Women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs. The latest government report shows that their share of nonfarm jobs nearly reached fifty percent in September.
Not only have more and more women entered the labor market over the years, but the depression has been harder on men. In October the unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent compared to eight percent for women.
Industries that traditionally use lots of men have suffered deep cuts. For example, manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. But health care and temporary employment services have had job growth. Both of those industries employ high percentages of women.
Thirty years ago, women earned sixty-two cents for every dollar that men earned. Now, for those who usually work full time, women earn about eighty percent of what men earn. And women hold fifty-one percent of good-paying management and professional jobs.
Yet a study released Thursday said men still hold about nine out of every ten top positions at the four hundred large companies in California. The results have remained largely unchanged in live years of studies from the University of California, Davis.
Also, a new research paper in the journal Sex Roles looks at the experiences of women who are the main earners in their family. Rebecca Meisenbach at the University of Missouri in Columbia interviewed fifteen women. She found they all valued their independence and many enjoyed having the power of control, though not all wanted it.
But they also felt pressure, worry and guilt. Partly that was because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. Also, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.
The job market continues to suffer the effects of last year’s financial crash. Now, a judgment has been reached in the first case involving charges of criminal wrongdoing on Wall Street.
Last week, the government lost its case against two managers at Bear Stearns, the first investment bank to fail last year. A jury found Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin not guilty of lying to investors.
The hedge funds they supervised lost their value in two thousand seven. But jurors said there was no clear evidence that they meant to mislead investors.
The Justice Department continues to investigate other companies.
【小题1】Why is the unemployment rate for men higher.

I once had a teacher whose husband died suddenly of heart attack．About a week after his death, she    some of her thoughts with a classroom of students．As the late afternoon sunlight shone    the classroom windows, and when the class was nearly over, she    a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down.

    With a    look on her face，she paused and said，“   class is over，I’d like to share with all of you a deep    which I feel is very important．Each of us is put here on    to learn，share，love，appreciate and give of ourselves．   of us knows when this fantastic experience will   ．It can be taken away at any moment．Perhaps this is the God’s    of telling us that we must make the     of every single day.”

Her eyes were beginning to   ，but she went on，“So I would like you all to make me a   ：From now on，on your way to school，or on your way home，find something beautiful to   ．It doesn't have to be something you see．It could be a    of freshly baked  bread  floating  out  of  someone’s house，  or  it  could  be  the  sound  of  the soft    rustling(沙沙作响)the leaves in the trees…．Please look for these things， and     them，for at anytime it can all be taken away．’’

The class was completely   ．We all picked up our books and went out of the room silently．That   ，I observed many more beautiful things on my way home from school than usual．

Remember：Life is not    by the number of breaths we take，but by the moments that take our breath away．

1.A．learned        B．shared             C．argued                D．discussed

2.A．onto              B．into                   C．across                D．through

3.A．moved          B．brushed            C．swept                  D．pulled

4.A．surprised              B．worried            C．gentle                 D．strange

5.A．After             B．Unless      C．Before                D．If

6.A．feeling          B．understanding    C．love                     D．memory

7.A．business       B．time                 C．duty                     D．earth

8.A．None            B．All                     C．Each                    D．Neither

9.A．happen        B．begin     C．end            D．gain

10.A．way                      B．signal     C．plan                     D．joke

11.A．least           B．worst     C．lowest                 D．most

12.A．ache           B．water     C．shine                   D．dry

13.A．promise              B．choice              C．wish                     D．rule

14.A．buy                      B．enjoy     C．take                     D．learn

15.A．smell          B．gift                    C．taste                    D．sight

16.A．wind           B．hand       C．light                     D．color

17.A．get                       B．appreciate         C．hide                     D．follow’

18.A．puzzled     B．excited            C．quiet                   D．anxious

19.A．morning              B．night                  C．noon                   D．afternoon

