南信大第四册第三单元英语课课练

The Beauty AdvantageMost of us have heard the story of Debrahlee Lorenzana, the 33-year-old Queens, N.Y., woman who sued Citibank last month, claiming that she was fired from her desk job for being “too hot.” But for all the talk about this woman’s motive s—and whether or not she was indeed fired for her looks—there’s one question nobody seems to want to ask: isn’t it possible Lorenzana’s looks got her the job in the first place?Not all employers are that shallow—but it’s no secret we are a culture consume d by image. Economists have long recognized what’s been dubbed the “beauty premium”—the idea that pretty people, whatever their aspirations, tend to do better in, well, almost everything. Handsome men earn, on average, 5 percent more than their less-attractive counterparts (good-looking women earn 4 percent more); pretty people get more attention from teachers, bosses, and mentors; even babies stare longer at good-looking faces (and we stare longer at good-looking babies). A couple of decades ago, when the economy was thriving, we might have brushed off those statistics as superficial. But there’s a growing bundle of research to show that our bias against the unattractive—our “beauty bias,”—is more pervasive than ever. And when it comes to the workplace, it’s looks, not merit, that all too often rule.Consider the following: over his career, a good-looking man will make some $250,000 more than his least-attractive counterpart, according to economist Daniel Hamermesh; 13 percent of women, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, say they’d consider cosmetic surgery if it made them more competitive at work. Both points are disturbing, certainly. But in the current economy, when employers have more hiring options than ever, looks, it seems, aren’t j ust important; they’re critical. NEWSWEEK surveyed 202 corporate hiring managers, fromhuman-resources staff to senior-level vice presidents, as well as 964 members of the public, only to confirm what no qualified (or unqualified) employee wants to admit: from hiring to office politics to promotions, even, looking good is no longer something we can dismiss as frivolous or vain.Fifty-seven percent of hiring managers told NEWSWEEK that qualified but unattractive candidates are likely to have a harder time landing a job, while more than half advised spending as much time and money on “making sure they look attractive” as on perfecting a résumé. When it comes to women, apparently, flaunting our assets works: 61 percent of managers said it would be an advantage for a woman to wear clothing showing off her figure at work. Asked to rank employee attributes in order of importance, meanwhile, managers placed looks above education: of nine character traits, it came in third, below experience and confidence but above “where a candidate went to school”. Does that mean you should drop out of Harvard and invest in a nose job? Probably not. But a state school might be just as marketable. “This is the new reality of the job market,” says one New York recruiter, who asked to have her name withheld because she advises job candidates for a living. “It’s better to be average and good- looking than brilliant and unattractive.”Beauty is linked to confidence; and it’s a combination of looks and confidence that we often equate with smarts. Perhaps there’s some evidence to that: if handsomekids get more attention from teachers, then, sure, maybe they do better in school and, ultimately, at work. But the more likely scenario is what scientists dub the “halo effect”—that, like a pack of untrained puppies, we are captivated by beauty, blindly ascribing intelligent traits to go along with it.There are various forces to blame for much of this, from an economy that allows pickiness to a plastic-surgery industry that encourages superficial notions of beauty. In reality, it’s a confluence of cultural forces that has left us clutching, desperately, to an ever-evolving beauty ideal. Today’s young workers were reared on the kind of reality TV and pop culture that screams, again and again, that everything is a candidate for upgrade. We’ve watched bodies transformed on Extreme Makeover, faces taken apart and pieced back together on I Want a Famous Face. We compare ourselves with the airbrushed images in advertisements and magazines, and read surveys—that confirm our worst fears. We are a culture more sexualized than ever, with technology that’s made it easier than ever to “better” ourselves, warping our standards for what’s normal. Plastic surgery used to be for the rich and famous; today we’ve leve led the playing field with cheap stupid jobs, and outpatient procedures you can get on your lunch break. Where that leads us is running to stand still: taught that good looks are no longer a gift but a ceaseless pursuit.Deborah Rhode, a Stanford law professor and author of The Beauty Bias, is herself an interesting case study. During her term as chair of the American Bar Association’s commission on working women, she was struck by how often the nation’s most powerful females were stranded in cab lines and late for meetings because, in heels, walking any distance was out of the question. These were working, powerful, leading women, she writes. Why did they insist on wearing heels? Sure, some women just like heels. But there is also the reality that however hard men have it—and, from an economic perspective, their “beauty premium” is higher, say economists—women will always face a double bind, expected to conform to the beauty standards of the day, yet simultaneously condemned for doing