A recent study points out a so-called “gender-equality paradox(性别平等悖论)”: there are more women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) in countries with lower gender equality. Why do women make up 40 percent of engineering majors in Jordan, but only 34 percent in Sweden and 19 percent in the U.S.? The researchers suggest that women are just less interested in STEM, and when liberal Western countries let them choose freely, they freely choose different fields.
We disagree.
From cradle to classroom, a wealth of research shows that the environment has a major influence on girls’ interest and ability in math and science. Early in school, teachers, unconscious prejudice push girls away from STEM. By their preteen years, girls outperform boys in science class and report equal interest in the subject, but parents think that science is harder and less interesting for their daughters than their sons, and these misunderstandings predict their children’s career choices.
Later in life, women get less credit than men for the same math performance. When female STEM majors write to potential PhD advisors, they are less likely to get a response. When STEM professors review applications for research positions, they are less likely to hire “Jennifer” than “John,” even when both applications are otherwise identical—and if they do hire “Jennifer,” they pay her $4,000 less.
These findings make it clear that women in Western countries are not freely expressing their lack of “interest” in STEM. In fact, cultural attitudes and discrimination are shaping women’s interests in a way that is anything but free, even in otherwise free countries.
“Gender-equality paradox” research misses those social factors because it relies on a broad measure of equality called the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks indicators such as wage difference, government representation and health outcomes. These are important markers of progress, but if we want to explain something as complicated as gender representation in STEM, we have to look into people’s heads.
Fortunately, we have ways to do that. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a well-validated tool for measuring how tightly two concepts are tied together in people’s minds. The psychologist Brian Nosek and his colleagues analyzed over 500,000 responses to a version of the IAT that measures mental associations between men/women and science, and compared results from 34 countries. Across the world, people associated science more strongly with men than with women.
But surprisingly, these gendered associations were stronger in supposedly egalitarian (主张平等的) Sweden than they were in the U.S., and the most pro-female scores came from Jordan. We re-analyzed the study’s data and found that the GGI’s assessment of overall gender equality of a country has nothing to do with that country’s scores on the science IAT.
That means the GGI fails to account for cultural attitudes toward women in science and the complicated mix of history and culture that forms those attitudes.
Comparison | A recent study | The author’s idea |
Opinions | “Gender-equality paradox” | The environment including cultural attitudes and discrimination is |
Facts | • Early in school: Girls perform • Later in life: Female STEM majors are more likely to be | |
Tools | It is | IAT |
Findings | Women in liberal Western countries tend to | • The GGFs assessment of overall gender equality is not • The GGI can’t |
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【推荐1】If you’re gathering your teenage kids in the living room to watch “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” on Disney+, just know there’s a good chance they’d rather be playing “Fortnite”, a popular game.
That could totally be the case according to a new study from a consulting firm in Deloitte, which analyzed the generational divide in at-home entertainment.
The study, based on an online survey of more than 2,000 consumers, showed preferences are changing rapidly between millennials and the younger generation when it comes to how they want to spend their leisure time.
For Gen Z, defined as those born from 1997 to 2007,video - whether movies or television shows - is not a priority, the study found. 26% of Gen Zers in the survey said playing video games as their favorite entertainment activity, compared to 14% for listening to music, 12% for browsing the Internet and 11% for engaging on social media. Only 10% said they would rather watch a movie or TV show at home.
That compares to millennials (born 1983 to 1996),18% of whom chose watching movies and TV shows as their preferred mode of entertainment. Video games were the the entertainment option of choice for 16% of millennials.
“Gen Z would much rather spend time gaming, listening to music or using social media,” Jana Arbanas, entertainment leader at Deloitte, said. “That was a really alarming contrast that we saw relative to the shift that's happening and how Gen Z will impact this industry.”
“Millennials took the behaviors they developed as teenagers, and they've taken them forward into their early 30s, and so if Gen Z is anything like that, their behaviors may change slightly, but I don't see a complete aging out of their behaviors,” said Kevin Westcott, technology, media and telecom leader.
