Women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs. The latest government report shows that their share of nonfarm jobs nearly reached fifty percent in September.
Not only have more and more women entered the labor market over the years, but the depression has been harder on men. In October the unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent compared to eight percent for women.
Industries that traditionally use lots of men have suffered deep cuts. For example, manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. But health care and temporary employment services have had job growth. Both of those industries employ high percentages of women.
Thirty years ago, women earned sixty-two cents for every dollar that men earned. Now, for those who usually work full time, women earn about eighty percent of what men earn. And women hold fifty-one percent of good-paying management and professional jobs.
Yet a study released Thursday said men still hold about nine out of every ten top positions at the four hundred large companies in California. The results have remained largely unchanged in live years of studies from the University of California, Davis.
Also, a new research paper in the journal Sex Roles looks at the experiences of women who are the main earners in their family. Rebecca Meisenbach at the University of Missouri in Columbia interviewed fifteen women. She found they all valued their independence and many enjoyed having the power of control, though not all wanted it.
But they also felt pressure, worry and guilt. Partly that was because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. Also, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.
The job market continues to suffer the effects of last year’s financial crash. Now, a judgment has been reached in the first case involving charges of criminal wrongdoing on Wall Street.
Last week, the government lost its case against two managers at Bear Stearns, the first investment bank to fail last year. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of lying to investors.
The hedge funds they supervised lost their value in two thousand seven. But jurors said there was no clear evidence that they meant to mislead investors.
The Justice Department continues to investigate other companies.Why is the unemployment rate for men higher.
| A．Because there are more men workers in industries. |
| B．Because many industries mainly employing men now don’t need so many workers. |
| C．More and more women take the place of men. |
| D．Because health care and temporary employment services don’t employ men. |
It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
| A．women haven’t got complete equality as men |
| B．only by becoming the main earners in their family can women gain a high position |
| C．all women now value independence and the power of control |
| D．taking care of children is now shared by men and women |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Men hate that women earn more money. |
| B．It is commonly believed that women should take care of children. |
| C．The job market has recovered from the effect of the financial crisis. |
| D．Now women working full time earn more than men. |
Why does the government accuse two managers?
| A．They contributed to the financial crash. | B．They led a corrupt life. |
| C．They lied to investors. | D．A jury found them misleading investors. |
On the coast of Brazil lies its most famous city Rio de Janeiro. Rio is a beautiful pace to visit. It is full of exciting parades, historical architecture and natural beauty.
The most famous time of year in Rio is the spring when the samba schools organize a giant parade of dance, music and costumes. Samba is a type of fast Brazilian music, which is perfect for dancing. The carnival lasts two days and over 20 samba schools perform, a total of 70,000 people in brightly coloured costumes, all dancing and singing! It is a magnificent spectacle and millions of people watch the carnival on television around the world.
Rio de Janeiro is a religious city and it is full of churches. Some, like the former Imperial Church, were built over 400 years ago while others, like the Metropolitan Cathedral, are very modern. The Metropolitan Cathedral was built in 1976 and is so large that 20,000 people can stand inside at one time!
Another important religious site in Rio is the Corcovado hill. On the top of the hill, along with a small church, stands a 30-metre high statue of Jesus with his arms stretched out. From this point you can see every part of the city.
59.Brazilian carnival is.
| A．a type of Brazilian music | B．a parade of 70,000 people dancing |
| C．a parade of millions of people on television | |
| D．the name of a samba school |
60.The Metropolitan Cathedral.
| A．was built 400 years ago | B．is on Corcovado Hill |
| C．is a religious city | D．was built in 1976 |
61.The Corcovado Hill is famous for .
| A．the samba parade | B．the beautiful beaches |
| C．the statue of Jesus | D．the small church |
Visitors from space may have landed on our planet from time to time, maybe hundreds of times during the long, empty ages while Man was still a dream of the far future. Indeed, they could have landed on 90% of the earth as recently as two or three hundreds years ago, and we could never have heard of it. If one searches through old newspapers and records from some certain places, one can find many reports of strange events that could be some explanations about visiting from outer space. A writer, Charles Fort, has made a collection of UFO sightings in his book Lo! One is tempted(引诱) to believe them more than any modern reports, for the simple reason that they happened long before anyone had ever thought of space travel. Yet at the same time, one cannot take them too seriously, for before education on science was popular, even sightings of meteors(流星) and comets(彗星) made people believe the most unbelievable stories, as they still do today.
