1 . I don’t ever want to talk about being a woman scientist again. There was a time in my life when people asked constantly for stories about what it’s like to work in a field dominated by men. I was never very good at telling those stories because truthfully I never found them interesting. What I do find interesting is the origin of the universe, the shape of space-time and the nature of black holes.
At 19, when I began studying astrophysics (天体物理学), it did not bother me in the least to be the only woman in the classroom. But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as 3 post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me. My every achievement — jobs, research papers, awards — was viewed through the lens of gender politics. So were my failures. Sometimes, when I was pushed into an argument on left brain versus right brain, or nature versus nurture, I would instantly fight fiercely on my behalf and all womankind.
Then one day a few years ago, out of my mouth came a sentence that would eventually become my reply to any and all annoyance: I don’t talk about that anymore. It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 and to realize that I didn’t want to deal with gender issues. Why should curing sexism be yet another terrible burden on every female scientist? After all, I don’t study sociology or political theory.
Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women’s college in New York City. Recently, someone asked me how many of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer: 45. I know some of my students worry how they will manage their scientific research and a desire for children. And I don’t dismiss those concerns. Still, I don’t tell them “war” stories. Instead, I have given them this: the visual of their physics professor heavily pregnant doing physics experiments. And in turn they have given me the image of 45 women driven by a love of science. And that’s a sight worth talking about.
1. Why doesn’t the author want to talk about being a woman scientist again?| A．She is unhappy working in male-dominated fields. |
| B．She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination. |
| C．She is not good at telling stories of the kind at all. |
| D．She finds space research more important than that. |
| A．the very fact that she is just a woman |
| B．her involvement in gender politics |
| C．her over-confidence as a female astrophysicist |
| D．the burden she bears in a male-dominated society |
| A．Female students no longer have to worry about gender issues. |
| B．Her students’ performance has brought back her confidence. |
| C．Her female students can do just as well as male students. |
| D．More female students are pursuing science than before. |
| A．Women students needn’t have the concerns of her generation. |
| B．Women have more barriers on their way to academic success. |
| C．Women can balance a career in science and having a family. |
| D．Women now have fewer discrimination problems about science career. |
2 . Gone are the days when a mother’s place was in the home: in Britain women with children are now as likely to be in paid work as their unburdened sisters. Many put their little darlings in day care long before they start school. Mindful that a poor start can spoil a person’s chances of success later in life, the state has intervened ever more closely in how babies and toddlers are looked after. Inspectors call not only at nurseries but also at homes where youngsters are minded; three-year-olds follow the national curriculum. Child care has increasingly become a profession.
For years after the government first began in 2001 to twist the arms of anyone who looked after an unrelated child to register with the schools, the numbers so doing fell. Kind but clueless neighbours stopped looking after little ones, who were instead herded into formal nurseries or handed over to one of the ever-fewer registered child-minders. The decline in the number of people taking in children now appears to have halted. According to data released by the Office for Standards in Education on October 27th, the number of registered child-minders reached its lowest point in September 2010 and has since recovered slightly.
The new lot are certainly better qualified. In 2010 fully 82% of nursery workers held diplomas notionally equivalent to A-levels, the university-entrance exams taken mostly by 18-year-olds, up from 56% seven years earlier, says Anand Shukla of the Daycare Trust, a charity. Nurseries staffed by university graduates tend to be rated highest by inspectors, increasing their appeal to the pickiest parents. As a result, more graduates are being recruited.
But professionalization has also pushed up the price of child care, defying even the economic depression. A survey by the Daycare Trust finds that a full-time nursery place in England for a child aged under two, who must be intensively supervised, costs £194 ($310) per week, on average. Prices in London and the south-east are far higher. Parents in Britain spend more on child care than anywhere else in the world, according to the OECD, a think-tank. Some 68% of a typical second earner's net income is spent on freeing her to work, compared with an OECD average of 52%.
