Women nowadays do not just want to work to help meet the rising costs of living and education for their children. They also want a career that will enable them to bring out their skills and use their potentials so that they can experience a sense of fulfillment and pride that come from achievements and success. Some careers that have been traditionally dominated(支配)by the male species have been made open and filled up by women as well. It is no longer a surprising occurrence today to see many women working as pilots, astronauts, engineers, in construction sites, and in the printing business that operates hightech machines.
Many women are also taking their chances on managerial and executive positions that mostly men are the ones sitting on. Many of them also do well in the line of education as teachers, deans and even presidents of universities. You can also see many women as lecturers and reviewers of different businesses. One example is that of the online printing company reviews where women usually have a say on what is the best choice for online printers for any marketing needs.
From the income that women are getting from their work, they are able to maintain a family and able to provide a better education for their children and able to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.
However, there are still pronounced biases (偏见) against women in high leadership positions. There still exists the socalled genderrole stereotyping. Women need help to cope with and manage the typical stereotyping of women workers and managers. Those who look for jobs advertised in the classified sections of the newspaper often discover that many corporate positions are closed to women. And most often than not, many give preference to men by indicating in their ads phrases such as “male preferred” or “male applicants only”. Even in some family run or owned corporations, seldom can you see women managers and presidents.
Surveys show that although a man and a woman have the same level or handle the same position in an organization, the man would get a higher or bigger compensation package(薪酬) compared to women. Because of this, many women are just contented，to be in subordinate positions in finance, human resources, sales, manufacturing and other supportive roles.
There are still other barriers that prevent women from reaching their full potentials in the world of employment. Our culture does not encourage women to excel in government and in businessrelated jobs. Women who are able to make it on top and handle leadership roles are sometimes regarded merely as tokens. The abilities and skills of women are normally questioned by their own peers, and sadly even by other women.
If you are a woman who have the interest, ability and drive to pursue management careers，career counseling is of great help to help you find direction and increase motivation to pursue your career goals. It will help you have the selfconfidence to get you in the same career opportunities open to men in this society that still prefers men for top level positions.From the first paragraph we know that women________.
| A．work mainly to help meet the rising costs of living |
| B．want to provide their children with better education |
| C．also want to take some more challenging jobs |
| D．have taken up some work that men can do well |
It can be inferred that in the past it was surprising to see women________.
| A．taking jobs outside home |
| B．working as pilots or astronauts |
| C．educating their children at home |
| D．operating machines at home |
The underlined word “subordinate” in the 5th paragraph has a similar meaning to“________”．
| A．higher | B．lower |
| C．more rewarding | D．less demanding |
What's the best title for the passage?
| A．Women working out of houses |
| B．Women fighting against biases |
| C．Women getting larger income |
| D．Women aiming high in careers |
Teamwork is just as important in science as it is on the playing field or in the gym. Scientific investigations (调查) are almost always carried out by teams of people working together. Ideas are shared, experiments are designed, data are analyzed, and results are evaluated and shared with other investigators. Group work is necessary, and is usually more productive than working alone.
Several times throughout the year you may be asked to work with one or more of your classmates. Whatever the task your group is assigned, a few rules need to be followed to ensure a productive and successful experience.
What comes first is to keep an open mind, because everyone’s ideas deserve consideration and each group member can make his or her own contribution. Secondly, it makes a job easier to divide the group task among all group members. Choose a role on the team that is best suited to your particular strengths. Thirdly, always work together, take turns, and encourage each other by listening, clarifying, and trusting one another. Mutual （相互的）support and trust often makes a great difference.
Activities like investigations are most effective when done by small groups. Here are some more suggestions for effective team performance during these activities: Make sure each group member understands and agrees to the task given to him or her, and everyone knows exactly when , why and what to do; take turns doing various tasks during similar and repeated activities; be aware of where other group members are and what they are doing so as to ensure safety; be responsible for your own learning, though it is by no means unwise to compare your observations with those of other group members.
When there is research to be done, divide the topic into several areas, and this can explore the issue in a very detailed way. You are encouraged to keep records of the sources used by each person, which helps you trace back to the origin of the problems that may happen unexpectedly. A format for exchanging information (e.g., photocopies of notes , oral discussion, etc.) is also important, for a well-chosen method not only strengthens what you present but also makes yourself easily understood. When the time comes to make a decision and take a position on an issue, allow for the contributions of each member of the group. Most important of all, it is always wise to make decisions by compromise and agreement.
