C

Some futurologists have assumed that the vast upsurge(剧增)of women in the workforce may portend a rejection of marriage. Many women, according to this hypothesis, would rather work than marry. The converse(反面)of this concern is that the prospects of becoming a multi-paycheck household could encourage marriage. In the past, only the earnings and financial prospects of the man counted in the marriage decision. Now, however, the earning ability of a woman can make her more attractive as a marriage partner. Data show that economic downturns tend to putting off marriage because the parties cannot afford to establish a family or are concerned about rainy days ahead. As the economy comes to life, the number of marriages also rises.

The increase in divorce rates follows to the increase in women working outside the home. Yet, it may be wrong to jump to any simple cause-and-effect conclusions. The impact of a wife’s work on divorce is no less cloudy than its impact on marriage decisions. The realization that she can be a good provider may increase the chances that a working wife will choose divorce over an unsatisfactory marriage. But the reverse is equally plausible(似是而非的). Tensions grounded in financial problems often play a key role in ending a marriage. By raising a family’s standard of living, a working wife may strengthen her family’s financial and emotional stability.

Psychological factors also should be considered. For example, a wife blocked from a career outside the home may feel caged in the house. She may view her only choice as seeking a divorce. On the other hand, if she can find fulfillment through work outside the home, work and marriage can go together to create a stronger and more stable union.

Also, a major part of women’s inequality in marriage has been due to the fact that, in most cases, men have remained the main breadwinners. A working wife may rob a husband of being the master of the house. Depending upon how the couple reacts to these new conditions, it could create a stronger equal partnership or it could create new insecurities.

64．The word “portend” (Line 2, Para.1) is closest in meaning to“_____”.

A．defy       B．signal     C．suffer from   D．result from

65．It is said in the passage that when the economy slides_____.

    A．men would choose working women as their marriage partners

    B．more women would get married to seek financial security

    C．even working women would worry about their marriages

    D．more people would prefer to remain single for the time being

66．One reason why women with no career may seek a divorce is that_____.

A．they feel that they have been robbed of their freedom

B．they are afraid of being bossed around by their husbands

C．they feel that their partners fail to live up to their expectations

D．they tend to suspect their husbands? loyalty to their marriage

67．Which of the following statements can best summarize the authors view in the passage?

A．The stability of marriage and the divorce rate may reflect the economic situation of the country．

B．Even when economically independent, most women have to struggle for real equality in marriage.

C．In order to secure their marriage women should work outside the home and remain

independent

D．The impact of the growing female workforce on marriage varies from case to case.

A new study finds that the animal known as man’s best friend can also be a good friend to the heart. Researchers in California say they have found that even just a short visit with a dog helped ease the worries of heart patients.               

The study divided the patients into three groups. In Group A, a dog and a person visited each patient for twelve minutes. Patients in Group B received just a human visitor for twelve minutes. And members of Group C received no visitor, human or canine(犬的).

The dogs would lie on the hospital bed so the heart patients could touch them. The researchers say some patients immediately smiled and talked to the dog and the human visitor. Dogs, in her words, “make people happier, calmer and feel more loved.”

The researchers examined the patients before, during and after the visits. They measured stress levels based on blood flow and heart activity. They say they found a twenty-four percent decrease in the group visited by both a dog and a person. They reported a ten percent decrease in the group visited by a person only. There was no change in the patients without any visit. These patients, however, did have an increase in their production of the hormone epinephrine (epinephrine肾上腺素). The body produces epinephrine during times of stress.

The increase was an average of seven percent. But the study found that patients who spent time with a dog had a seventeen percent drop in their levels of epinephrine. Patients visited by a human but not a dog also had a decrease, but only two percent.

The author believes that _______.  

   A. the dog can take the place of most medicines

   B. the dog is the most popular pet for man

   C. the findings of the research cannot be trusted

   D. visits by a human work better than visits by a dog

Which of the following best shows the stress level changes in the groups of patients? BACC

From the research findings we may conclude that _______.

A. the less the body produces epinephrine, the better

B. the longer a visit lasts, the happier the patient should be

C. the patients enjoyed the dogs’ company more than the human visitors’

D. it’s impossible for heart patients to recover without dogs’ visits

Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

  A. Worried Heart Patients               B. Epinephrine and Stress

  C. Good Friend to the Heart             D. Three Groups of Patients

More than three years after moving from Australia to this remote part of England, we are still learning how things are done here.

　　Not too long after we arrived and unpacked, we were invited for “a drink on Sunday morning” by a retired couple nearby. We got there about noon, to find the living-room crowded — lots of chat and discussions, and in all a very jolly occasion.

　　Trouble was, there was no food — no self-respecting Australian would regard a tray of crisps as food. In Sydney, when you are invited for a drink any time after midday on a Sunday, you know you will be fed as well as watered and you plan accordingly. Meaning the hardworked little woman makes no plans to cook lunch because you are eating out.

