Questionsare based on the following passage:

Throughout the colonial period there was a remarkable shortage of women, which varied with the regions and was always greatest in the frontier areas．This shortage enhanced women&39;s status and position and allowed them to pursue different careers． (80) The Puritans (清教徒) regarded idleness (无所事事) as a sin, and believed that life in an underdeveloped country made it necessary that each member of the community perform. an economic function． Thus work for

women was not only approved but also was regarded as a civic (市民的) duty． Puritan town councils (议会) expected widows (寡妇）and independent women to be self-supporting．There was no social prohibition against married women working; on the contrary, wives were expected to help their husbands in their trade and won social approval for doing extra work in or out of the home．

The vast majority of women worked within their homes, where their labor produced most articles needed for the family．The entire colonial production of cloth and clothing and partly that of shoes was in the hands of women．In addition to these occupations, women were found in many

different kinds of employment．They were butchers, silversmiths and gunsmiths．They ran mills,plantations, shipyards, and every kind of shops．They were gatekeepers, jail keepers, journalists,．printers, nurses, and teachers．

What does the passage mainly discuss? 查看材料

A.Colonial marriages．

B.The Puritan religion．

C.Colonial women"s employment．

D.Education in the colonies．

For years， high school students have received identical textbooks as their classmates．Even asstudents have different learning styles and abilities， they are force-fed the same materials．"Imagine adigital textbook where because I"m adifferent person and learn differently， my book is different thanyour book，" said Richard Baraniuk， founder of OpenStax．

OpenStax will spend two years developing the personalized books and then test them on Houston-area students．The books will also go through a review and evaluation process similar to traditionaltextbooks．Baranluk expects 60 people to review each book before publication to ensure its quality．The idea is to make learning easier， so students can go on to more successful careers and lives．

Baraniuk isn"t just reproducing physical textbooks on digital devices， a mistake e-book publishers havemade．He"s seriously rethinking that the educational experience should be in a world of digital tools．Todo this means involving individuals with skills traditionally left out of the textbook business．Baraniuk iscurrently hiring cognitive scientists and machine learning experts．Baraniuk wants to use the tactics of Google， Netfllx and Amazon to deliver a personalized experience．These Web services all rely oncomplex algorithms （算法） to automatically adjust their offerings for customers．Just as Netlix recommends different movies based on your preferences and viewing history， a textbook might present materials at a different pace．The textbook——which will be stored on a range of digital devices——will automatically adjust itself thanks to machine learning．As a student learns about a topic， he or she could be interrupted by brief quizzes that evaluate， whether he or she masters the area．Depending on how the student does， the subject could be reinforce~l with more material．Or a teacher could be automatically e-mailed that the student is struggling with a certain concept and could use some one-on-one attention．This personalized learning experience is possible thanks to the wealth of data a digital textbook cantrack．This data can be used to better track students" progress during a course．Parents and teacherscan monitor a student"s development and provide in time more proper assistm ce．With personalizedlearning methods， our students" talents will be better developed．

What do we learn about personalized books? 查看材料

A.Their quality will be ensured since they are developed by OpenStax．

B.They will be examined and judged before being published．

C.They will overlook different learning styles and abilities．

D.They will be much similar to traditional textbooks．

In the 1960s and 1970s， classic social psychological studies were conducted thatprovided evidence that even normal， decent people can engage in acts of extreme crueltywhen instructed to do so by others. However， in an essay published November 20 in theopen access journal PLOS Biology， Professors Alex Haslam and Stephen Reicher revisitthese studies" conclusions and explain how awful acts involve not just obedience， butenthusiasm too——-challenging the long-held belief that human beings are "programmed"for conformity.

This belief can be traced back to two landmark empirical research （ 实证研究 ）programs conducted by Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo in the 1960s and early1970s. Milgram"s "Obedience to Authority" research is widely believed to show thatpeople blindly conform. to the instructions of an authority figure， and Zimbardo"sStanfordPrison Experiment （SPE） is commonly understood to show that people will take onabusive roles uncritically.

However， Professor Haslam， from the University of Queensland， argues that tyrannydoes not result from blind conformity to rules and roles. Rather， it is a creative act offollowership， resulting from identifying with authorities who represent vicious （恶意的 ）acts as virtuous （ 善良的 ） .

"Decent people participate in horrific acts not because they become passive，mindless functionaries （公职人员 ） who do not know what they are doing， but ratherbecause they come to believe——typically under the influence of those in authority——thatwhat they are doing is right，" Professor Haslam explained.

