阅读理解。 Only two countries in the advanced world provide no guarantee for paid
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阅读理解。 |
Only two countries in the advanced world provide no guarantee for paid leave from work to care for a newborn child. Last spring one of the two, Australia, gave up the bad distinction by setting up paid family leave starting in 2011. I wasn"t surprised when this didn"t make the news here in the United States-we"re now the only wealthy country without such a policy. The United States does have one explicit family policy, the Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993. It entitles workers to as much as 12 weeks" unpaid leave for care of a newborn or dealing with a family medical problem. Despite the modesty of the benefit, the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups fought it bitterly, describing it as "government-run personnel management" and a "dangerous precedent (先 例)". In fact, every step of the way, as (usually) Democratic leaders have tried to introduce work-family balance measures into the law, business groups have been strongly opposed. As Yale law professor Anne Alstott, argues, justifying parental support depends on defining (定义) the family as a social good that, in some sense, society must pay for. Parents are burdened in many ways in their lives: there is "no exit" when it comes to children. Society expects-and needs-parents to provide their children with continuity of care. And society expects-and needs-parents to persist in their roles for 18 years, or longer if needed. While most parents do this out of love, there are public punishments for not providing care. What parents do, in other words, is of deep concern to the state, for the obvious reason that caring for children is not only morally urgent but important to the future of society. To classify parenting as a personal choice for which there is no collective responsibility is not merely to ignore the social benefits of good parenting; really, it is to steal those benefits because they accrue (累积) to the whole of society as today"s children become tomorrow"s citizens. In fact, by some estimates, the value of parental investments in children, investments of time and money, is equal to 20%~30% of GDP. If these investments bring huge social benefits-as they clearly do-the benefits of providing more social support for the family should be that much clearer. |
1. What do we learn about paid family leave from Paragraph 1? |
A. It came as a surprise when Australia adopted the policy. B. Setting up this policy made Australia less influential. C. It has now become a hot topic in the United States. D. No such policy is applied in the United States. |
2. What makes it hard to take work-family balance measures in the States? |
A. The incompetence of the Democrats. B. The opposition from business circles. C. The lack of a precedent in American history. D. The existing Family and Medical Leave Act. |
3. What is Professor Anne Alstott"s argument for parental support? |
A. Children need continuous care. B. Good parenting benefits society. C. The cost of raising children has been growing. D. The U. S. should keep up with other developed countries. |
4. Why is the author against classifying parenting as a personal choice? |
A. Parenting is regarded as a moral duty. B. Parenting relies largely on social support. C. Parenting produces huge moral benefits. D. Parenting is basically a social |
答案
1-4 DBBD |
举一反三
根据短文内容,从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。 |
Why Cats Scratch Things It has long been assumed that when cats scratch objects with their front paws (爪子) that they are sharpening their paws. 1_____ Research on cat behavior suggests that the major reason for this behavior is communication. By scratching up the bark of a tree (or the leg of your favorite chair) the cat is letting other cats or people know where she is and what she is up to. Cats tend to pick a small number of noticeable objects in their environments to scratch such as trees, fence posts repeatedly. 2_____ The scratched surface leaves a highly visible mark that can be easily seen by other cats. In addition, cats have special glands (腺) in their paves so that when they make scratching movements they leave scent (气味) that the cats can smell. The fact that cats leave scent marks by making scratching movements may be the reason that cats will continue to try to scratch objects even after they have been declawed. 3_____ We don"t know exactly what cats are communicating with their scratching. Both males and females do it. It is done inside and outside the home and even by cats living with no other cats around. 4_____ Cats don"t scratch up your furniture to bother you or just to be destructive, but for specific reasons, one of which is communicating. Cats also scratch to extend their bodies, during play, and possibly as a greeting or to relieve dissatisfaction when prevented from doing other things they want to do. 5_____ It is easier to prevent problem scratching rather than trying to change your cat"s preference for the arm of your sofa after it has become a built up habit. Thus, the goal is to establish acceptable scratching habits by getting your cat to prefer a scratching post rather than the arm of your sofa. |
