You're probably aware of the basictrends. The financial rewards to education have increased over the past few decades, but men fail to benefit.

    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 tomen, 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 foraverage 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 20 soutearn men in their 20s. Twelve out of the 15 fastest-growing professions are dominated by women.

    Over the years, many of us have employeda certain theory to explain men's economic decline. It is that the information-age economy rewards qualities that women are more likely topossess.

    To succeed today, you have to be able tosit still and focus attention in school at an early age. You have to beemotionally 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, TheEnd 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 supersimply 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 supporther 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). Infinance, women who switch firms are more likely to see their performanceimprove, whereas men are likely to see theirs decline. There's even evidencethat women are better able to adjust to divorce. Today, more women than men seetheir incomes rise by 25 percent after a marital breakup.

    Forty years ago, men and women stuck tocertain theory, what it meant to be a man or a woman. Young women today, Rosinargues, 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 visionand their movement.

   If she's right, then men will have toacknowledge that they are strangers in a strange land.

    Our room was on the second floor but you could still hear the roar of the ocean and see the stars at night. I used to take long walks along the water. The food in town was wonderful and the people were very friendly. The area was very quiet and peaceful, and fairly deserted.

    The last evening of our vacation, however, we all heard strange footsteps following closely behind us as we were walking up to our room in the holiday centre. We turned around and noticed a fairly young man moving very rapidly across the beach and getting closer to us. He was tall and wore a baseball cap. We couldn't see his face and he was approaching us very rapidly. The man's actions made my dad very nervous. Dad warned us that we'd better try to make it to our hotel room as quickly as possible. I didn't like my dad's voice; I could hear fear in it. It was late and we were all alone. We didn't have any cell phones on us. I never saw Dad as worried as he was then and I knew that something was terribly wrong. The sense of fear started to overwhelm Mom and me. We had had such a good time in town. Now, the night was rapidly turning into a dangerous situation.

    We could hear the man's footsteps getting closer. Dad's face was almost pale. The so-called intruder (侵入者) had moved nearer and nearer when all of a sudden, the nearby vending (自动贩卖) machine started going crazy and spitting out cans of soda! The noise actually scared the intruder and he ran out of sight. My parents were shaking, but we all turned around to see who had put money into the vending machine downstairs, and actually saved us, but no one was around at all. Not a soul.

    It's one vacation I will never forget.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Even if trees cannot walk, they are still on the move.

    In parts of the Arctic, entire forests are moving northward. Across the Arctic, temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else in the world. As that happens, the tree line that marks where forests stop and the treeless tundra (冻原) starts has been shifting northward. Trees growing along the tree line must protect themselves from the cold wind. To dothis, plants tend to grow horizontal (水平的) branches low to the ground. The energy it takes for trees to grow this way means they don't have enough energy to make seeds.

    But as Earth's climate has been warming, trees no longer have to just grow horizontally. Many can instead grow up toward the sky. This takes less energy. And with all that leftover energy, these trees have started producing more seeds. This happens especially in places where white spruce (白云杉) grows.

    White spruce, which is a North American tree, is quite able to produce a lot of seeds, which can move long distances in the wind. When wind­blown seeds end up on the tundra beyond the tree line, they eventually can sprout(发芽) new trees. This explains how a forest can move. Of course, the process would work only if the tundra were warm enough. But in recent years, the whole planet has been warming.

    New trees will provide shelters for some snow. Keeping the sun's rays from making the white surface disappear. Instead, the trees absorb the sun's heat. This warms the surrounding air. The extra warmth encourages even more trees to produce seeds. That further boosts a forest's ability to expand. In addition, more trees will trap more snow, preventing much of it from being blown away. Snow can trap heat in the soil below, which encourages trees to grow. The recent rise of temperatures has helped more trees grow past the tree line. People worry about impacts on the animals that depend on frozen conditions for food and shelter.

    One day, when I was working as a psychologist（心理学家）in England, an adolescent boy showed up in my office. It was David. He kept walking up and down restlessly, his face pale, and his hands shaking slightly. His head teacher had referred him to me. “This boy has lost his family,” he wrote. “He is understandably very sad and refuses to talk to others, and I'm very worried about him. Can you help?”