20.A．wasted       B．measured          C．saved                  D．lost

第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Recently I gave my adult students homework. It was “go to someone you love and tell them you love them.” It has to be someone you have never said those words to before or at least haven’t shared those words with for a long time.
It sounds like very tough homework since most of the men were over 35 and were raised in the generation of men that were taught expressing emotions is not “macho(阳刚之气).” Showing feelings or crying was just not done. So this was very threatening homework for some.
At the beginning of our next class, I asked if someone wanted to share what happened when they told someone they loved them. I fully expected one of the women to volunteer, as was usually the case, but on this evening one of the men raised his hand, quite moved and a bit shaken.
As he unfolded out of his chair (all 1.85 meters of him), he began by saying, “Dennis, I was quite angry with you last week when you gave us this homework . Why were you to tell me to do something that personal?”
“But as I began driving home my conscience(良心)started telling me that I knew exactly who I needed to say ‘I love you’ to.”
“Five years ago, my father and I had a severe disagreement and really never settled it since then. We avoided seeing each other unless we absolutely had to at Christmas or other family gatherings. But even then, we hardly spoke to each other.”
“So last Tuesday by the time I got home I had convinced myself I was going to tell my father I loved him. It’s strange, but just making that decision seemed to lift a heavy load off my chest.”
56.The homework is threatening for some students because         .
A. they are middle-aged people     B. they are not macho enough
C. they were taught to hide their emotions   D. they didn’t know how to show feelings
57.From the passage we know that________.
A. the adult students have classes in the day time only
B. not all the adult students in the writer’s class are male
C. the man refused to meet his father after their quarrel
D. the man quickly decided to say “I love you” to his father
58.The underlined phrase “unfolded out of his chair” in Para 4 is closest in meaning to_______.
A. stood on his chair straight B. sat quietly in the chair
C. bent himself over his chair       D. raised himself slowly from the chair
59.What does the man imply by saying the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
A. He felt it too strange to say “I love you” to his father.
B. He felt relaxed just thinking of saying “I love you” to his father.
C. He felt very relaxed after saying “I love you” to his father.
D. He had to lift a heavy load off his chest before saying “I love you”.
60. .Which do you think can be the best title of the passage?
A. Special homework for adults.             B. Saying “I love you” is not mancho.
C. Disagreement between father and son .     D. It is easy for adults to express their love.

Three quarters of Britain’s parents are too busy to read bedtime stories to their children，according to a study. The study was carried out by CITV to start their new children’s show Bookaboo，which is designed to encourage anyone to pick up a book and read with their children at any time of the day.
Worryingly，the study showed that only three percent of fathers now find the time to read to the kids compared to 89 percent of mothers. Lucy Goodman，creator of Bookaboo，said，“It’s important for young boys to be able to share a book with dads，granddads or male carers and it can be fun and rewarding，too.” Of the dads who said they didn’t read to their kids,87 percent blamed work while more than a third said they were too tired. While 89 percent of mums said they did read to their children，more than half of them said cleaning distracted (使分心) them and 49 percent were distracted by other household things.
Researchers also found parents are now relying heavily on other people to lend a hand with reading to their children with grandparents doing the most，followed by sisters and brothers，aunts and uncles. While 95 percent of parents read to their children at some point，only five percent read to their children during the day. More than one in ten said they read every couple of weeks or less，and five percent could not remember the last time they shared a book.
The study found parents also seem content with allowing their children to immerse (使沉浸) themselves in TV programs or playing computer games rather than reading.
Ex­goalkeeper David Seaman，who is a dad of two，has been a guest in Bookaboo.He says，“I think it’s important that fathers do read to their children because it’s a special time. Sometimes my two children will come to listen to the same book—it’s a magical moment and I advise fathers just to try it.”
【小题1】We can know from the passage that Bookaboo________.

An idea that started in Seattle's public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The idea is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.

In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched (发起）the "If All of Seattle Read the Same Book " project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has since expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.

In Chicago, the mayor appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the "One Book, One Chicago" program. As a result, reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, stories emerged of parents and children reading to each other at night and strangers chatting away on the bus about plot and character.

   The only problem arose in New York, where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity(一致）can be achieved .Or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.

As Nancy points out, the level of success is not measured by how many people read a book, but by how many people are enriched by the process or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not otherwise have shared a word.

1.What is the purpose of the project launched by Nancy?

A. To invite authors to guide readers.

B. To encourage people to read and share.

C. To involve people in community service.

D. To promote the friendship between cities.

2.Why was it difficult for New Yorkers to carry out the project?

A. They had little interest in reading.

B. They were too busy to read a book.

C. They came from many different backgrounds.

D. They lacked support from the local government.

3.According to the passage, where would the project be more easily carried out?

A. In large communities with little sense of unity

B. In large cities where libraries are far from home

C. In medium-sized cities with a large population

D. In large towns where agreement can be quickly reached

4.The underlined words “shared a word” in Paragraph 5 probably mean       .

A. exchanged ideas with each other

B. discussed the meaning of a word

C. gained life experience

D. used the same language

5.According to Nancy, the degree of success of the project is judged by        .

A. the careful selection of a proper book

B. the growing popularity of the writers

C. the number of people who benefit from reading

D. the number of books that each person reads