so. Recruiters may think women like Lorenzana can get ahead for showing off their looks, but 47 percent also believe it’s possible for a woman to be penalized for being “toogood-looking.” Whether or not any of it pays off, there’s something terribly wrong when 6-year-olds are using makeup, while their mothers spend the equivalent of a college education just keeping their faces intact. “All of this is happening against a background of more women in the workplace, in all kinds of jobs, striving toward wage equality,” says Harvard psychologist Nancy Etcoff. “So we’re surprised—but we shouldn’t be—how this beauty curse continues to haunt us.”To add an extra layer of complexity, there’s the puzzling problem of aging in a culture where younger workers are more skillful, cheaper, and, well, nicer on the eyes. Eighty-four percent of managers told NEWSWEEK they believe a qualified but visibly older candidate would make some employers hesitate, and while ageism affects men, too, it’s particularly tough for women. As Rhode puts it, silver h air and furrowed brows may make aging men look “distinguished,” but aging women risk marginalization or scorn for their efforts to pass as young. “This double standard,”Rhode writes, “leaves women not only perpetually worried about their appearance—but al so worried about worrying.”The quest for beauty may be a centuries-old obsession, but in the present day the reality is ugly. Beauty has more influence than ever—not just over who we work with, but whether we work at all.Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A），B），C）and D），and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter.听力原文：11.M: It really makes my blood boil when this sort of thing happens.W: You’d better cool yourself down first.Q: How does the man feel now?12.W: Do you mind if I change the channel?M: No, not at all. The program is so boring.Q: What are they doing now?13.W: National Flight 219 to Shanghai is delayed due to severe weather conditions.Please stand by for additional information.M: Oh no! I hate these long delays.Q: Where is the man?14.M: Mom, may I play the computer games for a while?W: Behave yourself! Dad is in the study.Q: What does the mother ask the child to do?15.W: I’m told The Seven Swords just finished its last cut.M: Yes, it will be a hit, I think. When will it be on, do you know?Q: What are they talking about?16.M: I’m terribly sorry for my negligence.W: Apologies may count if they can get the losses back.Q: What do we learn from the conversation?17.M: Will we have an English examination this afternoon?W: It’s postponed because the teacher has to attend a conference.Q: What do you know from the woman’s answer?18.W: My room smells of cigarette smoke. I can’t st and it. Could you change myroom, please?M: Let me see…I’m sorry, but we don’t have any more non-smoking rooms. We won’t charge you for your room tonight.Q: What can you learn form the conversation?Questions 1 to 4 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 听力原文：Conversation OneW: John! How are you? It’s been ages since we met last time!M: I’m fine, thank you! Seeing you now just reminds me of the good days we spent together in school.W: Me too. You look more energetic than before. What are you doing these days? M: Believe it or not, I’ve just opened my own restaurant. I’m also head chef.W: Are you kidding me? You’re always hated cooking!M: Well, I used to hate cooking, but now I really love it.W: I just can’t believe my ears! When did you change your m ind?M: After I tried Chinese food. It was so delicious and quite different from any food I’d had before. Before that, I used to cook really boring things for my family. But now the whole family enjoys the Chinese food I cook for them. Cooking is really the most enjoyable work to me.W: I still can’t believe it! So, did you go to cooking school or something?M: Yeah. I went to Beijing to study. The teachers there were excellent and I learned a lot. That’s of great help to my restaurant.W: Really? How long did you stay there?M: I was there between 1997 and 1999.W: And what did you do after that?M: Then I came back here. I worked in a Chinese restaurant for about two years to get some experience.W: That’s great! So, where is your restaurant? I’m going to eat there this weekend! M: It’s right on the corner of Queen’s Street. I’ll be very happy if you come.W: OK, I’ll be there with my husband on Sunday.M: I look forward to seeing you, bye-bye.19.What is the possible relationship between the two speakers?20.What are the two speakers mainly talking about?21.Which is NOT correct according to the man?22.How long did the man stay in Beijing?Questions 1 to 3 are based on the conversation you have just heard. 听力原文：Conversation TwoM: Do you think young people are given too much freedom nowadays, and that as a result they’ve lost respect for their parents and their elders generally?W: I don’t think so. My parents never interfered with my plans too much. They advised me but never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do. I was allowed to take up the career that I liked. I think I respect and love them more for this.M: Are you quite independent of them now?W: Yes. Since I left school and started my studies as a nurse, I’ve become independent financially. I have a government grant which is enough for my keep. But I still stay with them a lot, as you know.M: You seem very close to your parents.W: I am. I know that many young people today say they have nothing in common with their parents but I’m rather lucky because I get on very well with mine. What about you?M: Well, we value family life very much in our country. I’m very fond of my family, but I don’t always get on very well with them. They try to control me too much.W: But they allowed you to come to study in England on your own!M: Yes, but only after a lot of persuasion! Your parents treat you as an adult; mine treat me as a child.W: As I said, I’m lucky. Some English parents are like yours. T hey interfere too much and they’re out of sympathy with our generation.M: That’s really a problem.W: Maybe it’s just because of a lack of communication.23.What attitude do young people have towards their parents according to the man?24.Why does the woman say she is very lucky?25.According to the man, which one is NOT true about his relationship with hisparents?Directions: In this section, you will hear 3 short passages. