If you could take a large snapshot (照片) of everyone in the United States today, it would contain six million more females than males. In this country, women outlive men by about seven years. Throughout the modern world, cultures are different, diets are different, ways of life and causes of death are different, but one thing is the same--- women outlive men.
It starts before birth. At conception, male fetuses(胎儿) outnumber female by about 110 to 100; at birth, the rate has already fallen to about 105 boys to every 100 girls. By the age of 30, there are only enough men left to match the number of women. Then women start taking a lead. Beyond the age of 80, there are nearly twice as many women as men.
“If you look at the top ten or twelve causes of death,” said Deborah Wingard, a disease expert at the University of California at San Diego, “every single one kills more men.” She listed out one sad fate after another – heart disease, lung cancer and so on. Each kills men at roughly twice the rate of that it does women.
More than a century ago American men surpassed and outlived the women. But in the 20th century, women began living longer, primarily because pregnancy（怀孕) and giving birth to children had become less dangerous. The gap grew steadily. In 1946, for the first time ever in the United States, females outnumbered males.
Parts of the reasons are self-made. Men smoke more, drink more and take more life-threatening chances than women. Men are murdered (usually by other men) three times as often as women are. They commit suicide at a higher rate and have more than twice as many fatal car accidents as women do. Men are likely to be involved in alcohol-related deaths.
But behavior doesn’t explain away the longevity gap.
Today, some scientists studying the gender gap believe that the data point to one conclusion: Mother Nature may be partial(偏袒) to women.
Every living thing is assembled according to instructions on its chromosomes (染色体), and humans have 23 pairs of them. But in males, one of these is a weak non-matching pair, expressed by “xy”. The agreement pair in females is “xx”, and its genetic “backup” power is sometimes listed as a clue to woman’s superior restoring force. If the male’s single “x” chromosome isn’t perfect, it is possible for a serious genetic disorder to appear. Some blood diseases, for instance, are diseases caused by a shortcoming in a single gene on the “x” chromosome. They are far more common in males than females.
| A．Become stronger than. |
| B．Live longer than. |
| C．Be wiser than. |
| D．Be born more earlier than. |
| A．Female fetuses are more than male. |
| B．The female are surpassing the male with age increasing. |
| C．By the age of 30, the female are more than the male. |
| D．Over 90, men are more than women in the United States. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Ten. | D．Five. |
| A．Why women live longer than men |
| B．Women are different from men |
| C．American men once lived longer than the women |
| D．Men smoke and drank more than women |
Invention of TV began in 1922 in Rigby, Idaho, the hometown of Philo. At the age of 16, Philo was a very shy boy. Only his teacher, Justin Tolman, realized that Philo was a special person.
One day after school Mr Tolman found Philo in the schoolroom. The boy was making drawings on the blackboard.
“What are you doing?” Mr Tolman asked with interest. “What are these drawings?”
“I want to invent things,” Philo answered, “and these are the drawings of one of my first inventions. I have an idea for a way of sending pictures through the air. Please, just let me tell you about it. You are the only person who can understand what I have done.” In the school library Philo had read about a man who had worked on an idea for TV, but had failed. Philo was sure that his idea was better and that he could succeed.
Mr Tolman was not sure and asked Philo many questions about the drawings. Giving facts and figures, Philo answered every question.
In 1926, Philo sent his drawings to Washington, along with a letter asking for patent (专利)rights on TV. Since then, television has become an important business all over the world. When he lived in his hometown, Philo was _____________.
| A．quite different from others | B．an activity boy |
| C．an inventor | D．a hard-working boy |
When Philo said “ You are the only person who can understand what I have done.”, his mood（情绪） was_________.
| A．discouraged | B．guilty (内疚的) | C．trusting | D．hopeless |
It took Philo ________ to invent the television.
| A．2 years | B．4 years | C．6 years | D．8 years |
Philo ________ after he invented television.
| A．asked for the patent rights on television |
| B．sent his drawings to Mr Tolman |
| C．answered Mr Tolman’s questions |
| D．gave facts and figures to Mr Tolman |
When Mr Tolman saw Philo’s drawings, he ______________.
| A．did not believe it was Philo’s invention |
| B．believed Philo could succeed |
| C．did not believe Philo could succeed |
| D．believed Philo was a special person |
Children are our future, and it’s up to us to arm them with the tools to succeed. Sadly, today’s children are being armed with more dangerous tools like weapons （武器）, drugs and gangs. Once a relatively peaceful environment, many schoolyards of today are becoming unsafe for both students and teachers.
Home schools are available to give you choices. Home schooling provides top-quality education, flexibility, and freedom to create your own schedule （日程表）. At Heritage Home School we believe the choice should be yours.
Thanks in part to modern technology, home schooling information is becoming readily available across our nation. A recent study by the ITBS（Iowa Tests of Basic Skills）and TAP（Tests of Achievement and Proficiency）shows us that students of home schools do particularly well when compared with the nationwide average. In every subject at every grade level, students of home schooling scored obviously higher than those in public and private schools.
