Why do women earn less than men?

Women earn less than men. For example, in 1988 the hourly wages of women in the U.S. were 16% less than those of men. The gap between male and female incomes varies with age. The gap between the labor incomes of young women and young men is much smaller than that between middle-aged women and men. It is also clear that jobs in which women are concentrated pay less. The larger the number of workers in an industry who are women, the lower the average wages.

Why do women earn less than men? Are the differences explained by the fact that women are looked down upon? If so, the government has to intervene, to force the employers to pay equal wages to equal jobs. however, there is no agreement among economists about the causes of the gap. One view argues that women on the average have chosen low-paying jobs in which workers enjoy the freedom of entering and leaving the labor force, which reduces their years of experience relative to men. Other people say the gap can also be explained by the difference in educational background which is shown in the difference in the marginal product between men and women.

Much of the gap, however, has not been fully explained. It might be the result of some bias against women. It is this part that has produced calls for government action. What would happen if the government did intervene to increase the wages paid to women? One possibility is that incomes for women as a group might actually decline. An increase in wage decreases the quantity of labor input demanded, resulting in decreased employment as the rate of hiring new workers declines. The result will be a surplus of labor. Those who can find jobs might be better off while those who had jobs might find themselves out of work.

The difference in labor incomes is most obvious between _______.

A. young men and young women

B. young women in the same industry

C. middle-aged men and middle-aged women

D. middle-aged women in the same industry

Some economists believe women earn less than men partly because ______.

A. women are less experienced than men

B. women are only provided with low-paying jobs

C. women have much freedom in selecting their jobs

D. there is more than enough women in the labor force

Which of the following cannot be inferred from the second paragraph?

A. Women receive less education than men.

B. Women are not as productive as men.

C. Levels of education are closely related to productivity.

D. Goods produced by women are not as good as those by men.

What does the author suggest that the government should do for women workers?

A. To ensure equal pay for women.

B. To explain why women are paid less.

C. To force employers to hire more women.

D. No solution is clearly suggested.

What would happen if women’s wages were raised?

A. Input of capital would be increased.

B. The unemployment rate would go up.

C. Those that have jobs would become better off.

D. Women as a group would earn more than before.

The Food and Drug Administration is, again, threatening to impose(征稅) milk and meat from cloned animals on a public that opposes the technology and its products.
Respected polls report that more than 60% of Americans think animal cloning is immoral, and that most people said they wouldn’t knowingly eat the products even if the FDA approved them. But because the FDA would allow cloned meat and milk to be sold without identifying labels, consumers wouldn’t be able to avoid them. The FDA has consistently tilted toward those who want cloned milk and meat in our food. Agency officials have repeatedly asserted that science shows cloned milk and meat are safe for humans. But the FDA has never published the complete scientific studies it says support that claim.
The argument that cloning is safe for animals is unconvincing. Cloned meat and milk offer no public economic benefits. Having cloned cows produce more milk wouldn’t reduce milk prices. US farmers produce more milk than we drink, and the government is required to buy the surplus. Since 2000, dairy support programs have cost taxpayers more than $ 5 billion.
Most important, this first decision to advance animal biotechnology raises ethical issues beyond the FDA’s expertise（專家意見(jiàn)）. Techniques used to clone animals will advance the ability to clone humans－and create animals with human genes. Neither the agency nor animal scientists are qualified to tell us whether and when it is ethically acceptable for humans to alter the essential nature of animals. We need a national discussion, including ethicists and religious leaders, to consider the wisdom of cloned and transgenic animals. Given the risk of unintended consequences, we should proceed cautiously. The president should halt further FDA action on cloning and set in motion(運(yùn)作) a process for beginning this broader discussion.
1. The author’s attitude towards cloning is __________.
A. standing in the middle      B. opposed     C. approving     D. supportive
3. In US many people buy cloned foods __________.
A. to support the new technique
B. because FDA approved them
C. because they cannot tell which is cloned food
D. because they cannot read the labels.
3. From the text we know that cloning technique ___________.
A. developed well enough to clone human beings
B. may cause unintended bad results to human beings
C. will bring more unexpected economic benefits
D. is supported by ethicists and religious leaders
4. What’s the best title of this passage?
A．Public Is Against Cloned Food     B．Benefits of Cloned Food
C．Cloned Food Is Illegal            D．Technique in Cloned Food

Passage Eight(The Development of Cities)
Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
1.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?
A.Types of mass transportation.
B.Instability of urban life.
C.How supply and demand determine land use.
D.The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.
2.Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?
A.To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.
B.To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.
C.To show mass transportation changed many cities.
D.To contrast their rate of growth.
3.According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?
A.It was expensive.
B.It happened too slowly.
C.It was unplanned.
D.It created a demand for public transportation.
4.The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city,
A.that is large.
B.that is used as a model for land development.
C.where the development of land exceeded population growth.
D.with an excellent mass transportation system.

