Training costs have dropped to, 2,600yuan for students, according to the Haidian Driving School in Beijing. The price is not really low , but students will accept it , seeing it as an investment (投资) in their future. Familiarity with the operation of computers and fluent English are the basic skills graduating students need to find a job. But a driver’s permit has become another factor.
“In the job market, owning a driver’s permit sometimes strengthens a graduating student’s competitiveness for a good position,” says Zhou Yang, an undergraduate at the China University of Political Science and Law.
Cars will become a necessary part of many people’s lives in the coming years, and it’s difficult to get a permit out of campus because of the pressures on working people’s time. “Having a full-time job after graduation offers limited time to learn to drive. We senior students have plenty of spare time, plenty of opportunities to learn.”
Xu Jian, an official at the driving school, said undergraduates were very able and serious, and could grasp in an hour what it took ordinary people four hours to learn. In this driving school, middle-aged people, young women and college students are the main customers.
To get a driver’s permit, a beginner is now required to have at least 86 hours’ practice before the final road test.
1. The undergraduates are learning to drive because .
| A．they like to drive cars |
| B．they need this skill to find a good job. |
| C．most of them will be able to buy cars in the future |
| D．they want to become full-time drivers after graduation |
| A．He decided it was a waste of money and time. |
| B．He thought they must learn it at school. |
| C．He thought they would spend three times more time. |
| D．He agreed that young people had an advantage in learning to drive. |
| A．Students Learn to Drive |
| B．Welcome to Driving School |
| C．It’s Better to Learn to Drive at College |
| D．Students Pay Less to Learn to Drive Now |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】LOS ANGELES—There are 69,144 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous(人口稠密的) county(县) in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday.
The number marks a 4.1 percent rise from the last count in 2020, said the authority, adding that a count was not conducted in 2021 in the county, home to around 10 million residents, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The results of the count, conducted over three nights in February, also showed 41,980 people were experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, up 1.7 percent from 2020. The City of Los Angeles is the part of Los Angeles County and also the biggest city in the county.
LAHSA said in a news release that this year’s homeless count results offer a clear contrast(差距) to the results between 2018 and 2020, when Los Angeles County saw a 25.9 percent increase and the City of Los Angeles experienced a 32 percent increase. The authority noted that “Angelenos(洛杉矶人) need more affordable homes and economic help to prevent future increases in homelessness.”
LAHSA said the agency and its partners have made 84,000 housing placements(安置) over the past five years. Thanks to a 62 percent increase in shelter(居所) beds since 2019, more people are in shelter than ever before, said the agency, adding that “shelter is a necessary and key part of our system because bringing people inside protects them from the destructive effects on their health and safety that comes. from experiencing unsheltered homelessness.”
Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of unemployment and homelessness in the United States, according to usabynumbers.com. The website reported in June that the total number of homeless people in the United States is over 553,000, and that’s 170 out of every 100,000 people experiencing homelessness in the country right now.
1. When is there no figure of homeless people of the county?| A．In 2019. | B．In 2020. | C．In 2021. | D．In 2022. |
| A．The effects of homelessness on people’s health and safety. |
| B．The most practical way to raise money for the homeless. |
| C．The useful measure to deal with the problem of homelessness. |
| D．The reasons why there are so many homeless people in the county. |
| A．Injury. | B．Joblessness. | C．Fighting. | D．Treatment. |
| A．Angelenos need more affordable homes |
| B．Total number of homeless people in US is over 553,000 |
| C．Angelenos need more economic help to prevent future homelessness |
| D．Over 69,000 people experience homelessness in US most populous county |
【推荐2】The American dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage, creativity and determination, they can achieve a better life for themselves. More specifically, they agree on how to get ahead in America: get a college education, find a reliable job, and buy their own house. But do Americans still believe in that path, and if they do, is it attainable?
