单选题 Sweden has a longstanding reputation as an egalitarian country with a narrow gender gap. But a national debate about gender equality has revealed substantial dissatisfaction, with some Swedes feeling it has gone too far. Rousing controversy now is the issue of gender pedagogy, a concept that emerged in the early 2000s and typically involves challenging gender stereotypes in learning material and in avoiding treating male and female pupils in a stereotypical manner . But what has sharpened the debate in Sweden has been the argument that schools should also be gender neutral , giving children the opportunity to define themselves as neither male nor female if they wish.
Kristina Henkel, a gender expert specializing in equality in schools, disputes the argument that gender pedagogy and neutrality are being foisted on Swedes. "Sweden has a long tradition of working with equality and this has had strong support among politicians, " she says, and adds that "the question of gender neutrality, or of everyone having equal rights despite their gender, has also been driven by activists at the grassroots level. "
But Elise Claeson, a columnist and a former equality expert at the Swedish Confederation of Professions, disagrees. "I have long participated in debates with gender pedagogues and they act like an elite, " she says. "They tend to be well-educated, live in big cities, and have contacts in the media, and they clearly despise traditional people. "
Ms. Claeson has been a vocal critic of the word "hen, " a new, gender-neutral pronoun that was recently included in the online version of the National Encyclopedia. Around the same time, Sweden"s first gender-neutral children"s book was published. The author, Jesper Lundqvist, uses hen throughout his book, completely avoiding han and hon, the Swedish words for him and her.
Claeson believes that the word hen can be harmful to young children because, she says, it can be confusing for them to receive contradicting messages about their genders in school, at home, and in society at large. "It is important to have your gender confirmed to you as a child. This does not limit children; it makes them confident about their identity... Children ought to be allowed to mature slowly and naturally. As adults we can choose to expand and change our gender identities. "
Last fall, nearly 200 teachers gathered in Stockholm to discuss how to avoid "traditional gender patterns" in schools. The conference was part of a research project run by the National Agency for Education and supported by the Delegation for Equality in Schools. "I work with these issues in Finland and Norway and it is clear to me that they have been inspired by the Swedish preschool — and school curricula , " says Ms. Henkel, the gender expert. But Henkel also insists that gender equality is a rights issue that cannot simply be left to the state to handle. Instead, she says, it requires the active involvement of citizens. "Rights are not something we receive and then don"t have to fight for. This is about a redistribution of power, and for that initiative and action are needed, not just fancy legislation. "

单选题 The problem that bothers Swedes most nowadays is ______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】细节事实题
[解析] 文章第一段开门见山引出话题。瑞典国内现在对于性别平等问题最大的争议是关于性别教学法的问题(gender pedagogy)。所谓的性别教学法指的是消除教材中隐藏的性别成见，避免因循守旧对男生和女生区别对待。而在性别教学法施行的过程中，最引起争议的问题莫过于这样一种观点，那就是gender neutrality，要求学校不仅仅应该停留在不强化性别歧视的层面上，而且应该保持性别中立，孩子们可以自己按照自己的理解定义自己的性别。因为题干中问的是最近最困扰瑞典人的问题，故应该选择[B]，关于gender neutrality在学校内部的施行。

单选题 Which of the following statements about Paragraph 1 is true?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】判断题
[解析] 本题还是考查对第一段内容的理解。[A]错误，第一段第一句话就提到“瑞典素来享有性别差异微小的平等国家的美誉”，性别教学法活动作为2000年左右才开始提出的一个概念，对于性别差距的缩小起到了一定的作用，但不能说瑞典性别差距微小，完全应该归功于此项活动。[B]错误，第一段中明确指出，所谓的性别教学法(gender pedagogy)指的是在教材中避免性别成见，在教学过程中避免用因循守旧的观点对待男女学生。因此，它针对的并不仅仅是对于女性的歧视，也包括对于男性的根深蒂固的观点。[C]张冠李戴，将gender pedagogy的内容说成是gender neutrality的内容。性别中立是性别教学法的一种较为激进的演化，要求学校不再给学生灌输任何关于性别的概念，而让学生按照自己的意愿选择自己的性别。[D]正确，第一段提到的种种概念，不管是gender pedagogy还是gender neutrality都是瑞典为了消除学校教育中存在的性别歧视做出的尝试和努力。

单选题 In paragraph 3, Elise Claeson mainly refutes the idea that ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】人物观点题
[解析] 文章第一段提到，虽然瑞典在男女平等方面取得了巨大的进步，但是很多民众都认为现在的男女平等运动有些太过头了，尤其是现在在某些学校中提出的性别中立理念。但是在文章第二段中，作者提到了某位性别专家克里斯蒂娜·汉高的观点，她的主要观点是：性别教育学并没有被强加到瑞典国民头上。她认为，瑞典是一个有着悠久的平等理念的国家，性别中立这个概念以及相关的运动都不是政客或者活动家强加于民众头上的，而是由草根民众自发地推动的(been driven by activists at the grassroots level)。在第三段中，另一位专家伊莉斯·克拉松又反驳了克里斯蒂娜·汉高的观点。她说，推动性别教学法和性别中立论的都是一些社会精英，他们提出的理念远远不能代表社会主流观点。因此，本题的解题关键就是要分清楚每位学者的理论观点，他们主要批驳的对象，正确答案应该选[C]。

单选题 According to Elise Claeson, gender identity ______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】人物观点题
[解析] 本题继续考查对伊莉斯·克拉松的观点的理解。第五段中提到她强烈反对使用“hen”这样一个词汇，这是一个中性人称代词。克拉松认为，这样的中性人称代词对于少年儿童的发展有害无益。第五段中直接引用克拉松的观点，“It is important to have your gender confirmed to you as a child. This does not limit children; it makes them confident about their identity...”，“在儿童时期就确认自己的性别至关重要。这并不会对孩子们造成限制，而是让他们确信自己的身份……大人应该让孩子们缓慢而自然地成长。成年之后，我们可以选择扩展并改变自己的性别身份。”通过这段引语，我们可以判断克拉松认为性别身份认同对于儿童来说是至关重要的，也就是说在幼年时期应该明确向儿童灌输他们是男还是女的概念，而不应该回避这个问题，回避只会造成儿童认识上的混乱，因此本题的正确答案应该选[A]。[B]、[C]都与克拉松的观点相左，[D]错在fixed一词，在年幼时形成的性别意识可以在成年后发生改变，而并不一定是一成不变的。

单选题 It seems that Ms. Henkel ______ the gender equality situation in Sweden.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】人物态度题
[解析] 根据题干中的人名锁定文章的最后一段。汉高女士是性别专家，在最后一段中作者引用她的观点作为整篇文章的结语。汉高女士首先肯定了瑞典性别平等运动的进展，她指出芬兰和挪威等国家在性别平等问题上都是向瑞典看齐的。但是她也冷静地分析了现存的问题，那就是上文提到的性别平等运动脱离群众而变为精英运动的趋势。她指出，“性别平等是一个权力问题，而不是简单地由政府发动一项运动就可以解决的问题”。因此，概括起来汉高女士对于瑞典的性别平等运动总体持肯定态度，[A]正确。