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A），B），C）and D），and decide which is the best answer. Then mark the corresponding letter.Questions 1 to 3 are based on the passage you have just heard.听力原文：Passage OneMark Twain traveled quite a lot. Usually financial circumstances forced him to. He was born in Florida in 1835, and moved to Hannibal, Missouri with his family when he was about four years old. Most people think he was born in Hannibal. But that isn’t true. After his father died when he was about twelve, Twain worked in Hannibal for a short time and then left, so that he could earn more money. He worked for a while as a typesetter. And then he got a job as a river pilot on the Mississippi. Twain loved this job and many of his books show it. The river job didn’t last, however, because of the outbreak of the Civil War. Twain was in the confederate army for just two weeks. And then he and his whole company went west to get away from the war and the army. In the west, he became a successful writer. Once that happened Twain traveled around the country giving lectures and earning enough money to go to Europe. Twain didn’t travel much in the last ten years of his life and he didn’t publish much. Like many other popular writers, Twain got much material for his writing from the wealth of his own experiences.11.When did his family move to Missouri?12.Why did Twain give up the job as a river pilot?13.What connection does the passage suggest between Twain’s travels and hiswriting?Questions 1 to 3 are based on the passage you have just heard.听力原文：Passage TwoMore than half of 500 Chinese cities failed to meet national air quality standards last year.The areas suffered potentially harmful air quality, a survey of 500 cities by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) claims. And nearly one-third of non-industrial sewage in the cities went untreated. In 193 other cities, no treatment was carried out at all, the report revealed. The findings are likely to cause widespread concern.As urbanization speeds up in China, it poses increasing pressure on the urban environment, and the Chinese Government has given top priority to environmental protection in cities. But given the latest findings, such protection has yet to yield notable results.There are 661 cities in China—home to 41.7 percent of the population. They also generate 65.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product—but all at a huge cost to the environment.Wang Jirong, vice-minister of the Administration, told journalists in Beijing, “In the past two decades, China has been facing environmental problems which developed countries met with over one century ago,”Making reasonable development plans, building sufficient and effectively operated infrastructure and continuing the improvement of the urban environment are among t he recommended measures, SEPA’s release said. The Administration started to examine environmental management and improvement in 1989.According to Wang Yuqing, joint SEPA vice-minister, the number of complaints about environmental problems in China has been growing by 30 percent annually, showing that pollution has a serious impact on the quality of the life of the public.29.How many cities didn’t meet national air quality standards last year?30.Which of the following measures is NOT recommended according to thepassage?31.How do we know pollution seriously affects the quality of life of the public? Questions 1 to 4 are based on the passage you have just heard.听力原文：Passage ThreeWhen I was in the 7th grade, I volunteered about 30 to 40 hours a week during the summer at a local hospital in my town. Most of the time I spent there was with Mr. Gillespie. He never had any visitors, and nobody seemed to care about his condition. I spent many days there holding his hand and talking to him, helping with anything that needed to be done. He became a close friend of mine, even though he responded with only an occasional squeeze of my hand—Mr. Gillespie was in a deep unconscious state.I left for a week on vocation with my parents, and when I came back, Mr. Gillespie was gone. I didn’t have the nerve to ask any of the nurses where he was, for fear they might tell me he had died.Several years later, when I was a junior in high school, I was at the gas station when I noticed a familiar face. When I realized who it was, my eyes filled with tears. He was alive! I got up the nerve to ask him whether his name was Mr. Gillespie, andwhether he had been in a coma about five years ago. With an uncertain look on his face, he replied yes. I explained how I knew him, and that I had spent many hours talking to him in the hospital. His eyes welled up with tears, and he gave me the warmest hug I had ever received.He began to tell me how, as he lay there unconscious, he could hear