The most recent National Journal poll(民意测验，投票) asked participants about the American dream, what it takes to achieve their goal, and whether or not they felt the control over their ability to be successful. Obviously, the results show that today, the idea of the American dream and what it takes to achieve it looks quite different from it did in the late 20th century. By the large, people felt that their actions and hard work — not outside forces — were the deciding factors in how their lives turned out. But the participants had definitely mixed feelings about what actions make for a better life in the current economy.
In the last seven years, Americans have grown more pessimistic about the power of education to lead to success. Even though they see going to college as a fairly achievable goal, a majority 52 percent think that young people do not need a 4-year college education in order to be successful.
Miguel Maeda, 42, who has a master’s degree and works in public health, was the first in his family to go to college, which has allowed him to achieve a sense of financial stability(稳定) his parents and grandparents never did. While some, like Maeda, emphasized the value of a degree rather than the education itself, others still see college as a way to gain new viewpoints and life experiences. Sixty-year-old Will Fendley, who had a successful career in the military and never earned a college degree, think “personal drive” is far more important than just go to college. To Fendley, a sense of drive and purpose, as well as an effective high-school education, and basic life skills, like balancing a checkbook(支票簿), are the necessary elements for a successful life in America.
1. It was commonly acknowledged that to succeed in America, one had to have ________.| A．a sense of drive and purpose | B．an advanced academic degree |
| C．a firm belief in their dream | D．an ambition to get ahead |
| A．More and more Americans are finding it hard to realize. |
| B．It remains alive among the majority of American people. |
| C．An increasing number of young Americans are abandoning it. |
| D．Americans’ idea of it has changed over the past few decades. |
| A．It helps broaden their minds. | B．It needs to be strengthened. |
| C．It widens cultural diversity. | D．It promotes gender (性别) equality. |
【推荐3】Young people these days are exposed to an almost constant stream of written words. They communicate by web messages, or by Facebook updates, or by Tweets.
When I was a boy, in the 1980s, we communicated by telephone. I never wrote a single word to anybody my own age, except to pass notes in class when I was bored. The Internet and the mobile phone have changed all that, and put a new emphasis (强调) on the written word.
Written words are important now. Everything, especially for the young, depends on them. Online chatting and searching, messaging and emailing, all depend on writing, and writing quickly. There is no time now for thinking about the right phrase carefully or planning the best way to say something before you make that phone call, that text and that e-mail demanding an exigent response.
The important difference between writing and speaking is that writing can be crossed out (划掉), whereas speech cannot. Communication is now a continuous work in progress, as long as it’s done on screen, and as long as you delete it before anyone reads it. Instead of technology having made the accuracy of spelling and grammar irrelevant, the move from the spoken to the written word has had the opposite effect: we judge accuracy severely, whether it be a romantic message or a job application, and are unimpressed by people who don’t know how to use punctuation (标点符号).
Glancing around the Internet, you can find examples of terrible English, but you’ll also find an astonishing number of corrections.
There has probably never been a time in history when writing has been so universal (普遍) and so important. Books on the English language can now top the bestseller lists. Today, the Philippines holds the record for texting: 27 per user per day, In Scandinavia, more than 85 per cent of the population communicates by text, Some 294 billion e mail messages are sent every day. These are communications that until recently were made by telephone, letter, face to face or, and this is highly important in the communication debate, not at all.
1. How does the author bring up the topic?| A．By following time order. | B．By telling an interesting story. |
| C．By presenting research findings. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Thoughtful. | B．Individual. | C．Instant. | D．Official. |
| A．It is judged seriously. | B．It spreads quickly. |
| C．It involves special rules. | D．It accepts terrible English. |
| A．It is effective in learning the written language. |
| B．It makes the written word popular again. |
| C．It strengthens communication between people. |
| D．It may lead to the disappearance of printed books. |
【推荐1】China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft, tasked with bringing lunar rock samples to Earth, successfully landed on the Moon on December 1st, 2020. The 8,200 kg spacecraft, launched from China’s Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on November 23, 2020, entered the satellite’s orbit on November 28th, 2020.
