Three women who secretly buried an 80-year-old woman were put into prison at Birmingham ye
Mrs. Townsend's death had been covered up and it was discovered ______.
A.only yesterday
B.five months afterwards
C.two years afterwards
D.quickly
Mrs. Townsend's death had been covered up and it was discovered ______.
A.only yesterday
B.five months afterwards
C.two years afterwards
D.quickly
Notions of women's liberation have never taken root among Japanese women. But with scant open conflict, the push for separate burials is quietly becoming one of the country's fastest growing social trends. In a recent survey by the TBS television network, 20 percent of the women who responded said they hoped to be buried separately from their husbands.
The funerary revolt comes as women here annoy at Japan's slow pace in providing greater equality between the sexes. The law, for example, still makes it almost impossible for a woman to use her maiden name after marriage. Divorce rates are low by Western standards, meanwhile, because achieving financial independence, or even obtaining a credit card in one's own name, are insurmountable hurdles for many divorced women. Until recently, society enforced restrictions on women even in death. Under Japan's complex burial customs, divorced or unmarried women were traditionally unwelcome in most graveyards, where plots are still passed down through the husband's family and descendants must provide maintenance for burial sites or lose them.
"The woman who wanted to be buried alone couldn't find a graveyard until about 10 years ago," said Haruyo Inoue, a sociologist of death and burial at Japan University. She said that graveyards that did not require descendants, in order to accommodate women, began appearing around 1990. Today, she said, that there are close to 400 of these cemeteries in Japan. That is just one sign of stirring among Japanese women, who are also pressing for the first time to change the law to be able to use their maiden names after marriage.
Although credit goes beyond any individual, many women cite Junko Mastubara, a popular writer on women's issues, with igniting the trend to separate sex burials. Starting three years ago, Ms. Matsubara has built an association of nearly 600 women--some divorced, some unhappily married, and some determinedly single who plan to share a common plot curbed out of an ordinary cemetery in the western suburb of Chofu.
From the fact that divorce can mean a life of hardship for Japanese women, we can infer that ______.
A.many Japanese women have a bad relationship with their husbands
B.many Japanese women live together with their husband in perfect harmony
C.many Japanese women have a low social status
D.it's an out-dated custom for Japanese women to be housewives
Part A
Directions :
Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by' choosing A, B, Cor D. Mark your answers on,ANSWER SHEET1.
Text 1
Whenever Catherine Brown, a 37-year-old journalist, and her friends, professionals in their 30s and early 40s, meet at a London cafe, their favorite topic of conversation is relationships: men's reluctance to commit, women's independence, and when to have children-or, increasing-Iy, whether to have them at all. "With the years passing my chances of having a child go down, but I won't marry anyone just to have a child," says Brown. To people like Brown, babies are great-if the timing is right. But they're certainly not essential.
In much of the world, having kids is no longer a given. "Never before has childlessness been an understandable decision for women and men in so many societies," says Frank Hakim at the London School of Economics. Young people are extending their child-free adulthood by postponing children until they are well into their 30s, or even 40s and beyond.
A growing share are ending up with no children at all. Lifetime childlessness in western Germany has hit 30 percent among university-educated women, and is rapidly rising among lower-classmen. In Britain, the number of women remaining childless has doubled in 20 years.
The latest trend of childlessness does not follow historic patterns. For centuries it was not unusual for a quarter of European women to remain childless. But in the past,childlessness was usually the product of poverty or disaster, of missing men in times of war. Today the decision to have-or not have-a child is the result of a complex combination of factors, including relationships, career opportunities, lifestyle. and economics.
In some cases childlessness among women can be seen as a quiet form. of protest. In Japan, support for working mothers hardly exists. Child care is expensive, men don't help out, and some companies strongly discourage mothers from returning to work. "In Japan, it's career or child,"says writer Kaori Haishi . It's not just women who are deciding against children; according to a re-cent study, Japanese men are even less inclined to marry or want a child. Their motivations, though, may have more to do with economic factors.