The price of child care is not only eye-watering, but has also become a barrier to work. Soon after it took power the coalition government pledged to ensure that people are better off in work than on benefits, but a recent survey by Save the Children, a charity, found that the high cost of day care prevented a quarter of low-paid workers from returning to their jobs once they had started a family. The government pays for free part-time nursery places for three-and four-year-olds, and contributes towards day-care costs for younger children from poor areas. Alas, extending such an aid during stressful economic times would appear to be anything but child’s play.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?| A．Nursery education plays a leading role in one’s personal growth. |
| B．Pregnant women have to work to lighten families’ economic burden. |
| C．Children in nursery have to take uniform nation courses. |
| D．The supervision of the state makes child care professional. |
| A．the registered child-minders are required to take the university-entrance exams |
| B．the number of registered child-minders has been declining since 2001 |
| C．anyone who looks after children at home must register with the schools |
| D．the growing recognition encourages more graduates to work as child-minders |
| A．prevents mothers from getting employed |
| B．may further depress the national economy |
| C．makes many families live on benefits |
| D．is far more than parents can afford |
| A．The professionalization of child care has pushed up its price. |
| B．The high cost of child nursing makes many mothers give up their jobs. |
| C．The employment of more graduates makes nurseries more popular. |
| D．Parents in Britain pay most for child nursing throughout the world. |
3 . China: Making Graduates Employable
Universities in China are facing similar demands to improve the employability of their graduates as those in the UK, new research among employers has revealed.
But what are the skills employers want and how much do they differ between the two nations?
Generally, it includes family and friends and links with people working in other companies, voluntary organizations, or leisure activities. The Chinese also tend to take more time building up relationships with people before getting down to business. The University of Plymouth and its partner China Agricultural University in Beijing are working to determine the skills most likely to lead to employability and successful careers. Staff at both universities have conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with local employers of graduates in three areas, marketing, human resources and finance-accounting.
“Students in China generally lose touch with society and they need help to understand how companies work and what is involved in the different jobs and professions. They know very little outside the campus and that is where I think they differ from students in the UK. We can share our experiences.”
| A．“However, there are some clear differences in the emphasis put on different attributes, such as the value placed by the Chinese on ‘guanxi’, the network of connections that a person has built up.” he said. |
| B．Employers in both countries valued the personal skills of graduates seeking work in human resources. |
| C．The Chinese employers said the person who could complete a job and get things done was highly prized |
| D．That is the question Dr. Troy Heffernan, a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Plymouth, set out to answer through his involvement in one of 13 partnerships between institutions in the UK and China. |
| E．A draft of a report to be published later this year shows marketing executives in both countries put a high emphasis on good communication skills. |
| F．The Chinese government issued a circular earlier this year urging universities and colleges to strengthen their efforts in preparing students for the workplace. |
4 . An employee whose personality traits closely match the traits that are ideal for his or her job is likely to earn more than an employee whose traits are less congruent (一致的), according to new research.
Findings from previous research have shown that some personality traits are generally beneficial when it comes to a work environment. Being highly conscientious (勤勉认真的), lead researcher Jaap J.A. Denissen notes, is connected with being hard-working and well-organized, qualities that are typically prized in employees. But Denissen questioned the idea that there is an ideal personality type. The researchers thought that the match, or mismatch, between a person's traits and job requirements, might be important when it comes to important outcomes like income.
The researchers developed a new way of directly comparing the fit between a given employee and a given job, using the well-established Big Five personality traits to quantify (量化) the traits that a job requires. The researchers examined personality, yearly income, and jobs of 8,458 persons living in Germany.
The results showed that fit really does matter, at least when it comes to extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experiences. For these three traits, greater congruence between an employee's own personality and a job's requirements was connected with higher income. Importantly, the data also showed that employees who were more agreeable, more conscientious, or more open to experiences than their jobs required actually earned less than people who had congruent levels of those traits.
The researchers note that additional studies will be required to understand how job experiences, job satisfaction, and job performance might influence the association between the individual job personality fit and income. The results of the present study do suggest that achieving the right fit requires a special approach to knowing both personal traits and job-related traits. Paying attention to the approach could have important implications for both employees and employers.
1. What does the previous research show?| A．Conscientious people earn much. |
| B．Certain personality traits are advantageous in jobs. |
| C．Job requirements are decisive in choosing an employee. |
| D．People's income can be predicted simply by the work environment. |
| A．How the new research was done. |
| B．A study on Big Five personality traits. |
| C．Denissen's opinions on previous research. |
| D．Why certain personalities are needed for a job. |
| A．Employees with a strong personality earn more than others. |
| B．Having too little of a given trait will cause less job satisfaction. |
| C．A perfect individual job personality fit contributes to higher income. |
| D．Conscientious employees earn more than those who are open to experiences. |
| A．It still needs further studies. |
| B．It has been applied to job interviews. |
| C．It will help people find the right job easily. |
| D．It has proved the previous study totally wrong. |
5 . Too much work, too little money and not enough opportunity for promotion, .or growth are stressing us out on the job, according to a new survey from the American Psychological Association.