After you’ve completed a task with your team, make an evaluation of the team’s effectiveness — the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.
| Title |
Working Together |
| Theme |
Effective performance needs highly cooperated |
| General rules |
Keep an open mind to everyone’s Divide the group task among group members. |
| ● Understand and agree to the ● Take turns doing various tasks. ● Show concern for others to ensure safety. ● Take ● Compare your own observations with those of others. |
|
| Explore an issue |
● Break the ● ● ● Make all decisions by compromise and agreement. |
| ● Analyze the strengths and weaknesses. ● Find out the opportunities and challenges |
Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. "Yes, honey. Of course." she said.
"Can we write him a letter?"
She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, "Yes."
My heart jumped. "How? Does the mailman go there?" I asked.
"No, but I have an idea." Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.
"Just wait, honey. You'll see." Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.
She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.
"Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three."
The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.
Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he'd persevere, dart up, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary. I prayed to be a balloon.When the girl asked her mother if they could write to her father, her mother _________.
| A．felt it hard to answer | B．thought her a creative girl |
| C．believed it easy to do so | D．found it easy to lie |
When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she _________.
| A．jumped with joy |
| B．became excited |
| C．started writing immediately |
| D．was worried that it couldn't be delivered |
In the eyes of the author, what was the rain like?
| A．An incurable disease |
| B．An unforgettable memory. |
| C．The hard time her father had. |
| D．The failures her father experienced. |
When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behavior. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I'm dead—take me away” when it is dead.
But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like, “Wait—I'm not dead yet” when it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait— I'm not dead yet” quickly goes away. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they move away the body.
To test his theory, Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the “Wait—I'm not dead yet” chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the “not dead yet” chemical overrides the “dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical dies away. Other nearby ants then notice the remaining “dead” chemical and remove the body from the nest.
Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants from invading new places and causing problems.What is the function of the first paragraph?
| A．Leading the following paragraphs. |
| B．Showing the main idea of the passage. |
| C．Introducing the background of the passage. |
| D．Giving a summary of the passage. |
Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?
| A．is weaker than | B．is stronger than | C．is better than | D．is worse than |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving. |
| B．When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical. |
| C．A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical. |
| D．Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other. |
Israel has passed a law banning the use of underweight models in advertising. Known as the “Photoshop Law”, it also requires that agencies tell their audience if they’ve digitally changed pictures to make models look thinner.
The new law forbids the use of models with a body mass index of 18.5 or less, a standard based on internationally accepted measures. The figure matches the set of fixed limits by the U. S. Department of Health.
The law doesn’t set a money amount that can be gained in court from such a suit. Lawmakers realize that it may be a long and difficult process to prove in court that a company broke the new law, but they feel that simply having the law in place will accomplish what they want; stopping advertising companies from continuing to influence Israelis with images of unhealthy-looking models as the gold standard of beauty.
Some modeling agencies in Israel aren’t happy. They say that the indexes on which the law is based are arbitrary (任意的)and are not suitable for every model. Many models who are totally healthy girls might be disqualified because of the law. Some models are naturally thin and unable to gain weight and the new law would unfairly prevent them from finding jobs.
However, plus-size American supermodel Emme told CNN that she thinks the law will cause other countries to make similar measures against showing underweight models. “I think this is fantastic because so many young women and men are suffering to look in a way that is unrealistic and unhealthy,” she said.What is “Photoshop Law” about?
| A．Banning the use of underweight models. |
| B．Banning underweight models in advertising. |
| C．Banning changing pictures digitally. |
| D．Banning models in advertising. |
The underlined word “suit” in Paragraph 3 means .
| A．a set of clothing |
| B．a group of rooms |
| C．an action in court |
| D．a performance in advertising |
What can we know from the passage?
| A．All models are happy about the law. |
| B．All advertising agencies are happy about the law. |
| C．The law makes no sense. |
| D．There are arguments over the beauty standard of models. |
Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there's no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I'm finished or fail to take your turn when I'm finished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思维定式). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in --- and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That's why slight differences in conversational style --- tiny little things like microseconds of pause --- can have a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems --- even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?
| A．Betty was talkative. |
| B．Betty was an interrupter. |
| C．Betty did not take her turn. |
| D．Betty paid no attention to Sara. |
According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?
| A．Americans. | B．Israelis. | C．The British. | D．The Finns. |
We can learn from the passage that ______.
| A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing |
| B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US |
| C．one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes |
| D．one should receive training to build up one's confidence |