Within 19 hours of landing, the probe (空间探测器) gathered about 2k g of rocks and soil by drilling almost 2 meters deep into the lunar surface using its robotic arm. The sample-filled jar was placed in the ascender vehicle (上升器), which left the Moon’s surface and entered the lunar orbit on December 3rd, 2020. Then, in a historic first, the ascender and Chang’e 5 orbiter spacecraft successfully came together on December 6, 2020, to complete the first-ever robotic rendezvous and docking (交会和对接) in lunar orbit.
“In terms of the space tasks that humans have performed so far, only the Apollo program missions have completed the rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit. However, uncrewed rendezvous and docking have never been done before us,” Peng Jing told Chinese media ahead of the attempt.
With the rock samples safely transferred to the return capsule, the Chang’ e 5 spacecraft continued to circle the Moon for a few days before beginning its 112-hour journey back to Earth. The spacecraft landed in the Ulanqab region of Inner Mongolia, China, on the early morning of December 17th, 2020. Up to now, China has become the third country, after the US and Russia, to successfully get back lunar rocks. More importantly, the 1.2 billion-year-old samples are the youngest-ever obtained from the satellite. The novel space souvenirs, the first collected in 44 years, can give scientists a better understanding of the Moon’s formation and provide important insights into how Earth and the solar system evolved.
1. What did Chang’ e 5 do after landing on the Moon?| A．It drilled for rocks and soil. | B．It took photos of the surface. |
| C．It sent data back to the earth. | D．It analyzed rock samples soon. |
| A．To show that he takes great pride. | B．To introduce the Apollo program. |
| C．To inform us of rendezvous and docking. | D．To compare the differences of two tasks. |
| A．Explore more into the earth. | B．Store them as good souvenirs. |
| C．Know the evolution of the moon. | D．Compete with the US and Russia. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. | C．Education. | D．Science. |
【推荐2】When French students go to school, they have to leave one of their most prized possessions at home — their smartphones.
French lawmakers passed a law on July 31, 2018, banning students 15 and under from bringing smartphones and tablets to school, or at least requiring they be turned off at school. Officials in support of the new rule described the policy as a way to protect children from addictive habits and to safeguard the sanctity (神圣) of the classroom.
“We know there is a phenomenon of screen addiction,” education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said. “Our main role is to protect students. It is a fundamental role of education, and this law allows it.”
The law, however, makes exceptions for educational use, after-school activities and for students with disabilities. French high schools can choose to force a less-strict ban on Internet- connected devices.
Even before the new policy was voted in, French law carried out in 2010 prohibited students from using their phones while class was in session. But during the 2017 French presidential election, Emmanuel Macron promised to force a school ban on phones entirely.
This isn’t the first French law designed to beat back the influences of digital technology in everyday life. In 2017 the government passed a law requiring French companies to draft rules that limited work emails and work-related technology outside the office. Referred to as the “right to disconnect,” French officials said the law aimed to reduce job-related stress and prevent employee burnout.
“Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic tie,” said Benoît Hamon, former French education minister. “The texts, the messages, the emails: they control the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”
1. What’s the purpose of the law passed on July 31, 2018?| A．To improve the eyesight of school students. |
| B．To reduce the heavy burden of primary school students. |
| C．To prevent students getting addicted to electronic devices. |
| D．To help students use the mobile phones properly at schools. |
| A．Disabled students have no ability to use electronic devices. |
| B．President Macron is in favor of smartphone use in school. |
| C．The “right to disconnect” aims to help employees with their work. |
| D．Primary students are facing stricter banning than high school students. |
| A．work-related technology occupied too much of individual life |
| B．some officials found it was a waste of time to use digital technology |
| C．employees had no time to use their electronic devices after work |
| D．employees had the ability to finish their work entirely in the office |
| A．Messages. | B．Employees. | C．Emails. | D．Texts. |
【推荐3】On Monday, Xu Mengtao won her first Olympic gold in women’s aerials (空中技巧) at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. It was not hard to see what it meant for Xu: When the score 108. 61 came up with a “1” by her name, she pointed one, then two fingers to the sky and let out a scream.