me talking to him and could feel me holding his hand the whole time. He thought it was an angle, not a person, who was there with him. Mr. Gillespie firmly believed that it was my voice and touch that had kept him alive. Then he told me about his life. We both cried for a while and exchanged a hug, said our good-byes and went out separate ways.Although I haven’t seen him since, he fills my heart with joy every day. I know that I made a difference between his life and his death. More importantly, he has made a tremendous difference in my life. I will never forget him and what he did for me: He made me an angel.32.How did Mr. Gillespie respond to the speaker’s help when he was in hospital?33.Why didn’t the speaker ask the nurse where Mr. Gillespi e was when she cameback form her vocation?34.What did Mr. Gillespie believe had kept him alive?35.What can you infer from the passage?Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times.When the passage is read for the first time,you should listen carefully for its general idea.When the passage is read for the second time,you are required to fill in the missing information.Finally,when the passage is read for the third time,you should check what you have written.The idea of television, transmitting pictures through the air or over wires, has been around since the late 19th(36) __________. But it wasn’t until 1925, when J. L. Baird, a Scottish (37) __________ became the first to electrically transmit moving pictures, that television became a (38)__________.Baird’s first television was a mechanical system consisting of several moving parts. It had a small (39)__________ onto which pictures were transmitted 10 times per second at 30 lines of resolution (分辨率). With the help of photoelectric cell, bright and dim light were (40)__________ into an electrical signal and sent via radio waves. In June 1925, Baird transmitted the (41)__________ of a human face, winking and smiling from one room of the laboratory to another, without the aid of(42)__________ or wires. Television truly came into its own in the 1930s with the advent of the cathode-ray tube (阴极射线管), which allowed for electronicline-by-line scanning of (43)__________. With the help of the Radio Corporation of America and an improved cathode-ray tube, the first all-electronic TV was demonstrated in 1932.(44)_________________________________________________________________ ____________. As television’s evolution continues, high-definition (分辨率) digital TV is supposed to replace today’s 625-line sets with 1,050 or more lines of resolution.(45) _______________________________________________________________. This trend has developed very fast.(46)_________________________________________________________.听力原文：The idea of television, transmitting pictures through the air or over wires, has been around since the late 19th(36) __________. But it wasn’t until 1925, when J. L. Baird, a Scottish (37) __________ became the first to electrically transmit moving pictures, that television became a (38)__________.Baird’s first television was a mechanical system consisting of several moving parts. It had a small (39)__________ onto which pictures were transmitted 10 times per second at 30 lines of resolution (分辨率). With the help of photoelectric cell, bright and dim light were (40)__________ into an electrical signal and sent via radio waves. In June 1925, Baird transmitted the (41)__________ of a human face, winking and smiling from one room of the laboratory to another, without the aid of(42)__________ or wires. Television truly came into its own in the 1930s with the advent of the cathode-ray tube (阴极射线管), which allowed for electronicline-by-line scanning of (43)__________. With the help of the Radio Corporation of America and an improved cathode-ray tube, the first all-electronic TV was demonstrated in 1932.(44)_________________________________________________________________ ____________. As television’s evolution continues, high-definition (分辨率) digital TV is supposed to replace today’s 625-line sets with 1,050 or more lines of resolution.(45) _______________________________________________________________. This trend has developed very fast.(46)_________________________________________________________.In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter.Passage OneQuestions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.In the US in the 19th century, faced with increasing discrimination and new laws which prevented participation in many occupations on the West Coast, some Chinese immigrants moved to East Coast cities in search of employment. Early businesses in these cities included hand laundries and restaurants. Chinatown in New York started on Mott Street, Park, Pell and Doyer streets, east of the notorious Five Points district. By 1870, there was a Chinese population of 200. By the time the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed, the population was up to 2,000 residents. By 1900, there were 7,000 Chinese residents, but fewer than 200 Chinese women.The early days of Chinatown were dominated by Chinese “tongs” (now sometimes rendered neutrally as “associations”), which were a mixture of clan associations, landsman’s associations, political alliances and (more secretly) crime syndicates. The associations started to give protection from harassment due toanti-Chinese racism. Each of these associations was aligned (一致) with a street gang. The associations were a source of assistance to new immigrants—giving out loans, aiding in starting business, and so forth.Much of Chinatown worked in an underground