A. It turns out that this is only a secondary reason. B. This is why the tree next door looks so scratched up. C. Cats use other parts of their bodies to communicate as well. D. Small pieces of bark have accumulated on the ground underneath. E. Scratching can result in considerable damage, owner dissatisfaction. F. Declawed cats may still be leaving scent marks on objects they scratch. G. It could be a defensive warning or just a marker that announces its existence. |
阅读理解。 |
A new power plant in Nakoso, Japan, might someday change everything for coal plants. Since the new power plant fired up in September, the designer, Mitsubishi, is expecting to prove it"s possible to burn coal without polluting. This technology is known as integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC). Proving IGCC works should motivate Mitsubishi"s US partner, NRG Energy, to jump other hurdles to building new clean plants. The project promises to solve the problem of the ages for power plants: how to produce cheap, clean, reliable electricity. No existing technology can do all three perfectly. The problem is IGCC isn"t there yet. It costs about 20 percent more than traditional plants. And even though it"s easier to collect the resulting carbon dioxide from an IGCC plant than a traditional plant, there"s no proven way to get rid of the greenhouse gas. One plan is to drill a shaft (通道) to pump the carbon dioxide underground, into saltwater formations. But there"s no guarantee it will remain underground forever. NRG administrators think solving the IGCC riddles is worth the trouble because they expect the US will soon limit the amount of carbon dioxide that power generators may give out. "With the additional cost of IGCC, to just voluntarily build something that"s 20 percent more expensive, that"s commercial suicide," NRG chief administrator, David Crane said. NRG administrators expect the cost to decline after six or seven plants are built. But other industry experts think it will take about a dozen plants for the price to be competitive with traditional coal plants. Takaya Watanabe, a vice general manager of Mitsubishi, admits that the cost challenges are difficult. "It"s good for a company to say we want to be green, but unless someone is willing to pay, it"s a dream. It won"t keep our family eating rice," he said. |
1. What is expected of the new technology? |
A. To make electricity without polluting the air. B. To produce energy without burning coal. C. To keep the use of electricity cheaper. D. To pump carbon dioxide more easily. |
2. What"s the biggest problem the companies are faced with? |
A. How to pump greenhouse gases. B. How to deal with the high cost. C. How to get along with other partners. D. How to improve the new technology. |
3. What can be inferred from the passage? |
A. New technologies are unacceptable to people. B. It"s unlikely to build more new power plants. C. The companies are run on a tight budget. D. Going green is easier said than done. |
阅读理解。 |
People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behavior are formed. It is not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is cooperative and another is competitive. Social scientists are of course extremely interested in these types of questions. They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behavior. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed. As one might expect, the two approaches are very different from each other, and there is a great deal of debate between proponents of each theory. The controversy is often conveniently referred to as "nature and nurture". Those who support the"nature" side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological factors. That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to an extreme, this theory states that our behavior is predetermined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts (本能). Proponents of the "nurture" theory, or, as they are often called, behaviorists, claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we will act. A behaviorist, B. F. Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings. The behaviorists" view of the human being is quite mechanistic. They state that, like machines, humans respond to environmental stimuli (刺激) as the basis of their behavior. Socially and politically, the consequences of these two theories are far-reaching. In the US, for example, blacks often score below whites on standardized intelligence tests. This leads some "nature" proponents to conclude that blacks are genetically lower in status than whites. Behaviorists, on the contrary, say that the differences in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often robbed of many of the educational and other environ mental advantages that whites enjoy, and that, as a result, they do not develop the same responses that whites do. Neither of these theories can yet fully explain human behavior. In fact, it is quite likely that the key to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes and that the controversy will continue for a long time is certain. |
1. This passage is mainly concerned with _____. |
A. relation between personality and behavior B. relation between behavior and environment C. different accounts of patterns of human behavior D. different theories of the formation of human behavior |
2. The underlined word "proponents" in Paragraph 2 means _____. |
A. creators B. advisors C. advocates D. judges |
3. In Paragraph 5, the author mainly writes about _____. |
A. the considerable influence of the two theories B. differences between the blacks and whites C. racial discrimination in the United States D. different responds to intelligence tests |