“Xu is one of the handful of women to consistently try the high-risk triple flips (三周空翻) over the years,” said American Ashley Caldwell, another triple-flip enthusiast who finished fourth. “While triple flips are not unheard of among the women, the list of athletes who have tried them consistently is short. At the last two Olympics, only four of the 12 finalists tried triple flips in the final round.”
Women’s aerials is a sport full of risk-takers but all the risks are very calculated. Since the competitions go through a series of qualifying and elimination (淘汰) rounds that include only one jump each, only a select few over the years have been willing to give up the certainty of a solid score with a double flip for the triple flips.
Xu doesn’t adopt the strategy and keeps trying the triple flips. “It adds extra some might say unnecessary risk to the early rounds,” Xu once said. “But I’m OK sacrificing some good competition results to make the sport look good.”
Failures at the last three Olympics tested the limits of how much Xu was willing to sacrifice. In meet after meet, from Vancouver to Sochi to Pyeongchan, her strategy kept her away from the gold medal but she kept pushing anyway.
“It’s a sense of mission accomplished. This is a winning night for women’s aerials, too,” Xu said after the award ceremony. “If a lot of girls are doing triple flips up there and I fall, there would still be a lot of girls who would do well. If I mess up, that’s OK.”
1. What can we infer from Ashley Caldwell’s words?| A．Xu Mengtao is very sensitive. | B．No athlete wants to try the triple flips. |
| C．Women are not good risk-takers. | D．Most athletes want to avoid uncertainties. |
| A．Draw a conclusion. | B．Provide additional information. |
| C．Lead in the main topic. | D．Summarize the previous paragraphs. |
| A．She really loves unnecessary risks. |
| B．She wants to show off her new trick. |
| C．She hopes to attract more girls to aerials. |
| D．She wishes to make the sport more enjoyable. |
| A．Determined. | B．Curious. | C．Calculating. | D．Outgoing. |
【推荐1】
The Sands of Time St Cyrus National Nature Reserve is much more than just golden sands and beautiful flowers. The area has a long human history too. From Stone Age hunters to amazing pioneers, discover the daring deeds and sad stories from St Cyrus' past. Date: 23rd August 2015 Time: 2 p. m. —3：45 p. m. Type of event: Guided walk |
Between the Tides A celebration of the world between the tides. Join local salmon (大马哈鱼) fisherman Jim Ritchie on a fascinating walk to learn how local folk have made a living from the world between the tides, harvesting salmon from the beach at St Cyrus for hundreds of years. Date: 25th August 2015 Time: 2 p. m. —4 p. m. Type of event: Family event |
Ice & Fire St Cyrus National Nature Reserve has had an eventful life! From its days near the equator (赤道) to volcanic eruptions and ice ages. Celebrate the start of Scottish Geology Month with a walk through the reserve and travel back in time to uncover the clues to St Cyrus' past hidden in the cliffs. Date: 31st August 2015 Time: 2 p. m. —3：45 p. m. Type of event: Guided walk |
Scary Stories It's getting darker at nights... it's almost Halloween, when the ghosts (鬼怪) come out to play. Join us for some spooky stories of Dinnet and Deeside long ago... and listen out for things that sound strange in the night！ Date: 25th October 2015 Time: 7 p. m. —9 p. m. Type of event: Family event |
Note：
* All under 18s must be accompanied by an adult
* Pets allowed: No
* Cost: Free
* Phone: 01674830736
* Location: SNH Visitor Centre, St Cyrus National Nature Reserve
1. Which of the following events may help you learn about the local people’s way of life?| A．Ice & Fire. | B．Scary Stories. |
| C．The Sands of Time. | D．Between the Tides. |
| A．They are held in August. | B．People can’t take their pets with them. |
| C．They are held in the evening. | D．People need to be guided during the journey. |
| A．you need to pay to join in the activities |
| B．St Cyrus National Nature Reserve is famous for salmon |
| C．a ten-year-old child can attend these events only in adults' company |
| D．St Cyrus National Nature Reserve was set up not long ago |
【推荐2】Our culture is the system we use to build our identity. All living things are part of a culture. Even animals have a culture! So what is culture? It's the way we behave in a group. It begins with each individual (单个的) family. Within our families we do things to build relationships with each other. This can include routines like daily housework and weekly shopping. It also includes traditions. Traditions are activities that are repeated on a regular basis.
