Women turn to online shopping

    Women have jumped ahead of men for the first time in using the Internet to do their holiday shopping，according to a study published last week in the US.

    For Years men have been more likely to shop on the Internet than women，but during the 2004 holiday season 58 percent of those making online purchases were women.

    “It shows how mainstream the Internet is becoming”，said Lee Rainie，director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project group，which carried out the study.

    Rainie said it was only a matter of time before women shoppers caught up with men. This is because women traditionally make decisions about spending.

    Users were more likely to shop online to save time. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 were responsible for some of the most dramatic（显著的）increases in the online gift-buying population this time around.

    However，three-quarters of the US Internet users did not buy holiday gifts online in 2004．They worried about credit card security，or just compared online prices with off-line prices，then dashed off to the shops to get the best deals.

“But even if shoppers don’t buy online，websites are becoming promotion tools for stores，”said Dan Hess，vice president of Comscore Networks Inc．Hess said that actually most stores’ websites can make customers fully believe the security of their credit card numbers. And most are able to ensure that gifts arrive on time.

“It’s all about making the shopping experience more efficient，more reliable and more comfortable，” Hess said.

Which of the following statements is true?

    A．There were fewer women online shoppers than men in 2004．

    B．Most of the Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 are women.

    C．People in the US were more likely to buy gifts online.

    D．More women shopped online than men in 2004.

From the passage we can infer that________.

    A．men usually decide how to spend money in the family

    B．women usually decide what to buy in the family

    C．the Internet is used in all the shops.

    D．more and more shops will sell their goods online.

According to Dan Hess，shopping online___________.

A．is unsafe   B．is convenient      C．is a waste of time   D．is cheaper

What can we know from the passage?

    A．American people only buy gifts in holidays.

    B．Shopping online is fun for women.

    C．Shopping off-line provides better service.

D．Young people like to do gift-shopping online.

How clean are the nation’s homes?

According to a survey by CIF, there’s room for improvement all over Britain.

Love or hate it — cleaning your home is one job you simply can’t ignore（忽视）. But that’s not to say everyone spends the same amount of time or effort on making their places spotless. A new survey by CIF— experts on making tough cleaning jobs easier—— shows that when it comes to washing windows or cleaning the oven（烤箱）,where you live in the UK it may show how much effort you put into the task.

BATHROOM

25% of men have never cleaned the toilet — but those in Wales are the worst. Nearly four in 10 Welsh men said they never cleaned anywhere in the house. Hate cleaning the shower head? You’re not alone — a  quarter of a million Brits say the same. 20% of Scots regard window-cleaning as their most hated job.

KITCHEN

36% of people in the south-east say cleaning the cooker is their hated task. 68% of those in the north-east spend more than six hours a week cleaning their homes — especially the kitchen — in sharp contrast to the 49% of Welsh and West Country folk, who put their hands up to cleaning for under an hour.

BEDROOM

18% believe cleaning starts here: that’s the percentage of women who clean wearing their dressing gowns. 51% of women in the north-west may be staying in bed and giving their husband a cuddle（拥抱）—as a thank-you for helping them clean. In other places, there are far fewer helpful men.

LIVING ROOM

32% of women in the north-east turn up the stereo to help make the dusting more fun. Almost six in 10 women agree, however, that cleaning is seriously energetic exercise.

SHIFT THE DIRT WITH CIF

It’s no secret that the right cleaning products will cut cleaning time and effort in half— and no one knows that better than How Clean Is Your house? Presenters Aggie Mackenzie and Kim Woodburn. For solutions（解决办法）to all your cleaning needs, here are some of CIF’s top tips:

·Stop a lot of build-up on your shower head—give it a quick squirt（喷洒）with CIF bathroom spray once a week.

·Stainless steel（不锈钢）tools seem to need endless cleaning. The CIF Wild Qrchid Qxy-Gel-it lifts dirt easily and leaves the kitchen smelling fresh and clean.

·Cooking outside? CIF cream will get your barbecue （烤架）spotlessly clean, ready for those long, lazy summer evenings. Perfect!

The main purpose of this passage is to ______.

A. tell us the results of a certain survey

B. advertise a certain product

C. advise men to do more cleaning housework

D. tell us which is the hardest job at home

It can be concluded from the survey that people in different parts of Britain______.

A. have different views on house cleaning

B. spend different amounts of time and effort on house cleaning

C. like to do different kinds of housework

D. have different ways to do housework

According to the survey,______ spend the most time cleaning their homes.

