阅读理解Passage A In large part as a consequence of the feminist movement, historians have focused a great deal of attention in recent years on determining more accurately the status of women in various periods

阅读理解 For years, researchers have struggled to understand why so many women leave careers inscience and engineering. Theories run the gamut (整个范围), from family-unfriendly work schedules to natural differences between the genders. A new paper by McGill University economist Jennifer Hunt offers another explanation: women leave such jobs when they feel disappointed about pay and the chance of promotion. Her first finding was that women actually don't leave jobs in science at an above average rate. The difference, Hunt found, comes from the engineering sector. That's not simply because women are exiting the workforce to raise families. About 21% of all graduates surveyed were working in a field unrelated to their highest college degree. That proportion held steady for both men and women. Yet in engineering, there was a gap. About 10% of male engineers were working in an unrelated field, while some 13% of female engineers were. Women who became engineers disproportionately left for other sectors. The survey suggests options such as working conditions, pay, promotion-opportunities, job location and family-related reasons. As it turned out, more than 60% of the women leaving engineering did so because of dissatisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities. More women than men left engineering for family-related reasons, but that gender gap was no different than what Hunt found in nonengineering professions. 'It doesn't have anything to do with the nature of the work,' says Hunt. The question then becomes why women engineers feel so stifled (窒息) when it comes to pay and promotion. Women also left fields such as financial management and economics at higher than expected rates. The commonality, like engineering, those sectors are male-dominated. Some 74% of financial-management degree holders in the survey sample were male. Men made up 73% of economics graduates. And to take one example from engineering, some 83% of mechanical-engineer grads were male. Jennifer Hunt concludes that focusing on making engineering jobs more family-friendly alone—by offering flexible work schedules, say—misses an important part of the mark. If we desire to keep women working as engineers, whether for their sakes or society's, then a better focus may be creating work environments where women feel more able to climb the career ladder.

阅读理解Have you ever wondered how acceptable it is to hug or touch someone? While it may sound safe to avoid all physical contact so as not to offend anyone, the lack of touching might imply cold attitudes or indifference in interpersonal relationships. So, what should we do? The simple answer is to thoroughly learn unique cultural norms for physical contact. In nonverbal communication terminology (术语), physical contact and the study of touching are generally referred to as haptics. Haptics in communication often suggest the level of intimacy. They are usually classified into two groups: high-contact and low-contact. Asia and quite surprisingly the United States, Canada and Britain belong to low-contact cultures. People from the rest of the world, such as Latin America, are considered to be in high-contact cultures, where they tend to expect touching in social interactions and feel more comfortable with physical closeness. Despite the classification, there are more complex factors such as relational closeness, gender, age, and context that can affect how someone views physical contact. One common French custom of greetings is cheek-kissing, but it is mostly restricted to friends, close acquaintances and family members. While cheek-kissing for Latin Americans is also a universal greeting form, it does not require such a high degree of relational closeness. However, gender matters more for them because cheek-kissing often only happens between women or a man and a woman but not two men. In contrast, in certain Arabian, African, and Asian countries, men can publicly hold hands or show physical affection as signs of brotherhood or friendship while these behaviors may suggest a romantic relationship in other parts of the world. Although men’s touching is more normal in these cultures, physical contact between persons of opposite sexes who are not family members is negatively perceived in Arabian countries. These factors could definitely affect the degree to which someone is comfortable with tactile (触觉的 ) communication and physical intimacy. Therefore, if you are someone who loves to show physical affection, you should not be afraid to show it or drastically change your behaviors—just ask for consent beforehand!

阅读理解 In a sweeping change to how most of its 1,800 employees are paid, the Union Square Hospitality Group will eliminate tipping at Union Square Cafe and its 12 other restaurants by the end of next year, the company's chief executive, Danny Meyer, said on Wednesday. The move will affect New York City businesses. The first will be the Modem, inside the Museum of Modem Art, starting next month. The others will gradually follow. A small number of restaurants around the country have reduced or eliminated tipping in the last several years. Some put a surcharge on the bill, allowing the restaurants to set the pay for all their employees. Others, including Bruno Pizza, a new restaurant in the East Village, factor the cost of an hourly wage for servers into their menu prices. Union Square Hospitality Group will do the latter. The Modem will be the pilot restaurant, Mr. Meyer said, because its chef, Abram Bissell, has been agitating for higher pay to attract skilled cooks. The average hourly wage for kitchen employees at the restaurant is expected to rise to $15.25 from $11.75. Mr. Meyer said that restaurants such as his needed to stay competitive as the state moved to a $15 minimum wage for fast-food workers. If cooks' wages do not keep pace with the cost of living, he said, 'it's not going to be sustainable to attract the culinary talent that the city needs to keep its edge.' Mr. Meyer said he hoped to be able to raise pay for junior dining room managers and for cooks, dishwashers and other kitchen workers. The wage gap is one of several issues cited by restaurateurs who have deleted the tip line from checks. Some believe it is unfair for servers' pay to be affected by factors that have nothing to do with performance. A rash of class-action lawsuits over tipping irregularities, many of which have been settled for millions of dollars, is a mounting worry. Scott Rosenberg, an owner of Sushi Yasuda in Manhattan, said in an interview in 2013 that he had eliminated tipping so his restaurant could more closely follow the customs of Japan, where tipping is rare. He said he also hoped his customers would enjoy leaving the table without having to solve a math problem. While Drew Nieporent, who owns nine restaurants in New York City and one in London, said he doubted the average diner would accept an increase in prices. 'Tipping is a way of life in this country,' he said. 'It may not be the perfect system, but it's our system. It's an American system.'