Culture is not limited to individual family groups. The real strength of culture is in larger community groups. These larger groups are called societies. Every society makes rules for itself. It decides how people should act in different situations. Some of these rules are written down. Some are just things that are naturally expected of all members of that society.
Often, cultures can be recognized by what the people believe. Cultures are also known by what they choose to include in their art. Sometimes cultures may be formed by people who speak the same language. Cultures may also be known for their customs, including the foods they make and the things they do.
Our cultures help us understand who we are and what we believe. There are very strong feelings connecting us to our own society. Two different cultures may disagree on something, especially if they both feel strongly about it. When that happens, war is a common result.
People are learning better ways to communicate with each other. The more we communicate, the more we appreciate the differences in cultures.
1. The underlined word routines in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.| A．hobbies | B．behaviors |
| C．formal activities | D．daily activities |
| A．In arts. | B．In societies. |
| C．In families. | D．In languages. |
| A．Culture doesn't exist in animals. |
| B．Culture is the way we behave. |
| C．Cultures may not agree with each other. |
| D．Cultures help us understand ourselves. |
| A．By building a wall. | B．By preparing to fight. |
| C．By communicating. | D．By making friends. |
| A．What Is Culture? | B．What Is Society? |
| C．What Is Tradition? | D．What Is System? |
【推荐3】Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has expressed regret over his handling of the bushfire crisis damaging the country. The PM has faced mounting criticism over his government’s response to the bushfires and its climate policy.
Since September, bushfires have killed at least 28 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Mr Morrison’s government has been accused of not doing enough to address climate change, which experts say could increase the intensity, frequency and scale of bushfires.
But in the interview, the PM defended his government’s approach, which he said took into account the effect of climate change on the bushfires.
Each year there is a fire season during the Australian summer, with hot, dry weather making it easy for blazes (火焰) to start and spread. Natural causes are to blame most of the time, like lightning strikes in drought-affected forests. Humans can also be to blame. NSW police have charged at least 24 people with deliberately starting bushfires, and have taken legal action against 183 people for fire-related offenses since November, according to a police statement.
Bushfire conditions eased on Saturday, giving firefighters a temporary short break in areas where blazes are still raging. But authorities have warned that the huge fires, spurred by high temperatures, wind and a three-year drought, will persist until there is substantial rainfall.
About half a billion animals have been affected by the fires across NSW, with millions likely dead. The figures for NSW include birds, reptiles, and mammals, except bats. It also excludes insects and frogs, so the real sum is almost certain to be higher, the ecologists said. Almost a third of koalas in NSW may have been killed in the fires, and a third of their habitat has been destroyed, said Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley.
1. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?| A．The bushfires cause little damage to people’s life in Australia. |
| B．The PM criticized that his government didn’t take appropriate methods. |
| C．The PM took active measures to deal with the bushfires damaging the country. |
| D．Experts say the government’s inadequate action could worsen the bushfires. |
| A．wet weather | B．lightning strike |
| C．long-lasting drought | D．heavy rainfall |
| A．More animals have been affected than the number shows. |
| B．a billion animals face extinction due to the fires. |
| C．Koalas are in an immediate danger of dying out. |
| D．The huge fires have no influence on insects and frogs. |
| A．A sci-fi book. | B．A news website. |
| C．A fashion magazine. | D．A travel journal. |
【推荐1】When you go on a trip to America, you will see the word Motel on signs and notice boards. It is made up of "motor" and "hotel" and it is really a hotel for people who arrive by car（however, you don't need a car to stay at one）You have to pay when you arrive for your room, which usually has a bath. Meals are not provided but there will certainly be a cafeteria. Americans eat a lot of salads and sandwiches. Along the main roads there are a lot of motels. Each tries to offer more than the others. Some provide television in every bedroom: others have swimming pools and so on. Motels are especially useful when you are in the country, far from a town or city. You will also find them in big national parks.
