题目内容
The majority of the world's most powerful and influential positions remain in men's hands. But the imbalance is gradually tilting — and it shows. In 2015, some of the biggest news and successes resulted from the actions of women. Here are the new faces who inspired, defied, guided or moved the world.
Loretta Lynch
Traditionally, the top U.S. law-enforcement official is not well-known outside of the United States, but Attorney General Loretta Lynch not only made headlines around the world, she also brought a particular kind of change that billions of people had longed for but thought was out of reach.
Lynch surprised the world by taking on the entrenched(根深蒂固), corrupt officials of FIFA, the governing body of the world's most popular sport, soccer. She had the bravery to do what nobody else had dared. FIFA officials, she declared, had engaged in "rampant(猛烈的), systematic and deep-rooted" corruption, and it was time to "bring wrongdoers to justice."
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
When the Ebola epidemic(蔓延) took on alarming proportions in West Africa, it was tough for Liberia, one of the centers of the crisis.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the leader of Liberia, pleaded for international help. One reason the world responded is that the unbeatable President has international moral stature. She played a key role in guiding her country after cruel civil wars and received the Nobel Peace Prize for her effort.
Johnson Sirleaf not only helped bring an end to the epidemic, she did something just as remarkable: She revealed her emotions and admitted her faults. When it was all over she said she had been afraid, and conceded(承认) she had made big mistakes as a result of her fear. Then she showed gratitude. Instead of collecting honors, she thanked all the people and countries who made victory against Ebola possible.
Aung San Suu Kyi
The symbolic Burmese leader, also a Nobel Peace Prize winner, put the skeptics and the cynics(愤世嫉俗) to shame. To those who said nonviolent resistance could not defeat a vicious armed opponent, she seemed to say "just watch."
Following the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., she endured a long struggle against the pitiless military rulers of Myanmar. She gained international support for economic approval that helped persuade the generals to loosen their control, leading to elections in 2015 and an overwhelming victory for her National League for Democracy. She remains a global symbol of peaceful resistance.
Tu Youyou
It's a tough challenge to find a single human being who may be responsible for saving as many lives. The Chinese pharmacologist Tu Youyou, one of three winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine, took a different route in attacking one of the world's biggest killers, malaria.
Research into ancient Chinese texts led her to discover the compounds that help prevent a disease that still kills about half a million people every year, transmitted by mosquitoes in water-logged jungles. The discovery has resulted in medication that has saved millions of lives.
1.The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. tell us that men's status in the world was becoming less important in 2015
B. show readers the importance of several great women who were powerful in 2015
C. analyze the reasons why some great women became the 2015 biggest news
D. introduce several great women and their achievements in 2015
2.Among the women mentioned above, who did not win the Nobel Prize?
A. Aung San Suu KyiB. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
C. Loretta Lynch.D. Tu Youyou
3.Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was regarded as remarkable for the following EXCEPT ________.
A. that she contributed a lot to preventing the epidemic from spreading
B. that she appealed for international help in fighting against Ebola
C. that she bravely acknowledged her fear and her mistakes
D. that she expressed her gratitude to those who fought Ebola together
4.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A. some great women's successes are shaking the men's control of the world
B. thanks to Tu Youyou's discovery, the patients attacked by malaria will undoubtedly be saved
C. Aung San Suu Kyi won the victory with the guidance of Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
D. many people have dealt with the corruption of FIFA, but failed
Age has its privileges in America, and one of the more prominent of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age — in some cases as low as 55 — is automatically entitled to dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses — as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent(有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous (同义的). Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren’t.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involve a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Buoyed (支持) by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a formidable economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.
Outline | Details |
Introduction | Age determines whether an American can be given a discount, which is a common 1.________________in American business life today. |
Origin of senior citizen discount | ●Since the senior citizens are often treated as people who are in 2.____________, they are given such priority. |
3.__________ situation | ●The situation has changed a lot where the majority of the elderly are not poor at all. ●Younger Americans were at a/an 4.__________ directly or indirectly due to the discounts given to the elderly, thus leading to conflicts between generations. ●The number of older Americans 5.___________ to work rather than retire is on the increase, which means 6.__________ opportunities for young workers. ●It is no longer a kind of charity because millions of senior citizens don’t need the priority 7.__________. |
Conclusion | It’s unwise to offer discount priority to the elderly. ●It will mislead people to think they are unable to 8._____________ to themselves. ●People may think that they are ungrateful and they’re hurting the 9._____________ of other age groups. ●Actually senior citizen discounts, to some extent, 10. ___________against their age. |