1. What does paragraph 1 tell us about teenagers today?| A．They are addicted to Fortnite. | B．They prefer games to movies. |
| C．They don't like being told what to do. | D．They tend to spend leisure time alone. |
| A．It will offer fewer games and more music. | B．It will see a decline in the use of social media. |
| C．It will be impacted by the need of millennials. | D．It will be influenced by the preference of Gen Zers. |
| A．They may outgrow their behaviors over time. |
| B．They’ll stop watching movies and TV shows. |
| C．They may not change much in their behaviors. |
| D．They’ll develop the same behaviors as millennials. |
| A．A medical report. | B．A shopping website. |
| C．A popular newspaper. | D．An entertainment fiction. |
【推荐2】Looking back at my younger years,I am sometimes amazed at how life has turned out.
●Everything happens for a reason.
Without mistakes and failure,you would never have learned.Without pain,you would never have grown.Once you understand this,you will know that everything comes in to serve a purpose.So don't think that life is unfair, because everything happens for a reason.
●Focus on one thing at a time.
It is not surprising that many of us are doing too many things at once.We need to make ends meet.But if you are working three jobs at a time,it is not likely that you will succeed at any of them.You have to keep your eyes on the big picture.You have to ask yourself: What exactly do you want to achieve for the next 10 years?Focus on one thing at a time.
●
You might be graduating or have hit a turning point with your career.You might feel a bit lost and unsure of where to go.It's okay.Go out there and try as many different things as you can.Don't ever feel like you're wasting your time.Enjoy the journey.Every little path will lead you somewhere.And looking back,you will be able to connect the dots.It will all make sense.
●Don't try too hard with people.
Don't worry if you feel like it's hard to make new friends.
| A．Achieve your goals one by one. |
| B．You can plan everything ahead. |
| C．Only time will tell what life will teach us. |
| D．Just be yourself and be as open as you can. |
| E．It's okay to be unsure about your purpose in life. |
| F．Nothing is exactly what I had originally planned for. |
| G．Don't worry too much about a decision you have to make. |
【推荐3】I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old, I learned how to make a coin disappear. I read The Lord of the Rings and risked coming into the adult section of the library to search for a book of spells (魔法) — nine being that curious age at which you’re old enough to work through more than 1,200 pages of mysterious fantasy literature but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library. The book I found instead taught basic sleight-of-hand technique, and I devoted the next months to practice.
Initially, the magic wasn’t any good. At first it wasn’t even magic; it was just a trick-a bad trick. I spent hours each day in the bathroom running through the secret moves in front of the mirror. I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day, and after two weeks of this my mom got a carpet sample from the store and placed it under the mirror to eliminate the sound of the coin falling again and again.
I had heard my dad work through passages of new music on the piano, so I knew how to practice — slowly, deliberately, going for precision rather than speed. And then I tried the illusion (幻觉) in the mirror and an unbelievable scene took place. It did not look like a magic trick. It looked like a miracle. I knew that I had got what I wanted.
One day I made the performance on the playground. We had been playing football and were standing by the backstop in the field behind the school. A dozen people were watching. I showed the coin to everyone. Then it disappeared. The kids screamed. They yelled, laughed, scrambled away. Everyone went crazy. This was great.
1. What did the author enter the adult section of the library to do?| A．Find a book of magic. | B．Kill his time. |
| C．Read The Lord of the Rings. | D．Learn knowledge of literature. |
| A．Deliver. | B．Enlarge. |
| C．Remove. | D．Track. |
| A．His mother s help. | B．The secret of quick moves. |
| C．His hard practice over and over. | D．The inspiration from his father |
| A．It’s disappointing. | B．It’s wonderful. |
| C．It’s humorous. | D．It’s unexpected. |
【推荐1】A growing number of American states are requiring schools to teach students “media literacy” skills. California is the latest state to pass such a requirement. Media literacy, also known as news literacy, is the ability to use critical thinking skills to recognize differences between real and “fake” news.
The new law requires California’s Department of Education to provide materials related to media literacy on its website. Its goal is to give students a set of effective tools to “enable them to make informed decisions”.
The media literacy efforts were based on a Stanford University study from 2016. It found that 80 percent of U.S. middle school students failed to recognize an advertisement that looked like a real news story. The researchers also found that high school students had trouble telling the difference between a real and a fake news website.
The study called for more efforts to help students recognize false information on the internet. It said that young people also need the skills to find out where news stories come from, and to be able to judge the trustworthiness of sources and writers.
Carolyn Edy is a professor of communication at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She said she has seen a clear change in her students’ abilities to judge news sources. Edy said that when students used to read printed newspapers, it was easier for them to recognize fact from opinion. Now, it’s necessary to teach students how to fully examine websites.