阅读理解Passage twoApparently everyone knows that global warming only makes climate more extreme. A hot, dry summer has triggered another flood of such claims. And, while many interests are at work, one of the players that benefits the most from this story are the media: the notion of “extreme” climate simply makes for more compelling news.Consider Paul Krugman writing breathlessly in the New York Times about the “rising incidence of extreme events,” He claims that global warming caused the current drought in America’s Midwest, and that supposedly record-high corn prices could cause a global food crisis.But the United Nations climate panel’s latest assessment tells us precisely the opposite. For “North America there is medium confidence that there has an overall slight tendency toward less dryness”. Moreover, there is no way that Krugman could have identified this drought as being caused by global warming without a time machine; Climate models estimate that such detection will be possible by 2048, at the earliest.And, fortunately, this year’s drought appears unlikely to cause a food crisis, as global rice and wheat supplies retain plentiful. Moreover, Krugman overlooks inflation: Prices have increased six-fold since 1969. So, while com futures did set a record of about $8 per bushel in late July, the inflation-adjusted price of corn was higher throughout most of the 1970s, reaching 516 in 1974.Finally, Krugman conveniently forgets that concerns about global warming are the main reason that corn prices have skyrocketed since 2005. Nowadays 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is used to produce ethanol, which does absolutely nothing for the climate, but certainly distorts the price of corn—at the expense of many of the world’s poorest people.Bill Mickbben similarly worries in The Guardian about the Midwest drought and corn prices. He confidently tells us that raging wildfires from New Mexico and Colorado to Siberia are “exactly” what the early stages of global warming look like.In fact, the latest overview of global wildfire suggests that fire intensity has declined over the past 70 years and is now close to its preindustrial level.When well-meaning campaigners want us to pay attention to global warming, they often end up pitching beyond the facts. And, while this may seem justified by a noble goal, such “policy by people” tactics rarely work, and often backfire.Remember how, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, AI Gore claimed that we were in store for ever more destructive hurricanes? Since then, hurricane incidence has dropped off the charts. Exaggerated claims merely fuel public distrust and disengagement.That is unfortunate, because global warming is a real problem, and we do need to, address it.

阅读理解Can you remember what you ate yesterday? If asked, most people will be able to give a vague description of their main meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner. But can you be sure you’ve noted every snack bar in your car, or every handful of nuts at your desk? Most people will have a feeling that they’ve missed something out. We originally had this suspicion back in 2016, puzzled by the fact that national statistics showed calorie consumption falling dramatically over past decades. We found reliable evidence that people were drastically under-reporting what they ate. Now the Office for National Statistics has confirmed that we are consuming 50% more calories than our national statistics claim. Why is this happening? We can point to at least three potential causes. One is the rise in obesity levels itself. Under-reporting rates are much higher for obese people, because they simply consume more food, and thus have more to remember. Another cause is that the proportion of people who are trying to lose weight has been increasing over time. People who want to lose weight are more likely to under-report their eating—regardless of whether they are overweight or not. This may be driven partly by self-deception or wishful thinking. The final potential cause is an increase in snacking and eating out over recent decades—both in terms of how often they happen and how much they contribute to our overall energy intake. Again, there is evidence that food consumed out of the home is one of the most poorly recorded categories in surveys. So, what’s the message conveyed? For statistics, we should invest in more accurate measurement options. For policy, we need to focus on options that make it easy for people to eat fewer calories. If people do not know how much they are eating, it can be really hard for them to stick to a diet. Also, we should be looking for new ways to ensure what people eat wouldn’t have much impact on their waistlines. If this works, it won’t matter if they can’t remember what they ate yesterday.

阅读理解Text Two In todays world, insurance plays a vital role in the economic and social welfare of the entire population

阅读理解In the US,seriously ill patients will_______.