A. the Welsh                   B. people in the north-west        

C. people in the south-east        D. people in the north-east

CIF in the passage probably refers to ______.

A. an organization doing research on housework

B. a group of experts who give advice on doing housework

C. a company providing advice and products on cleaning

D. a company providing cleaning services

A large number of women in Western European countries wish that they were born men. The number is said as high as 60% in West Germany.

    “Women often wish that they had the same chance as men have, and believe it is still men’s world,” said Dr James Holden, one of the scientists who did the study.

    Anne Harper has a very good job for an international oil company. She also believes in “Women’ s Liberation(解放)”.

    “I don’t wish that I were a man,” she says, “and I don’t think many women do. But I do wish that people would stop looking down upon us women. At work, for example, we often do the work that men do but get paid less. There are still a lot of jobs that are usually the best ones and open only to men. If you’re a man, you have a much better chance of leading an exciting life. How many women pilots are there ... or engineers or scientists?”

1.What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．60% women in West Germany wish that they were born men.

B．Most women in Western European countries wish that their babies were all boys.

C．60% Western European women wish that they were born men.           

D．60% Western European women who wish that they were born men are from West Germany.

2.“It is still men’s world.” means “______.”

A．There’re more men than women in the world

B．There’re more men scientists or engineers than women scientists or engineers in the world

C．Women have not been given the same chance as men

D．Women cannot live without men

3.Anne Harper considers that women should ______.

A．live a better life than men           B．be really liberated

C．be well paid                      D．get better jobs than men

4.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Usually the best jobs are not open to women.

B．Women are less paid than men for the same job.

C．There’re more men pilots, engineers and scientists than women ones.

D．Women are looked down upon because they’re the second-class citizens

Such men have made＿＿＿＿＿by developing oil businesses．

A．great fortunes B．a huge fortune  C．some huge fortune D．a great fortune

April 22,2010 will be the 18th celebration of the annual Take Our Daugluers to Work Day （TOD）, a project the National Ms．Foundation for Women of America （NFW） developed to expose girls to expanding opportunities for women in the workplace．

       The program offers, millions of girls a first - hand view of the many career opportunities available in their futures．Now that women make up 46 peroent of the U．S．workforce, girls can find role models in every occupational field-from politics to molecular biology to professional athletics, to name just a few．TOD encourages girls to focus on their abilities and opportunities, not just their appearance．

The NFW developed the project more than a decade ago to address the self - esteem problems that many girls experience when they enter adolescence．At school, boys often receive more encouragement in the classroom, especially in math．science and computer science, the academic fields that tend to lead to the highest salaries．Women receive on average only 73 cents for every dollar that men are paid．and remain vastly underrepresented （数量不足） in top executive positions and technology fields．TOD aims to give girls the confidence and inspiration they need to develop successful careers, particularly in non-traditional fields．

       Perhaps because the program had become so widespread and successful, TOD had been criticized for excluding boys．and it was expanded in 2003to include boys．The program’s official website states that the program was changed in order to provide both boys and girls with opportunities to explore careers at an age when they are more flexible in tenns of gender stereotyped roles．"We should also show boys that becoming a child care provider is as acceptable a choice as becoming a police officer or CEO," added Sara K．Gould．executive director of the NFW．

The purpose for having a Take Our Daughters to Work Day is ____

A．to encourage girls to get top paying jobs                            ,

B．to let girls spend more time with their mothers

C．to show girls possibilities for work and careers

D．to give girls a chance to visit their mothers' offices

Why are women underrepresented in some fields such as technology?

       A．They are not interested in these fields．

       B．They are not encouraged to work in these fields．

       C．They are not paid the same as men in these fields．

       D．They are not allowed to be educated in these fields．

TOD was criticized because some people ____．

A．thought it was not fair to boys

B．did not like having children at work

C．did not have daughters to take to work

D．would rather have their daughters stay at home

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Boys are now included on Take Our Daughters to Work Day．

B．Women and men have always been treated equally at work．

C．Homemaking and raising children are jobs for girls only．

D．Girls grow up receiving more attention than boys．

What can we learn from Sara K．Gould's words?

A．Boys are sometimes more careful and responsible than girls．

B．It is most suitable for women to look after children at home．

C．Aboy's life ambition should be to become an officer or CEO．

D．It is also acceptable for boys to do what girls are supposed to．