56.According to the passage, visitors from outer space may have landed on the earth.
| A．long before man had dreamed of it | B．long before there were human beings |
| C．in the last few hundred years | D．after the space travel began |
57.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．Charles Fort sighted a lot of UFOs himself. | B．All sightings of UFOs are believable. |
| C．There may be living things on other planets. | D．People have seen visitors from other planets everywhere. |
58.According to the passage,.
| A．UFOs are only seen in recent years | B．UFOs sightings are not new |
| C．UFOs are just meteors and comets | D．UFOs are invented by people |
The way people hold to the belief that a fun - filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment （预担的义务）, self - improvement.
Ask a bachelor（单身汉） why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ________ .
| A．he is reluctant to take on family responsiblilities |
| B．he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single |
| C．he finds more fun in dating than in marriage |
| D．he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement |
Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ________ .
| A．a moral duty |
| B．a thankless job |
| C．a rewarding task |
| D．a source of inevitable pain |
From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________ .
| A．hatred | B．misunderstanding |
| C．prejudice | D．ignorance |
To understand what true happiness is one must ________ .
| A．have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime |
| B．make every effort to liberate oneself from pain |
| C．put up with pain under all circumstances |
| D．be able to distinguish happiness from fun |
For more than twenty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages on spaceships traveling through space, on the chance that someone may be receptive to such messages.
Scientists are using powerful radio telescopes to listen to signals from about 1, 000 stars, all within 100 light years of earth. In addition, they will scan（扫视）the entire sky to “listen” for radio messages from more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight channels at one time. Scientists are looking for any signal they stands out from the background noise.
Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy（银河星系）, scientists find that five percent are like our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from the star for temperatures to be right for the evolution（进化）of life. Based on the inhabitable（that can be lived in）planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that chances are likely that one or more of these planets support some life.
However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent（有智力的）life exists on other planets. Some believe that twenty years of searching without any intelligible messages shows that no one is out there. They say that the evolution of intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely.
Other scientists believe that our search hasn’t been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family is only about five billion years old, our galaxy is about 20 billion years old. In that time, some scientists think it is likely that civilization（文明）much more advanced than ours have developed. Perhaps these civilizations send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep looking.According to the passage, how many planets in our galaxy might be inhabitable?
| A．5 billion． | B．10 billion. |
| C．15 billion. | D．200 billion |
The first paragraph in this passage is mainly about ________ .
| A．how scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets |
| B．why scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets |
| C．where scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets |
| D．when scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets |
The underlined word “monitor” in the passage means“ ________ ”.
| A．find | B．follow |
| C．check | D．form |
Which of these statements is true based on the information in the passage?
| A．The earth is one of the oldest planets in our galaxy. |
| B．Most scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planets. |
| C．Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planets. |
| D．Scientists don’t believe that there might be life on other planets. |
The leaders of Russia and China vowed to support each other’s fight against Muslim separatists and urged peaceful solutions in Iraq, during a meeting in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on December 2, 2002.
Russian President Vladimir Put in and China’s Jiang Zemin signed a joint declaration calling for a “multipolar world”.
His two - day visit comes shortly after the conclusion of the 16th Patry Cogress which elected the new CPC leadership. Put in said that Russia wants to “work hard” with the new generation of Chinese leaders.
The Treaty（条约）of Good =" Neighbourliness" and Friendly Cooperation, signed in July last year, has provided a solid legal foundation for lasting friendship for generations to come, according to Jiang, “China and Russia will be good neighbours, friends and partners forever.”
The Russian Government, in return, said it would continue to give priority（优先权）to relations with China in its foreign policies.
Put in spoke on the morning of Dec. 3rd at Peking University and took questions from students on his understanding of Chinese literature, Russian reform（改革）and NATO enlargement.
He said a growing number of young people in Russia are interested in Chinese literature and one of his daughters is learning Chinese.We can infer from the last paragraph that ________ .
| A．many young Russian people hope to study Chinese in China |
| B．China is richer and stronger than Russia |
| C．Russia will give some support to China |
| D．The relation between China and Russia is developing healthily |
It is implied, in the sentence“Put in said that Russia wants to‘work hard’with the new generation on Chinese leaders”, that ________ .
| A．Russia will co - operate closely with China |
| B．There are many differences between Russia and China |
| C．Put in knew little of the new generation of Chinese leaders |
| D．It will be long before Put in gets to know the new generation of Chinese leaders |
The underlined word“multipolar”is likely to mean ________ .
| A．equal | B．peaceful |
| C．balanced | D．fair |
Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?
| A．Put in agreed that NATO was enlarged． |
| B．Put in was invited to the 16th Chinese communist Party congress. |
| C．Russia puts China first. |
| D．Muslim separatists make trouble only in Russia. |