Professor Reicher， of the University of St Andrews， added that it is not that theywere blind to the evil acts they were committing， but rather that they knew what they weredoing， and believed it to be right.

These conclusions were partly informed by Professors Haslam and Reicher"s ownprison experiment， conducted in 2002 in collaboration with the BBC. The study generatedthree findings. First， participants did not conform. automatically to their assigned role;second， they only acted in terms of group membership to the extent that they identifiedwith the group; and finally， group identity did not mean that people simply accepted theirassigned position——it also empowered them to resist it.

Although Zimbardo and Milgram"s findings remain highly influential， ProfessorHaslam argues that their conclusions do not hold up well under close empirical scrutiny.

Professor Reicher concludes that tyranny does not flourish because offendersare helpless and ignorant; it flourishes because they are convinced that they are doingsomething worthy.

What does the author mean by saying "human beings are ‘programmed‘for conformity" （Line 6， Para. I）? 查看材料

A.Human beings are designed to defy the instructions of others.

B.Human beings are forced to listen to the advice of others.

C.Human beings are ordered to take advice of others.

D.Human beings are made to be obedient to others.

Economic inequality is the "defining challenge of our time，" President Barack Obama declared in a speech last month to the Center for American Progress．Inequality is dangerous， he argued， not merely because it doesn"t look good to have a large gap between the rich and the poor， but because inequality itself destroys upward mobility， making it harder for the poor to escape from poverty．"Increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream，" he said．Obama is only the most prominent public figure to declare inequality Public Enemy No．1 and the greatest threat to reducing poverty in America．A number of prominent economists have also argued that it"s harder for the poor to climb the economic ladder today because the rungs （横档 ） in that ladder have grown farther apart．

For all the new attention devoted to the 1 percent， a new damset from the Equality of Opportunity Project at Harvard and Berkeley suggests that， if we care about upward mobility overall， we"re vastly exaggerating the dangers of the rich —poor gap．Inequality itself is not a particularly strong predictor of economic mobility， as sociologist Scott Winship noted in a recent article based on his analysis of this data．So what factors， at the community level， do predict if poor children will move up the economic ladder as adtdts? what explains， for instance， why the Salt Lake City metro area is one of the 100 largest metropolitan areas most likely to lift the fortunes of the poor and the Atlanta metro area is one of the least likely?

Harvard economist Raj Cherty has pointed to economic and racial segregation， community density，the size of a community"s middle class， the quality of schools， commtmity religiosity， and family structure， which he calls the "single strongest correlate of upward mobility．" Chetty finds that communities like Salt Lake City， with high levels of two-parent families and religiosity， are much more likely to see poor children get ahead than communities like Atlanta， with high levels of racial and economic segregation．Chetty has not yet issued a comprehensive analysis of the relative predictive power of each of these factors．Based on my analyses of the data．of the factors that Chetty has highlighted， the following three seem to be most predictive of upward mobility in a given community:

1．Per-capita （人均） income growth

2．Prevalence of single mothers （ where correlation is strong， but negative）

3．Per-capita local government spending In other words， communities with high levels of per-capita income growth， high percentages of two-parent families， and high local government spending-which may stand for good schools-are the most likely to help poor children relive Horatio Alger"s rags-to-riches story．

How does Obama view economic inequality? 查看材料

A.It is the biggest obstacle to social mobility．

B.It is the greatest threat to social stability．

C.It is the No．1 enemy of income growth．

D.It is the most malicious social evil of our time．

Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is sol-id evidence the world is getting warmer， down 20 points in just three years， a new poll says.

And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures torise has also taken a dip， even as the US and world forums gear up for （准备） possible ac-tion against climate change.

In a poll of 1，500 adults released by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press，the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gottenwarmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see thesituation as a serious problem also has declined.

The steepest drop has occurred during the past year， as Congress and the Obama admin-istration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and interna-tional negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At thesame time， there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change —— from meltingice caps to the world"s oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.

The poll was released a day after 18 scientific organisations wrote Congress to reaf-firm the consensus behind global warming. A federal government report recently found thatglobal warming is upsetting the Arctic"s thermostat （恒温器）.

Only about a third， or 36 percent of the respondents， feel that human activities —— suchas pollution from power plants， factories and automobiles —— are behind a temperature in-crease. That"s down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year"s poll.

