题型：任务型阅读 题类：常考题 难易度：困难
江苏省徐州市2017-2018学年高二下学期英语期末考试试卷
注意：每空一词。
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” from the personal reason that women are less interested in STEM. | The environment including cultural attitudes and discrimination is women's interests. |
Facts | with Jordan and Sweden, America had the least percentage of women majoring in engineering. | • Early in school: Girls perform than boys in science. • Later in life: Female STEM majors are more likely to be by potential PhD advisors. |
Tools | It is on GGI. | IAT how tightly two concepts are tied together in people's minds. |
Findings | Women in liberal Western countries tend to STEM. | • The GGFs assessment of overall gender equality is not to that country's scores on the science IAT. • The GGI can't people's cultural attitudes towards women in science, which are formed by a mix of history and culture. |
Every animal sleeps,but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}
One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} We know that, while awake,fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强)connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.
Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons(神经元)in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}
Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep,showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.
If Tononi's theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night's, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information —our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.
Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapscs become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} “You keep what matters,” Tononi says.
A. We should also try to sleep well the night before. B. Ti's as if the brain is preserving its most important memories. C. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick. D. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories. E. That's why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning. F. “Sleep is the price we pay for learning,” says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea. G. Tononi's team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice. |
The art of growing dwarf trees, or "bonsai"（盆景） as their Japanese planters call them, is increasing in popularity in the United States. Growing bonsai can make a fascinating hobby for anyone who enjoys plants and creating beautiful effects with them.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}．
In growing bonsai, in fact, one must be careful in choosing the type of tree, as the growing conditions are unusual.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}．Varieties of pines with small needles and hardwood trunks are especially suitable.
{#blank#}3{#/blank#}This is necessary because the major growth of bonsai is kept confined(被限制) to the tree's trunk and leaves, not its root system-a process quite unlike what is done with other plants.
Another thing the bonsai-grower must do is to trim （修整） the roots and branches of the tree periodically （定期地）. Unless this is done, the plants will not have the proper proportions(比例) and will look unnatural.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}
The last thing one must do is to be careful to keep the tree well-watered. Because bonsai are grown in smaller-than-usual containers, they often need more water than ordinary houseplants do.
As can be seen from the above, the art of bonsai-growing is one which requires a certain amount of time and effort.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Imagine having such a tree in your living room and passing it down through several generations of your family. That is exactly what bonsai-growing is all about: establishing a tradition of beauty which lasts for years and years and is a symbol of the beauties of the natural world.
A. Then one must be careful in choosing the size of the container. B. How can we meet the goal of making such a kind of art? C. Why do so many people take a fancy to the art of bonsai-growing. D. But one must get well prepared before starting bonsai-growing. E. The satisfactions that growing bonsai brings can be great, however. F. The ideal for bonsai plants are trees just like normal trees in everything but size. G. Not all species of trees can be made into bonsai. |
The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids' backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It's a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.
American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn't end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children's grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don't think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, optimism, responsibility, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.
There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children's school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you're concerned only with a child's G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.
But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character.A recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”
By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they're good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don't know how to overcome them.
In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.
Back to School: Why Perseverance Is More Important than Good Grades? | |
Common phenomena | Parents throughout America {#blank#}1{#/blank#} their kids' backpacks up with snacks and school supplies. |
Many American parents don't {#blank#}2{#/blank#} enough importance to their kids' character building. | |
The writer's {#blank#}3{#/blank#} | Parents should pay more attention to their kids' character building. |
Evidence and {#blank#}4{#/blank#}findings | Parents' anxiety about their kids' performance may {#blank#}5{#/blank#}them from learning some valuable skills. |
Parents concerned only with a kid's G.P.A. have a {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to minimize the challenges the child faces. | |
Adults who have experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood are {#blank#}7{#/blank#} and more confident than those who haven't. | |
Denying kids character-building experiences can {#blank#}8{#/blank#} in difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood. | |
The writer's suggestions | {#blank#}9{#/blank#} kids to be risk-takers. |
Give kids room to experience {#blank#}10{#/blank#}. | |
试题篮