In these great national parks, you may meet guests you don't expect to see. An American friend told me a short story. In the middle of a moonless night, she heard strange noises outside her motel window in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Thinking it might be a thief, she jumped out of bed, opened the door and crept towards a dark shadow. As she got close, she saw the thief. She was dreadfully frightened: it wasn't a human thief — it was a big black bear. The bear was turning over some empty tins with its paws, looking for tasty bits of food. My friend decided to leave that particular thief alone!
There are also, of course, places called "rooming houses", where they provide lodges（客房）. You will see such signs as Tourists or Rooms Rent, and you could try one of these. A word of warning — looking for a room in New York during the tourist season is like looking for gold on the moon!
1. Motels provide all the following EXCEPT____________.| A．bath | B．swimming pools |
| C．TV | D．meals |
| A．an interesting story |
| B．bears usually look for food at night |
| C．the experience of the author's friend |
| D．we may meet animals in national parks |
| A．tourists can find gold there |
| B．it is difficult to find a room there |
| C．tourists can have a sweet dream there |
| D．there is a warning for tourists to New York |
【推荐2】Photography was once an expensive, laborious experience reserved for life's greatest milestones（里程碑）. Now, the only apparent cost to taking infinite photos of something as common as a meal is the space on your hard drive and your dining companion's patience.
But is there another cost, a deeper cost, a deeper cost, to documenting（记录）a life experience instead of simply enjoying it? "You hear that you shouldn't take all these photos and interrupt the experience, and it's bad for you, and we're not living in the present moment," says Kristin Diehl, associate professor of marketing at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
Diehl and her fellow researchers wanted to find out if that was true, so they embarked on a series of nine experiments in the lab and in the field testing people's enjoyment in the presence or absence of a camera. The results, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, surprised them. Taking photos actually makes people enjoy what they're doing more, not less.
"What we find is you actually look at the world slightly differently, because you're looking for things you want to capture, that you may want to hang onto," Diehl explains. "That gets people more engaged（参与）in the experience, and they tend to enjoy it more." Take sightseeing. In one experiment, nearly 200 participants boarded a double-decker bus for a tour of Philadelphia. Both bus tours forbade the use of cell phones but one tour provided digital cameras and encouraged people to take photos. The people who took photos enjoyed the experience significantly more, and said they were more engaged, than those who didn't.
Snapping a photo directs attention, which heightens the pleasure you get from whatever you're looking at, Diehl says. It works for things as boring as archaeological museums, where people were given eye-tracking glasses and instructed either to take photos or not.
"People look longer at things they want to photograph," Diehl says. They report liking the exhibits more, too. To the relief of Instagrammers everywhere, it can even make meals more enjoyable. When people were encouraged to take at least three photos while they ate lunch, they were more immersed in their meals than those who weren't told to take photos.
Was it the satisfying click of the camera? The physical act of the snap? No, they found; just the act of planning to take a photo—and not actually taking it—had the same joy-boosting effect. "If you want to take mental photos, that works the same way," Diehl says. "Thinking about what you would want to photograph also gets you more engaged."
