The early lack of exposure to science ，technology，engineering and mathematics (STEM) can be harmful to achieving gender (性别）balance in these fields. It begins when we are young and continues throughout our time in high school.

While at home，girls generally don’t get to experience the level of exposure or encouragement in STEM fields that their male counterparts do. It is often subtle ，but it’s the first hurdle that faces and confuses so many women. Boys ，on the other hand, get on their path ，and are encouraged to do so， generally earlier than girls. For example ，boys are more often given science sets as toys ，which spark an interest in these subjects.

In school ₃ boys are often pushed to take the more challenging math and science classes. So if we want to attract the best and brightest minds into the fields that will advance us as a people _? a country，and a planet，we can no longer look to only half of the population. Young girls cannot possibly consider opportunities they do not know exist. If girls are not exposed to certain subject and career paths，they are highly unlikely to choose to follow them in college.

Our bias(偏见)toward girls₉ either from families or from schools ，is so rooted in our culture that we often don’t even recognize it. Although the situation Has changed greatly in the past 20 or 30 years，there is still a sense that girls aren't as good at math ₉ for instance ₉ even though there is almost no evidence to support such a belief.

It is important that as a society we deal with gender stereotypes long before young people are faced with a decision to declare or choose a major in college. Without making efforts to break them， we are limiting the potentials of our youth，both male and female. Providing the necessary resources， exposure _, and encouragement would help young women understand that their gender shouldn^’t determine the career path they choose, and that pursuing a STEM career does not make them less feminine.

1.According to the passage _? not many girls grow to enter STEM fields because______.

A．girls are not as good at STEM as boys

B．girls do not like to take science classes

C．girls get fewer chances to know about STEM

D．girls seldom survive the high pressure positions

2.The underlined word “it” in Para. 4 refers to______

A．our bias           B．our culture        C．the situation       D．a sense

3.The main purpose of the passage is to______.

A．show women’s potentials in STEM fields

B．praise women’s contributions to STEM fields

C．describe the present gender bias in STEM fields

D．call for more involvement of women in STEM fields

4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

A new study of 8,000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily，it is a bad thing for young people．Puppy love（早恋）may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression（忧郁症）．The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys，and younger girls are the worst of all．
The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is “loss of self”．According to the study，even though boys would say “lose themselves in a romantic relationship”，this “loss of self” is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls．Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions．They won’t tell that to their parents．
Dr Marianm Kaufman，an expert on young people problems，says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing．Trying romance often causes the depression．She advises kids not to jump into romance too early．During growing up，it is important for young people to build strong friendships and a strong sense of self．She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends，attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family．
Parents should watch for signs of depression—eating or mood changes—and if they see signs from their daughters or sons，they need to give help．The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age．Love will always make us feel young，but only maturity（成熟）gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects．
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the passage?

请认真阅读下列短文，并在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。每空一词。
In the United States, engineering is a profession that has been dominated historically by men． Even today, it’s still true that few women become civil or chemical or mechanical engineers, but that’s something www．EngineerGirl．org aims to change． Young women who visit the web site can find out about a great career choice they might not have considered．
“Women are very much underrepresented in engineering and in engineering education programs and then of course, down the road, in the engineering workforce． So only about 20 percent of engineering undergraduate degrees go to women, and then only about nine percent of working engineers are women．”
Mary Mattis in the National Academy of Engineering, says the EngineerGirl website aims to reach young women around ages 11 through 14, when they are just getting old enough to start thinking about their futures．
“We know from the research that middle-school girls are at a critical point in their lives, and that it’s a time when we need to reach them, both with an understanding, increasing their awareness of interesting fields in engineering, what a wonderful productive and exciting career you can have as an engineer． But we also need to reach them at that time because you have to take certain courses, and you can’t start thinking about taking those courses when you’re a junior in high school．”
Engineering is a demanding course of study ---there is a lot of science and mathematics, for many girls and even boys, that can be challenging． But Ms． Mattis says that the EngineerGirl website stresses that engineering can also be fun and exciting．
“It’s about designing things． It’s about changing the world for people． It’s about making a difference． And, in addition, you can make a good living, you can be independent economically by becoming an engineer． All of those things are messages that girls need to get．”
While most engineers go into traditional fields such as mechanical and electrical engineering, the EngineerGirl site also highlights unusual engineering careers in fields such as sports engineering and --- believe it or not --- chocolate engineering．
“There’s a section called ‘why be an engineer,’ and that talks about the many opportunities and increasingly different opportunities like with bio-engineering and environmental engineering, some fields that might appeal to girls who want to make a difference or have a meaning for their careers beyond earning an income．”
Even if you are not a girl in the target age group, there’s a lot of interesting information on the site, including biographies of some notable women engineers．

Their grandmothers fought for the vote, and their mothers have battled to have it all. Now the upcoming generation of girls have decided to turn the clock back and stay at home with their babies.
According to a survey of more than 5,000 teenage girls in Britain, their main ambition (追求的目标) is to complete university then stay at home. More than nine out of ten of the girls believe it should be up to their husbands to provide for them. And although 43 percent of those questioned believe they should continue with their education until they have achieved a university degree, one in four say getting married is the most important thing for them.
The supposedly super-modern, “fun comes first” teenage generation has proved to be very traditional in every area of their beliefs, with over 50 percent saying they would not dream of having children before seeing a ring on their finger.
The desire to have children is beginning earlier too. On average, teenage girls plan to have their first child at 26, and most plan to have one or two more children over the following four years. The national average now is 1.64 children per couple.
“This survey doesn’t show that the battles of feminism (女权运动) have been lost,” said author Claire Rayner, “Feminism was never opposed (反对) to marriage or children. On the contrary, feminism was about to equal opportunities for women to do what they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it, and this is exactly what these girls are choosing to do.”
【小题1】The passage is mainly about ________.