We all know that stress reduces all of the things that help productivity— mental clarity (清晰), short-term memory, decision-making and moods. One-third of employees experience lasting stress related to work, the survey found. Fifty-four percent of the 1,501 employed adults surveyed say they feel they are paid too little for their contributions, and 61% said their jobs don’t offer adequate opportunities to advance. Only half of the adults surveyed said they feel valued at work.
Besides, women’s stress is rising as families rely more on women’s earnings. An employed wife’s contribution to family earnings has reached, on average, 47% since 2009, so women feel especially stuck and tense. Thirty-two percent of women said their employers don’t provide sufficient opportunities for internal advancement, compared with 30% of men. Women are more likely to feel tense during a typical workday, reporting more often that their employer doesn’t appreciate what they do.
Physically, the body responds to stress by secreting hormones into the bloodstream that stimulate accelerated (加速的) heart rate and breathing and tensing of muscles. People who experience stress as a positive often have increased blood flow to the brain, muscles and limbs, similar to the effects of aerobic exercise. Those who feel frightened or threatened, however, often have an unstable heart rate and constricting wood vessels (血管). Their blood pressure rises and hands and feet may grow cold. They may become agitated, speak more loudly or experience errors in judgment.
Emotional responses to stress often divide along gender lines, with men more likely to have a “fight or flight” reaction while women are more likely to have a tend and befriend” response, seeking comfort in relationships and care of loved ones, according to the research.
Women tend to “internalize”, which contributes to their stress. Many women hesitate to speak up for themselves or challenge behavior they see as unfair. Kay Keaney, interior designer, 40, rose fast at a California medical group, taking on responsibility for interior and facility planning. With her 60-hour workweeks, plus early-morning and late-night meetings and a 1.5-hour commute each way, she seldom had time with her two small children. Whether stuck in traffic on her way to a 6 p.m. pickup at day care, or tom between her children and urgent work emails, “I just wanted to crawl out of my skin,” she says. “I was overwhelmed.” Yet she hesitated to complain. “There was too much work to be done, and playing the Mommy card was bad form.” But the experts suggest that women should give themselves a voice.
1. The underlined word “agitated” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ________.| A．fearful | B．optimistic | C．anxious | D．ambitious |
| A．Everyone has a painful sense of being under-appreciated or under-paid. |
| B．An increasing number of people feel satisfied with work-life balance. |
| C．An improving job market is making some people’s work lives easier. |
| D．Most women have higher levels of work stress than the opposite sex. |
| A．relieving oneself from stress involves being frank as well as brave |
| B．experiencing symptoms of lasting stress causes communication barriers |
| C．seeking comfort from friends or relatives has little to do with office stress |
| D．being challenged or devalued by others leads to numerous health problems |
| A．Other aspects in life affected by stress in work. |
| B．Tips to help women handle their hard times properly. |
| C．Examples to show the different gender responses to stress. |
| D．Reasons why people are likely to feel tense when working. |
6 . A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute” someone might say, “are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”
The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase(公文包) and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class. I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.
I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.
“All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forest of hands. Every student would yell. “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”
A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I inspected the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the topic of deep disappointment.
1. The author took the job to teach writing because _________.| A．he wanted to be respected | B．he had written some stories |
| C．he wanted to please his father | D．he had dreamed of being a teacher |
| A．write down their suggestions on the paper cards |
| B．cut maple leaves out of the construction paper |
| C．cut some cards out of the construction paper |
| D．write down their names on the paper cards |
| A．They began to talk. | B．They stayed silent. |
| C．They raised their hands. | D．They shouted to be heard. |
| A．he got disappointed with his first class | B．he had prepared the topic before class |
| C．he wanted to calm down the students | D．he thought it was an easy topic |
7 . “Wanna buy a body?” That was the opening line of more than a few phone calls I got from self-employed photographers when I was a photo editor at U.S. New. Like many in the mainstream press, I wanted to separate the world of photographers into “them”, who trade in pictures of bodies or run after famous people like Princess Diana, and “us”, the serious newspeople. But after 16 years in that role, I came to wonder whether the two worlds were easily distinguishable.
Working in the reputable world of journalism, I told photographers to cover other people’s difficult life situations. I justified marching into moments of sadness, under the appearance of the reader’s right to know. I worked with professionals talking their way into situations or shooting from behind police lines. And I wasn’t alone.