"The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole hostof other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things，"suggested Andrew Kohut， the director of the research center， which conducted the poll fromSept.30 to Oct.4. "When the focus is on other things， people forget and see these issues asless grave，" Andrew Weaver said， a professor of climate analysis at the University of Victo-ria in British Columbia， "and politics could be drowning out scientific awareness."

The phrase "taken a dip" （Line 4， Para.1） is the closest in meaning to __________. 查看材料

A.plunged into danger

B.been enjoyed

C.undergone a decline

D.been drowned

Being in a classroom full of "the best and brightest" students may not help fringeones， according to new research that （1）popular theory. The study shows that studentsin a middle school gifted and（ 2 ）program perform. no better on national tests than asimilar group of students who didn"t3for the program.

"This paper is part of a growing body of literature suggesting that just because youhave stronger（ 4 ）don"t necessarily mean you are going to perform. better，" says Scott，associate professor of economics and education at Michigan State University.

Gifted and talented programs have grown in（ 5）， with more than 3 millionstudents now enrolled nationwide.

Using a 6 of more than 14，000 fifth-graders in an urban school district，researchers analyzed students" standardized test scores in math， science， reading， socialstudies and language arts.

The study（7 ）a group of children who qualified for a gifted and talented programby （8）. meeting a certain threshold based on past academic performance. Their testscores were compared to the students who just missed meeting the threshold——in otherwords， students who were very similar （9）. The marginal students in the gifted andtalented program showed no improvement in test scores over the non-qualifying studentsin any of the five subjects.

The study also looked at gifted and talented students who were picked in a lottery fora "magnet" program， which emphasizes a more（10）and specialized curriculum.

The researchers compared test scores of the magnet students who won the lottery tothe gifted and talented students who lost the lottery and found no significant differencein four of the five subjects: math， reading， social studies and language arts. The magnetstudents did show improvement in science.

A．academically

B．barely

C．contradicts

D．intellectually

E．intensive

F．motivate

G．objective

H．peers

I．popularity

J．qualify

K．sample

L．socialization

M．specimens

N．talented

O．targeted

第1题应选（ ） 查看材料

"Innovative" does not necessarily mean radical or expensive， nor do the best ideas comefrom the top. A woman on the shop floor at Ford suggested putting symbols of different en-gine parts so that drivers would not need a manual to do something simple， such as checkthe oil. It proved so popular it is now common practice.

Ford"s open policy towards employees" ideas "generates tens of thousands of e-mailsa month"， according to Ed Sketch， the director of training and development in Americaand Europe. The company has even employed people to sift through them. Money-savingbrainwaves are rewarded with big bonuses or a new car.

Companies might want to recruit innovative thinkers， but do they really want noncon-formists on board? Peer Granger， the head of Insight Training， which runs innovation work-shops for companies， believes that the risk of not having them on board is greater. "It"s notlike the old days， where companies could churn out the same old product year after yearand customers would buy them. It" companies don"t innovate， they die. Just look at the highstreet. And almost by definition， you have to be difficult in order to innovate because it isabout challenging the status quo."

The problem is that innovators are usually seen as trouble-makers and are often the first peo-ple to go if a company is downsizing. There"s such a blame culture that people are scared to stepoutside the norms. In our workshops we show people the value of breaking rules."

However， Granger thinks that difficult， innovative people would crumble without theirconformist colleagues. "Crikey， you need the other people to say， "Hang on， maybe thisisn"t a good idea"， which can save you a lot of hassle later. And turning an idea into realitymay involve office politics， which difficult people may not be good at."

The example of the woman whose suggestion was popular indicates that ___________. 查看材料

A.everything that is beneficial to people can be said to be innovative

B.even the common people can put forward an innovative suggestion

C.people are easy to accept new things that are helpful to them

D.the ideas from the top sometimes are not as good as those from ordinary people

Without proper planning, tourism can cause problems．For example, too many tourists can crowd public places that are also enjoyed by the inhabitants of a country． If tourists create too much traffic, the inhabitants become annoyed and unhappy． They begin to dislike tourists and to treat them impolitely． They forget how much tourism can help the country's economy．

(79) It is important to think about the people of a destination country and how tourism affects them． Tourism should help a country keep the customs and beauty that attract tourists． Tourism should also advance the well-being of local inhabitants．

Too much tourism can be a problem． If tourism grows too quickly, people must leave other jobs to work in the tourism industry． This means that other parts of the country's economy can suffer．

