单选题 While still catching up to men in some spheres of modern life, women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. "Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders in response to stress compared to men," according to Dr Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York's Veteran's Administration Hospital.
Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow affect the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became equal to those of the males.
Adding to a woman's increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased "opportunities" for stress. "It's not necessarily that women don't cope as well. It's just that they have so much more to cope with," says Dr Yehuda. "Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater than men's," she observes, "it's just that they're dealing with so many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and sooner. "
Dr Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. "I think that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. The kinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family members, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating."
Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but was determined to finish college. "I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead and do better. " Later, her marriage ended and she became a single mother. "It's the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the ear payment, and pay the debt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck."
Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez's experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress before it threatens your health and your ability to function.

单选题 Which of the following is true according to the first two paragraphs?
A. Women are biologically more vulnerable to stress.
B. Women are still suffering much stress caused by men.
C. Women are more experienced than men in coping with stress.
D. Men and women show different inclinations when faced with stress.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】推理判断题。文章前两段主要说明男女因为生理上的差异，所以可能在相同的情况下女性更容易产生因压力导致的焦虑和沮丧。事实上，[A]项(“女性在生理上更容易受压力的影响”)中的vulnerable to正好对应于原文第一段第二句中的susceptible to，而从生理角度分析又符合前两段的主题。故[A]项为正确答案。其余三项都不对：[B]项指“女性仍在遭受由男性导致的更多压力”，文中并未提及；[C]项指“在应对压力方面，女性比男性更有经验”，这是一个无中生有的比较；[D]项指“面对压力，男性和女性显示出不同的倾向性”，只是单纯描述男女之间在面对压力时的差异，偏离了文章主题。

单选题 Dr Yehuda's research suggests that women ______.
A. need extra doses of chemicals to handle stress
B. have limited capacity for tolerating stress
C. are more capable of avoiding stress
D. are exposed to more stress

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】细节题。文章对Yehuda研究：究的说明位于第二段和第三段，其中第三段第二、三句指出，女性不一定处理不好压力，而是由于她们要应付的事情更多。[D]项指“要面对更多的压力”，正好对应该段第三句It's just that they have so much more to cope with，因此为正确答案。其余三项中，[A]项指“需要额外的化学物质来处理压力”，意思错误，文章说明的因为身体具备某种化学物质而更容易焦虑。[B]项指“忍受压力的能力有限”，与文中第三段第三行指出的女性或许比男性更能忍受压力不符。[C]项指“更能避开压力”，属于文中未提及信息。

单选题 According to Paragraph 4, the stress women confront tends to be ______.
A. domestic and temporary B. irregular and violent
C. durable and frequent D. trivial and random

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】细节题。第四段第二句引用Yehuda的话指出，女性面临的压力tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature(往往更具长期和反复性)。[C]项指“持久而经常性的”，durable and frequent正是chronic or repeated一处的同义替换，故是本题正确答案。其余三项都与这一句不符：[A]项指“家庭内部的和暂时的”，[B]项指“没有规律的和暴力性的”，[D]项指“琐碎的和偶然的”。

单选题 The sentence "I lived from paycheck to paycheck" (Lines 4～5, Para. 5) shows that ______.
A. Alvarez cared about nothing but making money
B. Alvarez's salary barely covered her household expenses
C. Alvarez got paychecks from different jobs
D. Alvarez paid practically everything by check

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】词句理解题。解答本题的关键是对paycheck一词以及上文意思的理解。paycheck这个词指工资，但此处却不能直译。事实上，这是一个习惯用法，指“我靠每个月的工资生活”。而从上文中我们可以看出，因为是单身母亲，Alvarez面临很大的生存压力，因此[B]项说“她的工资几乎入不敷出”就是本题正确答案。其余三项中，[A]项指“她只关心挣钱”，没有体现钱不够用，与原文意思不相符合；[C]项指“她干不同工作挣薪水”，这在文中并未提及；[D]项指“她几乎什么都用支票付账”，属于对paycheck一词的曲解。

单选题 Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Strain of Stress: No Way Out? B. Responses to Stress: Gender Difference.
C. Stress Analysis: What Chemicals Say. D. Gender Inequality: Women Under Stress.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】主旨大意题。本题属于标题型主旨大意题。由前面的分析完全可以得知，文章的主旨是说因为性别上的差异，女性在压力面前更容易产生焦虑，受到的伤害也远远超过男性。[D]项指“性别不平等：压力下的女性”，正好体现了文章的这一主旨，因此是正确答案。其余三项都不准确：[A]项指“压力反应：无法摆脱?”，它过于宽泛，离开了原文关于性别之间差异的主旨；[B]项指“压力反应：性别差异”，干扰性比较大，但它只是单纯指出了男女在压力面前的差异，而没有注意文章中侧重女性压力表现的文意，也属于文中细节；[C]项指“压力分析：化学物质表明什么”，它只是文中的一个具体细节，不能概括文章全部内容。