In any American town, after a car crash or some other horrible incident when ordinary people are hurt or killed, you rarely see photographers pushing past rescue workers to take photos of the blood and injuries. But you are likely to see local newspaper and television photographers on the scene-and fast...
How can we justify doing this? Journalists are taught to separate, doing the job from worrying about the consequences of publishing what they record. Repeatedly, they are reminded of a news-business saying: Leave your conscience in the office. A victim may lie bleeding, unconscious, or dead. Your job is to record the image. You’re a photographer, not an emergency medical worker. You put away your feelings and document the scene.
But catastrophic events often bring out the worst in photographers and photo editors. In the first minutes and hours after a disaster occurs, photo agencies buy pictures. They rush to obtain the rights to be the only one to own these shocking images and death is usually the subject Often, an agency buys a picture from a local newspaper or an amateur photographer and puts it up for bid by major magazines. The most sought-after special pictures commend tens of thousands of dollars through bidding contests.
I worked on all those stories and many like them. When they happen, you move quickly: buying, dealing, trying to beat the agencies to the pictures.
Now, many people believe journalists are the hypocrites(伪君子) who need to be brought down, and it’s our pictures that most anger others. Readers may not believe, as we do, that there is a distinction between clear-minded ‘us" and mean-spirited “them”. In too many cases, by our choices of images as well as how we get them, we prove our readers right.
1. We can learn from the passage that________.| A．The author told photographers to take pictures of people’s happy life situations |
| B．Professional newspeople may talk their way into situations or shooting from behind police lines |
| C．In America, local newspaper and television photographers rarely push on the scene to take pictures of the victims |
| D．In America, photographers always push past rescue workers to take pictures of the victims |
| A．work with their conscience | B．respect the privacy of the victim |
| C．separate their work from feelings | D．ask police for permission to take photos |
| A．speed determines the success of a news story |
| B．photo agencies are greedier than serious newspeople |
| C．photographers have free access to photos of accidents |
| D．profit is the driving force behind the competition for photos |
| A．obtain photos differently from news agencies |
| B．are no better than self-employed photographers |
| C．are more devoted to work than non-professionals |
| D．have a higher moral standard than self-employed photographers |
8 . Welcome to Fresh Start February! This week Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that I would transition to the private sector. Today, my last official day as the Director of the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs. After serving 6 years in the Executive Office of Mayor Muriel Bowser and 2 of those years as Director, of the Mayor's Office of Community Affairs, I am very excited and look forward to starting this next phase in my career.
I am humbled and grateful to Mayor Bowser for trusting in me to be a leader in her administration and to serve as the primary liaison between you-the members of the community, and 13 community affairs offices to foster relationships across all 8 Wards. What can I say, other than it has been an amazing journey and I am grateful!
This journey has been the very foundation of our work in partnership and collaboration between District of Columbia residents and the Executive Office of the Mayor. We have established partnerships with communities, conducted and coordinated several events, town halls, forums, and projects in support of carrying forward mayoral initiatives at the community level.
We have built stronger ties between the Mayor and community organizations civic groups, and Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) while attending to the intersectional needs of the community.
Also, thank you to the 90+ MOCA staff members that have helped me up to provide support to our office directors and District residents throughout the years. Interacting with you all and having the opportunity to work with such dedicared individuals is something I have and will never take for granted. I have often been inspired by the creativity and innovation that they bring to the respective offices. Our work has left a lasting impression on my life.
Again, thank you to our first female two-term Mayor, Muriel Bowser for her leadership and for allowing me to be a part of this great work! I want to thank you for your support throughout this journey, and I am excited about the great work that will continue to go forward. I leave with fond memories of my 8 years total in the John A. Wilson Building.
2 years in the office or Councilmember Anita Bonds and with memories that I will forever cherish. I also know that MOCA is well-positioned to go to the NEXT LEVEL! It has been one of my greatest privileges to serve with you. Until we meet again.
1. А_______________ is a person whose job is to make sure there is a good relationship between two groups or organizations.| A．mayor | B．resident | C．director | D．liaison |
| A．2 | B．6. | C．8. | D．10. |
| A．Muriel Bowser. | B．The private sector. |
| C．Local residents. | D．MOCA staff members. |
9 . All I had to do for the two dollars was clean her house for a few hours after school. It was a beautiful house, too, with a plastic-covered sofa and chairs, wall-to-wall blue-and-white carpeting, a white enamel stove, a washing machine and a dryer—things that were common in her neighborhood, absent in mine. In the middle of the war, she had butter, sugar, steaks, and seam-up-the-back stockings.