On the other hand, if there is not enough tourism, people can lose jobs． Businesses can also lose money． It costs a great deal of money to build large hotels, airports, air terminals, first- class roads, and other support facilities needed by tourist attractions． (80) For example, a major international-class tourism hotel can cost as much as 50 thousand dollars per room to build． If this room is not used most of the time, the owners of the hotel will lose money．

Building a hotel is just a beginning． There must be many support facilities as well, including roads to get to the hotel, electricity, sewers to handle waste, and water． All of these support facilities cost money．If they are not used because there are not enough tourists, jobs and money are lost．

第56题答案为 查看材料

A.conditions

B.cases

C.times

D.occasions

Across the board， American colleges and universities are not doing a very good job of preparing their students for the workplace or their post-graduation lives．This was made clear by the work of two sociologists， Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa．In 2011 they released a landmark study titled"Academically Adrift，" which documented the lack of intellectual growth experienced by many people enrolled in college．In particular， Arum and Roksa found， college students were not developing the critical thinking， analytic reasoning and other higher-level skills that are necessary to thrive in today"s knowledge-based economy and to lead our nation in a time of complex challenges and dynamic change．

Arum and Roksa placed the blame for students" lack of learning on a watered-down college curriculum and lowered undergraduate work standards．Although going to college is supposed to be a Full-time job， students spent， on average， only 12 to 14 hours a week studying and many were skating through their semesters without doing a significant amount of reading and writing．Students who take more challenging classes and spend more time studying do learn more．But the priorities of many undergraduates are with extracurricular activities， playing sports， and partying and socializing．

Laura Hamilton， the author of a study on parents who pay for college， will argue in a forthcoming book that college administrations are overly concerned with the social and athletic activities of their students．In Paying for the Party， Hamilton describes what she calls the “arty pathway，" which eases many students through college， helped-along by various clubs that send students into the party scene and a host of easier majors．By sanctioning this watered-down version of college， universities are"catering to the social and educational needs of wealthy students at the expense of others" who won"t enjoy the financial backing or social connections of richer students once they graduate．

These students need to build skills and knowledge during college if they are to use their degrees as a stepping-stone to middle-class mobility．But more privileged students must not waste this opportunity either．As recent graduates can testify， the job market isn"t kind to candidates who can"t demonstrate genuine competence， along with a well-cultivated willingness to work hard．Nor is the global economy forgiving of an American workforce with increasingly weak literacy， math and science abilities．College graduates will still fare better than those with only a high school education， of course．But a university degree unaccompanied by a gain in knowledge or skills is an empty achievement indeed．For students who have been coasting through college， and for American universities that have been demanding less work， offering more attractions and charging higher tuition， the party may soon be over．

What is Arum and Roksa‘s finding about higher education in America? 查看材料

A.It aims at stimulating the intellectual curiosity of college students．

B.It fails to prepare students to face the challenges of modern times．

C.It has experienced dramatic changes in recent years．

D.It has tried hard to satisfy students" various needs．

If you smoke--particularly cigarettes--you are far more likely than a non-smoker to suffer or die from several major diseases--notably lung cancer．

One smoker in four dies prematurely (过早地) because of his smoking． The risk of dying for a heavy smoker (between the ages of 35 and 55) is roughly equal to the risk run by a non-smoker 10 years older．

Cigarette smoking--and to a lesser degree pipe and cigar smoking-may aggravate(使恶化)or be partly responsible for the development of a wide variety of other diseases, which include

cancers of the mouth and throat, peptic ulcers (胃溃疡), and loss of teeth．

(78) Women who smoke during pregnancy produce babies on average about 5 to 8 ounces lighter than those who don&39;t．

Take lung cancer for example:

Britain&39;s lung cancer figures are the highest in the world, and still rising． Ninety people die every day, 33,000 in 1969． Almost all these deaths can be attributed directly to tobacco smoking．

(79)The prospects of a cure for lung cancer are, at present, remoter ,and it is impossible to estimate when, if ever, someone will find one． You would be foolish to rely on someone finding a cure before you needed it．

One man in eight who die between the ages of 35 and 64 is killed by lung cancer． The figures for women in this age group are lower, about 1 in 20． This is partly because women smoke less, and have not smoked as long． But the figures are still very high．

According to the passage， lung cancer __________ 查看材料

A.is the major cause of death between the ages of 35 and 55

B.is most often caused by smoking

C.never affects non-smokers

D.has nothing to do with smoking