One of Edy’s goals is to teach students how to research the news organizations responsible for the stories they are reading. One way to do this is for students to ask a series of questions. One example is, “What is the overall mission of the organization?”
Edy said young people also need to judge whether news organizations identify any possible conflicts of interest. Another question to ask is, “What do they do when they get a story wrong?” Responsible and trustworthy news organizations issue corrections if something is falsely reported, she said.
Edy added that one good thing to come out of the rise of misinformation and fake news is that it has made many people seek out good reporting.
1. The new law passed in California mainly aims at _____.| A．helping students identify fake news | B．improving students’ critical thinking skills |
| C．offering students real information | D．enabling students to make quick decisions |
| A．To present the details of the law. | B．To provide a set of tools for the law. |
| C．To show the reason behind the law. | D．To indicate the efforts based on the law. |
| A．Identifying the conflicts of interest in it. |
| B．Correcting its falsely reported news stories. |
| C．Learning about its background information. |
| D．Asking a series of questions about its news. |
| A．can contribute to the rise of good news reporting |
| B．is becoming much more important with the law passed |
| C．can improve American students’ understanding of news |
| D．is increasingly recognized as essential for students in the US |
The implication(含义) of saying “You are the prettiest girl in class,” or talking about the goals she scored but not her overall effort, is that you love her only when she looks the best, scores the highest, achieves the most. And this carries over to the classroom.
Social psychologist Carol Dweck, PHD, tested the effects of over-praise on 400 fifth graders while she was at Columbia University. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on tests and were more likely to take on difficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”.
“Praising attributes(品质) or abilities makes a false promise that success will come to you because you have that quality, and it devalues effort, so children are afraid to take on challenges,” says Dweck, now at Stanford University, “They figure they’d better quit while they’re ahead.”
1. The underlined words “Praise-aholic kids” refer to kids who are ______.
| A．tired of being praised | B．worthy of being praised |
| C．very proud of being praised | D．extremely fond of being praised |
| A．better-known | B．better-organized |
| C．more persuasive | D．more interesting |
| A．praise for efforts should be more encouraged |
| B．praise for results works better than praise for efforts |
| C．praising a child’s achievements benefits his or her success in life |
| D．praising a child’s abilities encourages him or her to take on challenges |
【推荐3】When students got their textbooks at the beginning of the year at San Mateo High School, they also received the Yondr pouch Youdr (口袋), a locking device for their phones. The phone slides into it and gets locked through a magnetic (磁力的) device. It’s not unlocked again until the final bell rings. The procedure will repeat every day for the rest of the school year.
Adam Gelb, the vice-president, ran a pilot project last year with 20 students and decided to do a school-wide, bell to bell program for this school year. The Yondr pouch is a start-up in San Francisco with a mission to create phone-free spaces, something that is the very thought with Gelb.
“I really think it’s about being present and engaging in the adult that’s trying to teach you, and your peers that might be in your small group. That’s part of the main philosophy that we're trying to spread,” he said.
Brad Friedman, another teacher at the school, said he was becoming concerned with overuse of phones at school. He said he often saw students completely lost on their phones, some not socializing at all with other students.
This week, he’s already seeing the difference. “Everyone else was socializing and eating lunch together. That’s what I wasn’t seeing enough of when phone usage is at its worst,” he said.
A senior at San Mateo High School Djelani Phillips-Diop said he definitely panicked at first when he heard he had to lock his phone. “I panicked, I guess. Last year when we had phones, I was using it every day,” he said.
In case of emergency, every classroom has the unlocking device. Teachers still have access to their own cellphones and desk phones. “We’ve gotten all 1,700 students unlocked with a matter of minutes,” said Gelb.
We spoke to four students who, despite their initial panic, agreed that a phone-free school experience has its benefits.
1. What can we learn about the Yondr pouch from paragraph 1?| A．It is a device to lock phones. | B．It is a bell to unlock phones. |
| C．It is a device to be used for a year. | D．It is a phone intended for students. |
| A．create space to use phones freely |
| B．help the students to be more outgoing |
| C．encourage more mutual communication among students |
| D．help the students to realize the harm of overuse of phones |
| A．Concerned. | B．Favorable. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．The students were willing to have their phones locked at first. |
| B．The phone will get unlocked automatically when there is an emergency |
| C．Students prefer eating lunch together with their phones in hand. |
| D．Some students came to realize the benefits of the phone-free program. |
