单选题
A male dental assistant, Miguel Alquicira, is in the minority.
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he is also part of a special, if little noticed, shift in workplace gender patterns. Over the last decade, men have begun
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to fields long the province of women.
Mr. Alquicira, 21, graduated from high school in a
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job market, one in which the traditional opportunities,
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construction and manufacturing, for young men without a college degree had dried up (枯竭). After career consultants told him that
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fields were growing, he borrowed money for an eight-month training course.
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then, he has had no trouble finding jobs that pay $12 or $13 an hour.
He gave little
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to the fact that more than 90 percent of dental assistants are women. But then, young men like Mr. Alquicira have come of age in a world of inverted expectations, where women far outpace (超过) men in earning degrees and
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to hold jobs that have turned out to be, by and large, more
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, more difficult to outsource, and more likely to grow.
"The way I look at it," Mr. Alquicira explained, "is that anything,
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, that a woman can do, a guy can do."
【答案解析】[考点] 对上下文语篇线索的理解
[解析] 本题要求填入一个形容词，说明Alquicira高中毕业时就业市场如何。修饰job market的同位语的主要部分“one in which the traditional opportunities...for young men without a college degree had dried up”意为“一个对于没有大学学位的年轻人来说传统机会已经枯竭的就业市场”。因此可以判断，A项powerful(有力的)与题意完全不符，C项vague(含糊的)和D项queer(古怪的)也不符合语境的要求。B项gloomy意为“前景黯淡的”，与句中的同位语修饰成分意思一致，是正确答案。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[考点] 理解基础上的介词辨析
[解析] 本题空格之前的名词短语为traditional opportunities(传统机会)，空格之后的名词为construction and manufacturing(建筑和制造)。根据常识，建筑和制造属于传统行业；同时，根据选项中介词的意思，我们可判断空格中若填入A项among(在……之间)、C项in或D项of的话，空格前后名词之间的所属关系就完全颠倒了，因此，正确答案应为B项like(比如，例如)。
【答案解析】[考点] 近义名词辨析
[解析] 本题要求填入一个名词，与动词give搭配。四个选项中的名词意思非常相近，填入句中后的大致意思为“他几乎没有想过这一事实……”。但能够与give搭配的名词只有A项thought，“give thought to sth.”意为“思考或考虑某事”。B项和C项可以与动词have/get搭配，如“have idea/notion of sth.”，意为“知道或了解某事”。当然，另有give sb. ideas这一短语，意为“使某人抱有空想”，但不符合本句的搭配要求。D项mind可以与bear/keep搭配，构成短语“bear/keep sth. in mind”或“bear/keep in mind that...”，意为“将……记在心中；考虑”。所以，B项、C项和D项都是干扰项。
【答案解析】[考点] 理解基础上的形容词辨析
[解析] 本题要求填入一个形容词，与空格之后的more difficult to outsource and more likely to grow(更难外包而且更有可能发展的)构成三个并列的成分。四个选项中，C项stable(稳定的)与后两个并列成分语义上一致，是正确答案。A项意为“枯燥的，乏味的”，与题意明显不符；B项意为“轻松的”，C项意为“要求高的”，但空格后两个并列成分体现的是工作相对客观的方面，不涉及一些主观的如好、坏等方面，因此B项和C项都不符合文意。