If you’re new to home schooling, you may be asking yourself, “Will home schools really work for my children? ”
Fact: A nationwide study using a random（任意）selection of 1,516 families found students of home schooling to be scoring, on average, at or above the 80th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement test.
Note: The national average on standardized achievement tests is the 50th percentile.
Collectively, the staff（全体职员）at Heritage Home School brings 65 years of experience in home schooling curriculum（全部课程）. We’ve placed students in the top 2% of the nation in math and many are successfully moving on to college.
One study found that of the home schooled adults, 2% were unemployed, 2% were on welfare（福利）and 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons.
For more home schooling information, call us today toll free at 1（877）532-7665. We can learn from the first paragraph that _______.
| A．many schools armed their students with weapons |
| B．violence and crime exist in many schoolyards |
| C．students use weapons to defend their schoolyards |
| D．weapons are more dangerous than drugs |
All of the following are true of home schools EXCEPT that _______.
students are free to choose their courses
B. students do well in important national tests
C. they help students find jobs
D. they help students to be independent What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To give information about different schools. |
| B．To compare home schools with other schools. |
| C．To suggest a new method of school education. |
| D．To persuade people to choose home schools. |
The advertisement is mainly aimed at _______.
| A．students | B．parents | C．teachers | D．adults |
Students of home schooling get higher scores than those in public and private schools ____ .
| A．in some subjects at every grade level | B．in part subjects at every grade level |
| C．in few subjects at every grade level | D．in all subjects at every grade level |
Edward Wilson is America's, if not the world's, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world's natural resources. How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.
Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today's Walden Pond with that of Thoreau's day. Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Can the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?
Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species(物种) are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.
At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may as well read and act on the ideas in this book.We learn from the text that Wilson cares most about .
| A．the environment for plants |
| B．the biodiversity of our earth |
| C．the waste of natural resources |
| D．the importance of human values |
How many species are most important to our present food supply?
| A．Twenty | B．Eighty | C．One hundred | D．Ten thousand |
Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to .
| A．learn how to farm scientifically |
| B．builds homes for some dying species |
| C．makes it clear what to eat |
| D．use more species for food |
We can infer that the text is
| A．description of natural resources |
| B．a research report |
| C．a book review |
| D．an introduction to a scientist |
The best example of something is often called the "gold standard." It sets the standard against which other things are measured. In economics, the term describes how major trading nations once used gold to set currency values and exchange rates. Many nations continued to use the gold standard until the last century.
In the United States, people could exchange paper money for gold from the eighteen seventies until nineteen thirty-three. Then-President Richard Nixon finally disconnected the dollar from the value of gold in nineteen seventy-one. From time to time, some politicians call for a return to the gold standard.
In 1978, the International Monetary Fund ended an official gold price. The IMF also ended the required use of gold in transactions with its member countries. Since that time, gold prices have grown and continued to be high. But people keep buying. Some people are "gold bugs." These are investors who say people should buy gold to protect against inflation(通货膨胀).
People have valued gold for thousands of years. The soft, dense metal polishes to a bright yellow shine and resists most chemical reactions. It makes a good material for money, political power -- and, more recently, electrical power. If you own a device like a mobile phone or a computer, you might own a little gold in the wiring.
The gold standard was the subject of one of the best-known speeches in American political history. William Bryan wanted the country to use both gold and silver as money. The idea was to devalue the dollar and make it easier for farmers to pay their debts. So he delivered a speech, which made him famous. He was a presidential candidate three times. But he never won.The underlined word “transactions” probably means “ ”
| A．wars | B．trade | C．meetings | D．conflict |
After the IMF ended the official gold price, the gold prices .
| A．stayed the same | B．began to drop |
| C．increased | D．increased a little at first and kept drop |
What’s the fourth paragraph mainly about?
| A．The reason for valuing gold | B．The history of the use of gold |
| C．New function of gold | D．How to obtain gold |
We can learn from the last paragraph that William Bryan .
| A．was once a farmer | B．loved to collect gold |
| C．was a famous political figure | D．was a good at giving speeches |
The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman's life spent in caring for the children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, four or five of whom lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has to take care of children, her work is lightened by modern living conditions.
This important change in women's life-patterns has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls took a full-time job after they left school. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school- leaving age is sixteen; many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry older, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more afterwards return to full-or-part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.At what age did most women marry around the 1890 according to the passage?
| A．At about twenty-five | B．In their earl fifties |
| C．At the age of fifteen | D．At any age from fifteen to forty-five |
Many girls, the passage claims, are now likely to_______.
| A．give up their jobs for good after they are married |
| B．leave school as soon as they can |
| C．marry so that they can get a job |
| D．continue working until they are going to have a baby |
When she was over fifty, a late nineteenth-century mother ______.
| A．was usually expected to die fairly soon |
| B．would expect to work until she died |
| C．would be healthy enough to take up paid jobs |
| D．was less likely to find a job even if she wanted to |
Nowadays, a husband tends to_______.
| A．play a greater part in looking after the children |
| B．help his wife by doing much of the housework |
| C．feel dissatisfied with his role in the family |
| D．take a part-time job so that he can help in the home |
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