阅读理解Passage 4 Throughout this long, tense election, everyone has focused on the presidential candidates and how theyll change America

阅读理解Passage One:Questions are based on the following passage

阅读理解How is the text developed?（）

阅读理解For decades, people had continued to pay down mortgages until their last cent was spent. Now,increasing numbers were giving up their homes even as they continued to service other debts. Facedwith a plunge in house prices across the US — something that has not happened since the GreatDepression of the 1930s — the mortgage industry is already dealing with a surge in the numbers ofpeople defaulting on their payments.The concern is that the losses on risky subprime mortgages could soon swell further as people withgood credit history decide it is not worth continuing to make payments on houses worth less that theloan. House prices in the US are already 20 per cent from the 2006 highs and are forecast to keepfalling. For many, especially those who have put little of their own money into a house, sending backthe keys could be perfectly rational. The practice has given a name in the industry — “jingle mail”— and there are even companies specializing in helping people with the decision. Youwalkway.com,one such service, almost makes it sound an alluring prospect, “what if you could live payment-freefor up to eight months or more and walk away without owing a penny?” the website asks.Larry Rosenberger, arguably one of the most experienced crunchers of consumer debt statisticsaround, was meeting the consortium of mortgage lenders to talk about analyzing their data fromclues about which people in negative equity could be expected to keep paying down their mortgages.They said, “we’re getting killed with losses, can we figure out more accurately who will do what, sowe can be more accommodating with some borrowers but not with others,” Mr. Rosenberger says.The accuracy of the models used by the likes of Mr. Rosenberger to flag good and bad customerscould make a huge difference to the losses that lenders eventually have to absorb — losses that will,in turn, determine the availability of fresh funds for new loans. His approach was to seek clues topeople’s future actions in their past behaviors. For example, people with children at local schoolsmay be less likely to walk away than people without school-age children. People with mortgages onsecond homes may be more likely to give up the investment.

阅读理解In this section there are five reading passages followed by a total of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 short answerquestions. Please read the passages and then write your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.TEXT DA controversy erupted in the scientific community in early 1998 over the use of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fingerprinting in criminal investigations. DNA fingerprinting was introduced in 1987 as a method to identify individuals based on a pattern seen in their DNA, the molecule of which genes are made. DNA is present in every cell of the body except red blood cells. DNA fingerprinting has been used successfully in various ways, such as to determine paternity where it is not clear who the father of a particular child is. However, it is in the area of criminal investigations that DNA fingerprinting has potentially powerful and controversial uses.DNA fingerprinting and other DNA analysis techniques have revolutionized criminal investigations by giving investigators powerful new tools in the attempt to prove guilt, not just establish innocence. When used in criminal investigations, a DNA fingerprint pattern from a suspect is compared with a DNA fingerprint pattern obtained from such materials as hairs or blood found at the scene of a crime. A match between the two DNA samples can be used as evidence to convict a suspect.The controversy in 1998 stemmed from a report published in December 1991 by population geneticists Richard C. Lewontin of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and Daniel L. Hartl called into question the methods to calculate how likely it is that a match between two DNA fingerprints might occur by chance alone. In particular, they argued that the current method cannot properly determine the likelihood that two DNA samples will match because they came from the same individual rather than simply from two different individuals who are members of the same ethnic group.In response to their criticisms, population geneticists Ranajit Chakraborty of the University of Texas in Dallas and Kenneth K. Kidd of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., argued that enough data are already available to show that the methods currently being used are adequate. In January 1998, however, the federal Bureau of Investigation and laboratories that conduct DNA tests announced that they would collect additional DNA samples from various ethnic groups in an attempt to resolve some of these questions. And, in April, a National Academy of Sciences called for strict standards and system of accreditation for DNA testing laboratories.

阅读理解What happens when a language has no words for numbers?A) Numbers do not exist in all cultures. There are numberless hunter-gatherers in Amazonia, living along branches of the world’s largest

阅读理解Passage 2 Modern archaeological finds can still contribute much to the study of ancient literature

阅读理解Text 1 Nisaburo and I-Iiroko Ohata are unlike most Japanese couples their age

阅读理解Passage One Have you ever heard of a pawpaw(木瓜)? If not, do not feel bad

阅读理解Animals seem to have the sense to eat when they are hungry and they do not eat more than their bodies need

阅读理解Passage 4 Some workplace stress is normal, but when stress at work begins to weaken your ability to perform in your job, it's time for you to take action, Start by paying attention to your physical and emotional health. Get moving Regular exercise is an effective way to help you to relax both your mind and body. Try to get at least 30 minutes of activity on most days. If it's easier to fit into your schedule, break up the activity into two or three shorter periods of time each day. Get enough sleep A lack of sleep can make you suffer from more stress. When you're well-rested, it’s much easier to keep your emotional balance. Try to improve the quality of your sleep by keeping a sleep schedule and aiming for 8 hours a night. Get support Close relationships are important to helping you through times of stress Simply sharing your feelings face to face with another person can help relieve some of the stress. Accepting support is not a sign of weakness and it won’t mean you’re a burden to others. In fact, most friends will be willing to help you to reduce your stress, and this will only strengthen your relationship. You should take action to handle your workplace stress when______.

阅读理解Passage One 　　The new year brought new desks for students at Vallecito ElementarySchool, in San Rafael, California