) stating that for 70 days this summer he would take over the care and feeding of the couple’s four children, plus all household chores(杂务). Although he didn’t even know how to make coffee when he signed, he was quite confident.(He thought the experience would make a nice book.)
After 40 of the 70 days, he was ready to give up. “I was beaten down, completely humbled, ” admits Peters. Three weeks later he spoke to the local press(also part of the bargain), stating, “Not only is motherhood a difficult task, not only is it never-ending, it is an impossible job for any normal human being.”
Bob and Pat were high school sweethearts. After they were married in 1960, she worked as a secretary to help put him through university. Since then Bob has been the football and wrestling coach at Palo Alto’s Cubberley High while Pat raised the kids.
Then two years ago Pat went back to work as a secretary at Cubberley. “I had been around children so much,” she sighs(叹气), “I couldn’t talk to a grown-up.” She continued to run the household, however-until Bob signed the contract, whereupon she decided to relax and enjoy it.
Although Peters had consulted(咨询) with his school’s home economics teachers and the head of the cafeteria(食堂), his meals were sometimes a disaster. “I tried to slip the butter I’d forgotten under the eggs after they were frying, ” he says. For the last three weeks, the family ate out a lot—sometimes having Macdonald’s hamburgers for lunch and dinner.
As for housekeeping, a home economics teacher had told Bob that a room always looks clean if the bed is made. “I found an easier way-I shut the doors, ” he says. Soon the kids were wearing the same clothes for a week. “I made them wear their shirts inside out, and when we went to pick up Pat at work they turned them right side out so they would look clean.”
Now that Bob has publicly admitted he was wrong, he is routinely(日常地) sharing the child-raising and household tasks with Pat. The tentative(暂定的) title of his book about the summer is taken from something he shouted at the kids one day.The couple signed the contract because _______.
A.Pat complained a lot about her doing the housework all by herself |
B.Bob loved taking care of children and wanted his wife to have a good rest |
C.they agreed that husband and wife should share household tasks |
D.Bob thought it easy to take care of the family and wanted the experience for a book |
It was agreed that if Bob failed to keep to the contract, he would have to _______.
A.pay a certain amount of money |
B.do all the housework for years |
C.say sorry to his wife |
D.admit publicly he was wrong about motherhood |
What can we learn about Pat Peters?
A.She was hard-working and selfless. |
B.She was pretty and kind-hearted. |
C.She was tired of the child-raising and household tasks. |
D.She did not love Bob any longer. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A.Bob managed to keep the kids’clothes clean. |
B.Bob tried to cook good meals for his children. |
C.Bob frequently took the kids out to eat because he was too busy at work. |
D.Bob taught the kids to make their beds every day. |
Which of the following can best end the news story?
A.“My experience of being a mother.” |
B.“I’m proud of you all, my dear!” |
C.“Wait till your mother gets home!” |
D.“Motherhood: an impossible job for anyone.” |
Why do women earn less than men?
Women earn less than men. For example, in 1988 the hourly wages of women in the U.S. were 16% less than those of men. The gap between male and female incomes varies with age. The gap between the labor incomes of young women and young men is much smaller than that between middle-aged women and men. It is also clear that jobs in which women are concentrated pay less. The larger the number of workers in an industry who are women, the lower the average wages.
Why do women earn less than men? Are the differences explained by the fact that women are looked down upon? If so, the government has to intervene, to force the employers to pay equal wages to equal jobs. however, there is no agreement among economists about the causes of the gap. One view argues that women on the average have chosen low-paying jobs in which workers enjoy the freedom of entering and leaving the labor force, which reduces their years of experience relative to men. Other people say the gap can also be explained by the difference in educational background which is shown in the difference in the marginal product between men and women.
Much of the gap, however, has not been fully explained. It might be the result of some bias against women. It is this part that has produced calls for government action. What would happen if the government did intervene to increase the wages paid to women? One possibility is that incomes for women as a group might actually decline. An increase in wage decreases the quantity of labor input demanded, resulting in decreased employment as the rate of hiring new workers declines. The result will be a surplus of labor. Those who can find jobs might be better off while those who had jobs might find themselves out of work.The difference in labor incomes is most obvious between _______.
A.young men and young women |
B.young women in the same industry |
C.middle-aged men and middle-aged women |
D.middle-aged women in the same industry |
Some economists believe women earn less than men partly because ______.
A.women are less experienced than men |
B.women are only provided with low-paying jobs |
C.women have much freedom in selecting their jobs |
D.there is more than enough women in the labor force |
Which of the following cannot be inferred from the second paragraph?
A.Women receive less education than men. |
B.Women are not as productive as men. |
C.Levels of education are closely related to productivity. |
D.Goods produced by women are not as good as those by men. |
What does the author suggest that the government should do for women workers?
A.To ensure equal pay for women. |
B.To explain why women are paid less. |
C.To force employers to hire more women. |
D.No solution is clearly suggested. |
What would happen if women’s wages were raised?
A.Input of capital would be increased. |
B.The unemployment rate would go up. |
C.Those that have jobs would become better off. |
D.Women as a group would earn more than before. |