　　By one-fifteen my stomach was sending up “please explain” to me. Even the crisps had gone. There was nothing we could do except wait, and wonder if the hostess was going to perform some magic and feed us fashionably late. Then, as quickly as if word had spread that there was free beer at the local pub, the room emptied. By one-forty-five there were only a few guests left, so we decided to go home. Tinned soup for lunch that day because the little woman was not really interested in real cooking for us.

　　A few weeks ago we were invited out for “supper” and the hostess suggested 8:15. Ah, we thought greedily, “this is going to be the real thing.”

　　We dressed with some care — I putting on a dark suit — and arrived on time. My wife looked pretty good, I thought, a little black dress and so on. But when we walked in I had a terrible feeling we had got the night wrong because the hostess was dressed in a daytime kind of way and the husband was in jeans and an open-neck shirt. But no, we were greeted and shown into the sitting-room.

　　After a drink I looked around and saw that this was indeed a superior cottage because it had a (more or less) separate dining-room. But there were no signs of a table-setting. Not again! I thought. Were we meant to eat before we came? I decided that in future my wife and I would always carry a chocolate bar. About 9:28 our hostess went out of the room, saying something about food. Ten minutes later she returned and asked us to follow. We were led out to the kitchen. There on the table were country style plates and a huge bowl of soup, rough bread and all the makings of a simple meal. And that is what it was. In other words we had not read the signals right when we were invited for “supper”. If they want you to come to dinner, they say so, and you know that means dark suits and so on. If they mean supper, they say it, and you get fed in the kitchen.

When the author and his wife were invited out for “a drink on Sunday morning”, they thought _______.

       A. they would be the only people there

       B. they would be given lunch as well

       C. they would be taken to a restaurant for lunch

       D. they would be asked to take some food with them

The “party” had been going on for about an hour and three quarters when _________.

       A. the hostess decided to feed her guests      B. everyone had tinned soup for lunch

       C. most of the guests went to lunch at the pub     D. the author realized he would go home hungry

When invited out for “supper” a few weeks later, the writer _________.

       A. expected to be served a proper dinner

       B. arrived on the wrong evening

       C. interpreted the invitation correctly this time

       D. realized there was no dining-room in the cottage

As the evening went on, the writer became aware that _________.

       A. no one used their dining-rooms in the countryside

       B. he should have had a meal before going out

       C. “supper” meant a simple, informal meal

　    D. he should, in future, eat only chocolate in the evening

D

In the 1960s, people asked about your astrological sign(星相). In the 1990s, they wanted to know your website (网址). These days, having a web address is almost as important as a street address. Your website is an electronic meeting place for your family, friends and potentially, millions of people around the world. Best of all, you may not have to spend a cent. The Web is filled with all kinds of free services and all it takes is some time and creativity.

Think of your home page as the starting point of your website. Like the table of contents of a book or a magazine, the home page is the front door. Your site can have one or more pages, depending on how you design it.

While web pages vary greatly in their design and content, most use a traditional magazine layout (版面设计). At the top of the page is a banner(大标题) GRAPHIC. Next comes a greeting and a short description of the site. Pictures, texts, and links to other websites follow.

Before you start building your site, do some planning. Think about whom the site is for and what you want to say. Next, gather up the material that you want to put on the site. Draw a rough layout on a sheet of paper.

While there are no rules you have to follow, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Start simply If you are too ambitious (雄心勃勃的) at the beginning, you may never get the site off the ground. You can always add to your site.

Less is better Most people don't like to read a lot of text online. Break it into small pieces.

Smaller is better Most people connect to the Internet with a modem (调制解调器). Since it can take a long time to download large image files, keep the file sizes small.

Have the rights Don't put any material on your site unless you are sure you can do it legally (合法地). Learn the Net's Copyright Article for more about this.

Now it's time to roll up your sleeves and start building. Learning the Net Communities provides tools to help you build your site.

68. The main purpose of the passage is to tell you _____.

A. what a website is like

B. how to build your own website

C. how to meet people online

D. what a website is made up of

69. According to the writer, your website is a place _____.

A. where you can meet people all around the world

B. where you can buy what you want

C. where you can get free services

D. where you can meet people on the Internet

70. The purpose of the home page of your website is _____.

A. to give a list of all the contents of your website

B. to make it look like a front door

C. to direct people to more of your pages

D. to design the cover of a book or magazine

71. The writer thinks that if you are too ambitious at the beginning, _____.

A. your website may leave no space for adding new things

B. you may never have your wetside working

C. you may have no idea how to build your website

D. you may tire yourself out

B
What happens inside the skull of a soccer player when repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.
For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.
Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.
According to the data they presented at Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.
This pattern of white matter loss is “similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury”, like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.
The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.
【小题1】The passage is most probably a ________.