46. Catherine Brown and her friends feel that having children is not _________
[ A] totally wise
[ B] a huge problem
[ C] a rational choice
[ D ] absolutely necessary
听力原文: "Where is the university? is question many visitors to Cambridge ask, but no one could point them in any one direction because there is no campus. The university consists of thirty-one self-governing colleges. It has lecture halls, libraries, laboratories, museums and offices throughout the city(32).
Individual colleges choose their own students (33), who have to meet the minimum entrance requirements set by the university. Undergraduates usually live and study in their colleges, where they are taught in very small groups. Lectures, and laboratory and practical work are organized by the university and held in university buildings.
There are over ten thousand undergraduates and three thousand five hundred postgraduates. About 40% of them are women and some 8% from overseas. As well as teaching, research is of major importance. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, more than sixty university members have won Nobel prizes.
The university has a huge number of buildings for teaching and research. It has more than sixty specialist subject libraries, as well as the University Library, which, as a copyright library, is entitled to a copy of every book published in Britain(34).
Examinations are set and degrees are awarded by the university. It allowed women to take the university exams in 1881, but it was not until 1948 that they were awarded degrees(35).
(33)
A.Because there are no signs to direct them.
B.Because no tour guides are available.
C.Because all the buildings in the city look alike.
D.Because the university is everywhere in the city.
Of the three women that buried Mrs. Townsend secretly, one was ______.
A.her neighbor
B.her nurse
C.a social worker
D.her daughter
The three women were put into prison because ______.
A. they broke the law
B. they buried the old woman
C. they shared the old woman's money
D. they killed the old woman
The reason for the old woman's secret burial was that the three women ______.
A. were too sad to let the public know it
B. had no money to arrange for a public funeral
C. wanted to collect the old woman's pension
D. were afraid that they might be put into prison
Mr. Brown owns a ______shop in town. He also employs three ______assistants.
A. dresses, woman
B. dress, woman
C. dress, women
D. dresses, women
The word "powerhouse"in paragraph one means ()
A、a small powerplant
B、a good restaurant
C、an energetic person
D、an angry woman
Section B
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.
I often hear people say that the lack of women in positions of political leadership is an issue that pales next to world crises-global terrorism, fragile economies, inadequate health care and troubled schools. They see no connection between the frightening situations we're in and the fact that few women sit at the table to determine the solutions.
This fundamental imbalance, with men running the world and women mostly spectators, is not a trivial detail. It is the problem. It is also the one solution we have not tried on and the one most likely to work.
This is not just me talking. Three decades of research in state legislatures, universities, and international public policy centers have proven beyond doubt that women, children, and men all benefit when women are in leadership. Broader social legislation, benefiting everyone, is more likely to pass if women are in office. We know the power of women as peacemakers in the world from scores of stories about their effectiveness at negotiation, from Ireland to Norway to South Africa and beyond.
We can ill afford to use only half our talent, when we know for a fact that today's complicated challenges demand more than one vision. It's time for real and permanent power sharing, for real and permanent change women ruling side by side with men, allowing their voices to rise with different solutions and allowing men to think outside of the masculine box. In this way, we get fresh eyes and fresh solutions from both genders, applied to both old, durable problems and to new, frightening ones.
This is not a call to move power from the fingers of men and turn it all over to women. Together we can create a different world, shifting the burden from male shoulders and allowing the variety of thought and life experience to transform. our actions—perhaps bringing a greater peace, perhaps allowing men to be better fathers, perhaps providing a new pattern for our security.
It's not easy to get there. Those in power rarely let go without a fight, even if they would benefit by doing so. For women to truly gain the leadership roles, we must be insistent and persistent. We must enlist our many male allies. We must let it be known that we are ready to lead, that in fact we demand it as a birthright. If we think creatively, if we use our community resources, if we support women who say they want to lead, if we use our voices and our votes to get there, we will achieve the transformation of power.
What is said about the actuality of the political leadership structure?
A.Men run the world, while the women watch them.
B.Men operate our world, while women help them.
C.There are almost half women political leaders now.
D.Lack of women political leaders is the biggest problem.