Ⅲ. 閱讀（共兩節(jié)，滿分40分）
第一節(jié)：閱讀理解（共15題；每小題2分，滿分30分）
Anyone who is addicted to reading bus tickets or cereal packets will understand the appeal of poems on the underground. Some years ago, a few acquaintances who lived and worked in London , who used the Tube and loved poetry, decided that it would be pleasant to read a few lines by their favorite poets as they traveled around by Tube, instead of just glancing upwards at the tiresome advertisements. The underground had a surplus (剩余的)of advertising space on the trains. They suggested filling the blank space on the trains, for the entertainment of the traveling public.
The poems took on a new life when they were removed from books and placed alongside the adverts. Commuters enjoyed the idea of reading Keats’“Much have I traveled in the realms of gold” on a crowded Central Line train, or trying to learn by heart a sonnet between Hammersmith and Piccadilly. The choice of poems wasn’t arbitrary （隨機(jī)的）but specially chosen. It catered for all tastes including living and dead poems from the homeland and from all over the English-speaking world, and especially poems which have association with London.
The success of the poems on the underground enterprises confirmed that Britain was a nation of poetry lovers. Hundreds of people corresponded with London Underground suggesting poems, or just to say thank you. In January 1989, on the third anniversary after the first poems on the Underground, London Underground promised to donate all the spaces free, to increase the number available (at least one poem in each train carriage), and to pay for the production costs as well. They also updated the poems every few months. Posters of the poems decorated the British Council libraries throughout the world, but the best way to view the poems is to see them by yourselves, on whichever train you choose, in every zone of the network—for the price of an underground ticket.
41.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. Shelly and Keat’s Poems  
B. The Poems on the Underground
C. Travelling on the Tube in London   
D. The Poems about London
42.The poems were _________.
A. removed from books and placed in empty advertising spaces
B. taken from throughout the English-speaking world and chosen to please everyone
C. including poems about London by Shelly, Burns, Keats and by the commuters themselves
D. meant to be read aloud and learnt by heart
43. Which is the closest in meaning to “association”?
A.Connection.   B.Difference.   C.Similarity.  D.Comparison.
44. The best place to see the poem is ________.
A. in any train on the network                          
B. in libraries around the world
C. in trains on the Central Line and between Hammersmith and Piccadilly
D. in some carriage anywhere on the network
45. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage above?
A. People who like reading bus tickets advocate poems on the underground .
B. Spaces which were used for advertisements are now completely occupied by poems on the tube.
C. You can appreciate the poems you like at the cost of only a tube ticket in London.
D. The success of the poems on the underground indicates people’s love for the tube of London.

We know the effect calories have on your body.For each pound of weight that your body carries,it takes about 12 calories per pound per day to keep it alive.If you weigh 150 pounds,you therefore need about (150×12) 1800 calories per day to keep yourself alive and maintain that same weight.

If you were to eat more than 1800 calories per day,the surplus turns into fat.It takes about 3600 excess calories to make a pound of fat.Let's say that you were to eat,on average,2000 calories per day.That extra 200 calories per day is going to turn into fat.However,you will eventually hit a point of equilibrium(平衡，均衡) because as you gain weight,you need more calories to maintain that weight.So,a person eating an average of 2000 calories per day will hit equilibrium at (2000/12) 166.67 pounds.

So let's say that you eat,on average,2000 calories per day and reach equilibrium at 166 pounds.Then you go on a crash diet where you eat only 1000 calories per day for 60 days.You lose 16 pounds and reach your target weight of 150 pounds.But then you go right back to eating 2000 calories per day again.The graph below shows your eating pattern before,during and after the diet:

Note that the graph assumes that you,like most people,eat a random number of calories per day.Some days you are “good” and eat less,and some days you are “bad” and eat more,but the assumption is that it averages out to 2000 calories per day over the long run.

This graph shows what happens to your weight before,during and after the diet:

The diet really takes the weight off.But the weight comes right back when you return to your “normal” eating pattern.The weight appears to come back so quickly because when you are at your lightest,you tend to gain more weight each day.The lighter you are,the fewer calories you need.If you only need 1500 calories per day and you're eating 2000,you're going to gain weight faster than if you need 1800 and you're eating 2000.

The passage is mainly about_________.

A.how to lose weight effectively

B.why the weight comes back so quickly once a person stops dieting

C.why a person puts on weight

D.how to keep a healthy diet

According to the text,a person weighing 120 pounds needs _________calories per day to keep the same weight.

A.1440                         B.1800                         C.2000                  D.1000

Suppose all the following people take in 3000 calories every day.Who will gain weight fastest?

A.A person who weighs 200 pounds.                  B.A person who weighs 180 pounds.

C.A person who weighs 150 pounds.                  D.A person who weighs 100 pounds.

What will the writer continue to discuss at the end of the text?

A.Ways to keep the weight off.                          B.Ways to go on a diet.

C.Diseases caused by overweight.                       D.Proper diet to keep healthy.