    I looked at David and showed him to a chair. How could I help him? There are problems psychology doesn't have the answer to, and which no words can describe. Sometimes the best thing one can do is to listen openly and sympathetically（同情）

The first two times we met, David didn't say a word. He sat there, only looking up to look at the children's drawings on the wall behind me. I suggested we play a game of chess. He nodded. After that he played chess with me every Wednesday afternoon—in complete silence and without looking at me. It's not easy to cheat in chess, but I admit I made sure David won once or twice.

    Usually, he arrived earlier than agreed, took the chess board and pieces from the shelf and began setting them up before I even got a chance to sit down. It seemed as if he enjoyed my company（陪伴）. But why did he never look at me?

    “Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with,” I thought. “Perhaps he senses that I respect his suffering.” Some months later, when we were playing chess, he looked up at me suddenly.

    “It's your turn,” he said.

    After that day, David started talking. He got friends in school and joined a bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times, about his biking with some friends, and about his plan to get into university. Now he had really started to live his own life.

Maybe I gave David something. But I also learned that one…without any words—can reach out to another person. All it takes is a hug, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly touch, and an ear that listens.

    Here are some events in the following months. Have a look and pick out your favorite.

    AVCS Informational Tour

    Aliso Viejo Christian School, a highly rated private school, which serves children in grades, invites potential families to its annual AVCS informational tour. Come and see its facility, meet its staff, check out its curriculum and amazing programs. The tour would love to share the school with you and answer any questions.

    Location: AVCS Campus

    German Immigrants Exhibition

    German immigrants played a huge role in shaping Indianapolis through the 19th century. They brought educational reform, political activity and greenhouse farming. In addition to produce, these immigrants also kept their communities full of flowers and trees, know about this part of history in October.

    Location: Indiana Historical Society

    Whale Watching

    Gray whales migrate (迁徙) annually along the west coast of North America. They can be seen from the Orange County coast from December through early April. Summer and fall bring the giant blue whales. They can be seen from June through September. Since the gray whales migrate just a few miles off the coast, simple sail from Newport Beach enables you to see these spectacular creatures in their natural habitat.

    Location: Newport Beach

    Sunday Brunch(早午餐)

    Sunday brunch is a wonderful way to enjoy your weekend. At View Restaurant, Sunday brunch is always accompanied by champagne, spectacular views and unique atmosphere. The menu includes traditional breakfast foods and lunch favorites like barbeque and fresh fish selections. You can also choose to view sporting events in the restaurant. With enough variety to satisfy every appetite from kids to adults, this is one Sunday brunch you'll keep coming back to!

    Location: View Restaurant

    People who sleep fewer than six hours a night are more likely to die early, researchers in University of Warwick have found in a recent study. They discovered that people who slept for less than six hours each night were 12% more likely to die before the age of 65 than those who slept the recommended six to eight hours a night.

    The researchers pointed out that previous studies had shown that the lack of sleep was associated with problems like heart disease and high blood pressure. However, the researchers also found that sleeping too much was linked to an early death. Those who slept for more than nine hours a night were 30% more likely to die early, as an article in the latest Sleep suggested. That directly contradicts another passage in the same journal last month suggesting that people who slept for ten hours or longer a night were more likely to live to 100. This was thought to be because people who lived into extreme old age were healthier and therefore slept better.

    However, the authors of the latest research contradicted this and suggested that long sleep was a sign of underlying illnesses such as depression and low levels of physical activity. Professor Francesco Cappuccio at the University of Warwick said: "While short sleep may represent a cause of ill-health, long sleep is believed to represent more an indicator of ill-health."

    He also mentioned: "Modern society has seen a gradual reduction in the average amount of sleep people take, and this pattern is more common among full-time workers, suggesting that it may be due to social pressures for longer working hours. On the other hand, the worsening of our health is often accompanied by an extension of our sleeping time."

    "Consistently sleeping six to eight hours per night may be good for health. However, whether to achieve the goal depends on various factors such as the environment as well as measures of public health aimed at favourable changes of the working environments," Professor Francesco Cappuccio added.