I knew how to scrub floors on my knees and how to wash clothes in our zinc tub, but I had never seen a Hoover vacuum cleaner or an iron that wasn't heated by fire.
Part of my pride in working for her was earning money I could squander (浪费)：on movies, candy, paddleballs, jacks, ice-cream cones. But a larger part of my pride was based on the fact that I gave half my wages to my mother, which meant that some of my earnings were used for real things—an insurance-policy payment or what was owed to the milkman or the iceman. The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed, nuisances to be corrected, problems so severe that they were abandoned to the forest. I had a status that doing routine chores in my house did not provide—and it earned me a slow smile, an approving nod from an adult. Confirmations that I was adultlike, not childlike.
In those days, the forties, children were not just loved or liked; they were needed. They could earn money; they could care for children younger than themselves; they could work the farm, take care of the herd, run errands（差事）, and much more. I suspect that children aren't needed in that way now. They are loved, doted on, protected, and helped. Fine, and yet...
Little by little, I got better at cleaning her house—good enough to be given more to do, much more. I was ordered to carry bookcases upstairs and, once, to move a piano from one side of a room to the other. I fell carrying the bookcases. And after pushing the piano my arms and legs hurt so badly. I wanted to refuse, or at least to complain, but I was afraid she would fire me, and I would lose the freedom the dollar gave me, as well as the standing I had at home—although both were slowly being eroded. She began to offer me her clothes, for a price. Impressed by these worn things, which looked simply gorgeous to a little girl who had only two dresses to wear to school, I bought a few. Until my mother asked me if I really wanted to work for castoffs. So I learned to say "No, thank you" to a faded sweater offered for a quarter of a week5s pay.
Still, I had trouble summoning （鼓起）the courage to discuss or object to the increasing demands she made. And I knew that if I told my mother how unhappy I was she would tell me to quit. Then one day, alone in the kitchen with my father, I let drop a few whines about the job. I gave him details, examples of what troubled me, yet although he listened intently, I saw no sympathy in his eyes. No "Oh, you poor little thing. " Perhaps he understood that what I wanted was a solution to the job, not an escape from it. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said, 44Listen. You don't live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home. ”
That was what he said. This was what I heard:
Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself.
You make the job; it doesn't make you.
Your real life is with us, your family.
You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.
I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and morons, quick-witted and dull, big-hearted and narrow. I've had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.
1. What is the "pleasure" of the author from the sentence "The pleasure of being necessary to my parents was profound. （paragraph 3） " ?| A．She was proud as she could earn money for her mother. |
| B．Her own value of being needed. |
| C．She is distinctive from those children in folktales. |
| D．She enjoyed a status of being an adult in her family. |
| A．Children become needed, loved and liked when they are at forty. |
| B．Children in modern times are less likely to be spoiled by parents. |
| C．Children in 1940s are capable as they can handle various daily routine. |
| D．Children in modern times aren' t needed to do daily works any more. |
| A．Don't escape from difficulties at work. |
| B．Whatever decision she made, her father would support her. |
| C．Convey her dissatisfaction with her work. |
| D．Make a distinction between work and life. |
| A．Don't regard work achievement as a criterion for evaluating oneself. |
| B．Hard work is a struggle for a better future in your limited life. |
| C．Parents are the best teachers of children. |
| D．Job security is less valuable when compared with family. |
Although many companies offer tuition reimbursement (偿付), most companies reimburse employees only for classes that are relevant to their positions.
One good reason for giving employees unconditional tuition reimbursement is that it shows the company's dedication to its employees. In today's economy, where job security is a thing of the past and employees feel more and more expendable, it is important for a company to demonstrate to its employees that it cares. The best way to do this is to make investments in them.
Although companies do indeed run the risk of losing money on employees who go on to another job in a different company as soon as they get their degree, more often than not, the employees will stay with the company.
Though unconditional tuition reimbursement requires a significant investment on the employer's part, it is perhaps one of the wisest investments a company can make.
| A．In thin way, companies will have more productive employees. |
| B．In today's economy, job security is a thing of the past and employees feel more and more expendable. |
| C．In return, this dedication to the betterment of employees will create greater loyalty. |
| D．This is indeed a very limiting policy. |
| E．Even if employees do leave, it generally takes several years to complete any degree program. |
| F．Open positions can be assigned to who already knew he company well |