economy, where wages were below the minimum wage and transactions were done in cash to avoid paying taxes. This underground economy was responsible for employment of large numbers of new immigrants who lacked the language skills to seek better jobs. This system encouraged the garment (衣服) industry to use large-scale sweatshops in the Chinatown area. Tourism and restaurants were also major industries.In the years after the United States reformulated its immigration laws in 1965, allowing many more immigrants from Asia into the country, the population of Chinatown exploded. Geographically, much of the growth was in neighborhoods to the north.In the 1990s, Chinese people began to move into some parts of the western Lower East Side, which 50 years earlier had been populated by Eastern European Jews and 20 years earlier had been occupied by Hispanics. There are today only a few remnants (残余部分) of Jewish heritage left on the Lower East Side, such as the famous Katz’s Deli and a number of old religious establishments.Passage TwoQuestions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.A new study performed by researchers at the University of California lends new credence (真实性) to the theory that there are some positive aspects to anger, particularly as it relates to decision making. Researchers explain that past studies have been interpreted to show angry people as less analytical and more dependent on fixed ideas. However, the researchers feel that some of these studies were inconclusive and others may point to little discussed, positive aspects of anger in decision making.Judging from these tests, it appears that when distinguishing between various arguments, angry people disregard information that’s irrelevant to the quality of the argument, such as its source. Neutral subjects, however, give undue preference to those clues. In other words, they pay attention to cues that really matter—argument quality, facts provided and so on. Contrary to common belief, anger can now be seen as a “motivator” of analytical thinking, rather than an obstacle.The study shows that anger can help boost analytic thinking as angry subjects more often ignore less useful information. But why? If you think about it, there is an underlying logic. Anger is an emotion that demands a response. Sometimes that response can be harmful or violent. But sometimes it can be constructive—in this case, there’s a desire to find a solution by focusing on thinking analytically. And as we saw in many tests, even people who weren’t analytically inclined saw a boost in their reasoning ability when they got a little annoyed. The study also points out that angry people often have a desire to see someone punished, a feeling which could motivate them to rank one argument above another.Other studies have also found positive benefits to anger. Dr. Jennifer, one of the scientists conducting the study, has studied the effects of anger extensively. She has found that responding to a stressful situation with a reasonable amount of anger can make people feel more in control and more positive. Dr. Carol Tavris, a psychologist and author of a book called Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion says that anger certainly has a positive role to play in society.In everyday life, we often hear people saying how small eruptions of anger, or expressing frustration when it occurs, is more healthy than bottling it up until it boils over dramatically. Expressing anger can lead to healthy discussions, moments of insight and understanding.Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A), B), C), and D) on the right side of the paper. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage. Then mark the corresponding letter.Most people have no idea of the hard work and worry that go into the collecting of those fascinating birds and animals that they pay to see in the zoo. One of the questions that is always asked of me is 82 I became an animal collector in the first 83 . The answer is that I have always been interested in animals and zoos. According to my parents, the first word I was able to say with any 84 was not the conventional “mamma” or “daddy”, 85 the word “zoo”, which I would86 over and over again with a shrill 87 until someone, ins groups to 88 me up, would take me to the zoo .When I 89 a little older, we lived in Greece and I had a great 90 of pers, ranging from owls to seahorses ,and I spent all my spare time 91 the countryside in search of fresh specimens to 92 to my collection of pets. 93 on I went for a year to the City Zoo, as a student 94 , to get experience of the large animals, such as lions ,bears ,bison and ostriches, 95 were not easy to keep at home. When I left, I 96 had enough money of my own to be able to 97 my first trip and I have been going 98 ever since then. Though a collector’s job is not an easy one and is full of 99 , it is certainly a job which will appeal 100 all those who love animals and 101 .72. A. how B. where C. when D. whether73. A. region B. field C. place D. case74. A. clarity B. emotion C. sentiment D. affection75. A. except B. but C. except for D. but for76. A. recite B. recognize C. read D. repeat77. A. volume B. noise C. voice D.pitch78. A. close B. shut C. stop D.comfort79. A. grew B. was growing C. grow D.grown80. A. sum B. amount C. number D. quantity81. A. living B. cultivating C. reclaiming D.exploring82. A. increase B. include C. add D. enrich83. A. later B. further C. then D. subsequently84. A. attendant B. keeper C. member D. aide85. A. who B. they C. of which D. which86. A. luckily B. gladly C. nearly D.successfully。