4. What"s the author"s purpose in writing the passage? |
A. To call our attention to the changes of human behavior. B. To urge scientists to do more research in social science. C. To give us a detailed explanation of human behavior. D. To present an argument in the field of social science. |
阅读理解。 |
New media has been growing fast and influencing people"s lives in ways few things have done before In 2010, China"s new media industry witnessed explosive development. But with "new" comes uncertainties and challenges. The following are brief reviews on the development of China"s new media and outlooks on its future. Micro-blogging (微博) Short and convenient, micro-blogs also experienced "a big bang" in China last year, with the number of micro-bloggers at China"s popular portal (门户网站) sina.com.cn almost doubling in less than six months. Afterwards, the other three major web portals, including sohu.com.qq. corn and 163. corn, each set up their own micro-blogging services. With more government officials and entities (实体) registering, China"s micro- blogging services are expected to play a more important role in connecting the public and the governments in 2011. Search Engines Baidu"s position in the search engine market would face fierce challenges from sohu.com, Microsoft"s Bing and goso.cn from the People"s Daily. Xinhua is also preparing to start its search engine together with China Mobile, a leading company in mobile networks. Goso and Xinhua both have the advantage of providing content, while Bing has a big edge in technology and funds. They are expected to pose threats (威胁) to Baidu in 2011. Internet of Things IoT refers to a network of real-world objects linked by the Internet and interacting through on-line services. China set up its first IoT research center in Shanghai in March 2010. Within the same week, Premier Wen Jiabao stated in the annual government report that it would "accelerate the research and development, as well as application of the Internet of Things." However, some experts say China"s IoT is still in an early stage, and it"ll take a long time for it to let the public enjoy its full functions. |
1. What is the text mainly about? |
A. Some major media in China. B. China"s new media and its future. C. The development of China"s on-line services. D. China"s early-stage IoT and its major functions. |
2. How many web portals are mentioned in Paragraph 2? |
A. Two. B. Three. C. Four. D. Five. |
3. Which of the following will be Xinhua"s partner to start a search engine? |
A. Baidu. B. Sohu.com. C. Goso.cn. D. China Mobile. |
4. What does the underlined part "a big bang" in Paragraph 2 probably mean? |
A. A deafening sound. B. An explosive development C. A terrible damage. D. A demanding challenge. |
阅读理解。 |
Question: My ninth-grade art teacher doesn"t give any grade above 94% because, she says, "There"s always room for improvement." In previous years, I earned a 99% and a 100%. The 94% I received this term does not reflect the hard work that I put into this course. Because of her "improvement" theory, I got a lower grade than I deserve Is her grading philosophy morally correct? Answer: Your teacher"s grading system may be unwise, but it is not morally wrong. A teacher deserves wide latitude in selecting the method of grading that best promotes learning in her classroom; that is, after all, the prime function of grades. It is she who has the training and experience to make this decision. You can criticize her methodology. A 100 need not imply that there is no possibility of improvement, only that a student successfully completed the course work A ninth grader could get a well-earned 100 in English class but still has a way to go before he writes as well as Jane Austen. What"s more, grades are not only an educational device but are also part of a screening system to help assign (分配) kids to their next class or program. By capping her grades at 94 while most other teachers grade on a scale that tops out at 100, your teacher could risk making a student lose a chance of getting a scholarship or getting into a top college. What it is wrong to condemn her for is overlooking your hard work. Your hard work is worthy of encouragement, but effort does not equal accomplishment. If scholars suddenly discovered that Rembrandt had dashed off The Night Watch in an afternoon, it would still be The Night Watch. I could spend months sweating over my own "paintings", but I"d produce something you wouldn"t want to hang in your living room or your garage. One feature of a good grading system is that those measured by it generally regard it as fair and reasonable- not the case here. Strong feeling of anger is seldom an aid to education And so your next step should be to discuss your concerns with your teacher or the principal. |
1. When writing the question, the ninth-grader was _____. |
A. annoyed B. worried C. excited D. delighted |
2. The underlined word "latitude" in Paragraph 2 probably means _____. |
A. difference B. knowledge C. freedom D. experience |
3. Rembrandt"s painting is mentioned to show that _____. |
A. there"s difference between effort and achievement B. The Night Watch was completed in half a day C. everybody"s hard work should be encouraged D. one is to blame for doing the work in a hurry |
4. What is the author"s attitude towards the grading system of the ninth-grader"s teacher? |
A. Supportive. B. Confused. C. Unconcerned. D. Unfavorable. |
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