1. What does the author say about photo-taking in the past?| A．It was a painstaking effort for recording life’s major events. |
| B．It was a luxury（奢侈）that only a few wealthy people could enjoy. |
| C．It was a good way to preserve one’s precious images. |
| D．It was a skill that required lots of practice to master. |
| A．what kind of pleasure it would actually bring to photo-takers |
| B．whether people enjoyed it when they did sightseeing |
| C．how it could help to enrich people’s life experiences |
| D．Whether it prevented people enjoying what they were doing |
| A．They come out with better photographs of the exhibits. |
| B．They focus more on the exhibits when taking pictures. |
| C．They have a better view of what are on display. |
| D．They follow the historical events more easily. |
| A．It is better to make plans before taking photos. |
| B．Mental photos can be as beautiful as snapshots（快照）. |
| C．Photographers can derive great joy from the click of the camera. |
| D．Even the very thought of taking a photo can have a positive effect. |
In elementary and high school, male academic performance is lagging. Boys earn three-quarters of the D’s and F’s. By college, men are clearly behind. Only 40 percent of bachelor’s degree go to men, along with 40 percent of master’s degree.
Thanks to their lower skills, men are dropping out of the labor force. In 1954, 96 percent of the American men between the ages of 25 and 54 worked. Today, that number is down to 80 percent. In Friday's jobs report, male labor force participation reached an all-time low.
Millions of men are collecting disability benefits. Even many of those who do have a job are doing poorly. According to Michael Greenstone of the Hamilton Project, annual earnings for average prime-age males have dropped by 28 percent over the past 40 years.
Men still dominate (主宰) the top of the corporate ladder because many women take time off to raise children, but women lead or are gaining nearly everywhere else. Women in their 20s outearn men in their 20s. Twelve out of the 15 fastest-growing professions are dominated by women.
Over the years, many of us have employed a certain theory to explain men's economic decline. It is that the information-age economy rewards qualities that women are more likely to possess.
To succeed today, you have to be able to sit still and focus attention in school at an early age. You have to be emotionally sensitive and aware of context. You have to communicate smoothly. For genetic and cultural reasons, many men are not good at these.
But, in her fascinating new book, The End of Men, Hanna Rosin suggests a different theory. It has to do with adaptability. Women, Rosin argues, are like immigrants (移民) who have moved to a new country. They see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to new circumstances. Men are like immigrants who have physically moved to a new country but who have kept their minds in the old one. They speak the old language. They follow the old customs. Men are more likely to be rigid; women are more fluid.
This theory has less to do with born qualities and more to do with social position. When there’s big social change, the people who were on the top of the old order are bound to stick to the old ways. The people who were on the bottom are bound to experience a burst of energy. They are going to explore their new surroundings more enthusiastically.
Rosin reports from working-class Alabama. The women she meets are flooding into new jobs and new opportunities — going back to college, pursuing new careers. The men are waiting around for the jobs left and are never coming back. They are strangely immune (免疫的）to new options. In the Auburn-Opelika region, the average female income is 140 percent of the average male income.
Rosin is not saying that women are winners in a global gender (性别) war or that they are doing super simply because men are doing worse. She's just saying women are adapting to today’s economy more flexibly than men. There’s a lot of evidence to support her case.
A study by the National Federation of Independent Business found that small businesses owned by women outperformed male-owned small business during the last recession (衰退). In finance, women who switch firms are more likely to see their performance improve, whereas men are likely to see theirs decline. There's even evidence that women are better able to adjust to divorce. Today, more women than men see their incomes rise by 25 percent after a marital breakup.
Forty years ago, men and women stuck to certain theory, what it meant to be a man or a woman. Young women today, Rosin argues, have abandoned both feminist (女权主义者）and prefeminist preconceptions. Men still stick to the masculinity (大男子主义的）rules, which limit their vision and their movement.
If she's right, then men will have to acknowledge that they are strangers in a strange land.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Male labor force participation has declined by 80% since 1954. |
| B．More men than women take time off to raise children now. |
| C．Good communication is one of the qualities that women possess. |
| D．Men are still taking most top and fastest-growing professions. |
| A．men are less likely to sit still and focus in school at early age |
| B．men are more rigid and less able to adapt to new circumstances |
| C．women are doing better for genetic and cultural reasons |
| D．it is more and more difficult for men to get bachelor’s degree |
| A．The differences between men and women. |
| B．The reasons why men do no better than women. |
| C．The social status of men and women. |
| D．The reasons why men fail compared with women. |
