Section C: Reading Comprehension
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 on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
Why are we so worried about our careers? Partly it’s to do with money, but there’s a psychological aspect to our fears as well. We worry because we suspect — not wrongly — that the world is full of a frightening sort of person ready to judge us ruthlessly and swiftly: a person we can call a snob.
A snob is anyone who takes a relatively small part of us and uses it to come to a rigid conclusion about how much of their attention we deserve. In the past that might be your ancestry and royal connections. Nowadays, the snob cares about one thing only: what you do for a living.
This explains why the first question we will be asked in any new social context is “What do you do?” and according to how we answer, snobs will either welcome us with broad smiles, or leave us in the cold. And that is why we are fired up by such a desperate urge to achieve and impress.
Sometimes our behaviour is mistaken for greed and vanity, but it is more than this. A lot of our interest in fancy cars, jobs and houses has nothing to do with materialism. It has to do with a hunger for the respect and esteem that is only available in our societies through the acquisition of material goods. It isn’t the goods themselves we seek, it is the love we stand to gain through our possession of them. The next time we see someone driving a Ferrari, we shouldn’t condemn them for their greed, we should pity them for the intensity of their need for love from the world.
At the root of snobbery is a lack of imagination and confidence about how to decide who in the world is valuable. The snobs are brutally misguided and slavish in their beliefs about how the superior individuals can be identified. For snobs, it is the already acclaimed and already successful who are the only ones worthy of respect. There is no room in their timid regimented minds to imagine that someone might be clever, kind or good — and yet somehow have been overlooked entirely by society, their qualities lying hidden beneath an unfamiliar veil, and having as yet discovered no obvious outlet.
The true answer to snobbery is not to say that there is no such thing as a better or worse person, but to insist that better or worse exist in constantly unexpected places and carry none of the outward signs of distinction. And because we are such poor judges of the worth of others, our ultimate duty remains to be kind, good curious and imaginative about pretty much everyone who ever crosses our path.
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Women have historically been paid less. But in the US in the 1980s, they began to catch up — fast. During that decade, the gender pay gap closed by about one percentage point a year. Had that trend continued, the gender wage gap would have been closed by 2017.
But the trend didn’t continue, and the gap remains yawning.
According to a new study from academics at Harvard, the stagnation can be put down, perhaps counterintuitively, to the introduction of state and federal family leave policies.
The academics argue that during the 1990s, as governments began to introduce leave policies, it was mainly women who took advantage of them. Though the leave policies might have helped those women to stay in the workplace — instead of dropping out to have families — those who returned saw their wages had increased at lower rates than the men.
After family leave was introduced in the US, in fact, the rate of gender wage convergence fell to just 0.03 percentage points per year, and has remained there ever since.
Those monitoring the process towards salary equity at work have long watched as progress slowed in many countries around the world. In fact, that progress began to reverse during the pandemic (大流行病).
The gender pay gap is one of the most outstanding examples of that lack of parity (平等), and still exists just about everywhere. The motherhood penalty has become a shorthand for describing why: In many places, especially rich countries, women earn the same as men until they reach their childbearing years. Women who have children begin to see their salaries slip behind their male counterparts.
Part of this is because women take on more of the unpaid labor at home, which can eat into time available for work and energy for career advancement. But it’s also because mothers are passed over for raises and promotion, and because time out of the workplace sets women back, even if that time is taken voluntarily, and supported by company or government policy.
What would have happened if leave policies hadn’t been introduced? The study doesn’t go into that question, other than to say that if the 1980s trend continued, we would have been at parity by now.
It’s possible, however, that the journey towards wage parity would have stalled either way. If women’s gains in the 1980s were made through the erasure of things like bias, once those less uncontrollable problems had been addressed, there would still have been an issue with women — who are the ones to bear children and take care of them in the early weeks because of biological factors like the ability to breastfeed, forcing them to take breaks, whether or not those breaks were mandated.
Answers & Explanations (答案与解析)
Passage One
46. A。解析：定位第一段末尾至第二段开头。文章提到除了金钱，还有心理层面的担忧。原因是我们怀疑世界充满了“ready to judge us ruthlessly... a snob”（准备无情地评判我们的势利小人）。选项A“害怕被势利地评判”与此一致。
47. C。解析：定位第二段。文章明确指出：“Nowadays, the snob cares about one thing only: what you do for a living.”（现今，势利小人只关心一件事：你靠什么谋生）。选项C“通过职业判断一个人”完美对应。
48. D。解析：定位第四段。作者指出人们对豪车、好工作的兴趣源于“hunger for the respect and esteem”（对尊重和尊严的渴求），是为了通过物质占有获得“love from the world”（来自世界的爱）。选项D“源于对社会认可的渴望”符合此意。
49. A。解析：定位第五段。文章提到势利小人认为“already acclaimed and already successful”（已经成名和成功的人）才是唯一值得尊重的人。acclaimed对应fame，successful对应fortune，故选A。
50. B。解析：定位末段。作者指出我们终极的职责是“be kind, good curious and imaginative about pretty much everyone who ever crosses our path”（对遇到的每一个人都保持友善、好奇和想象力）。选项B是对这一点的直接转述。
Passage Two
51. B。解析：定位第一段。文中提到：“in the US in the 1980s, they began to catch up — fast... gap closed by about one percentage point a year.”（在20世纪80年代，差距快速缩小）。选项B中的rapidly对应fast，shrinking对应closed。
52. B。解析：定位第五段。文章提到：“After family leave was introduced... the rate of gender wage convergence fell to just 0.03 percentage points per year”（引入家庭假后，工资趋同率降至每年仅0.03个百分点）。这说明差距缩小的速度显著下降，选B。
53. C。解析：定位第八段。文中解释原因之一是“women take on more of the unpaid labor at home, which can eat into time available for work”（女性承担了更多家务，消耗了工作时间和精力）。选项C“女性花费大量时间和精力照顾家庭”是其改写。
54. D。解析：定位第九段末尾。研究指出：“if the 1980s trend continued, we would have been at parity by now.”（如果80年代的趋势持续，我们现在已经实现平等了）。选项D符合文意。
55. B。解析：定位最后一段。文章分析指出，即便解决了偏见等问题，女性依然面临特殊困难，因为她们是“ones to bear children and take care of them... because of biological factors”（因为生理因素要生育并照顾孩子）。选项B“生育并照顾孩子”是核心阻碍。
核心搭配与高分句型
【核心搭配与高频短语】
do for a living：谋生（the snob cares about... what you do for a living）
leave us in the cold：冷落我们（or leave us in the cold）
at the root of：在...的根源处（At the root of snobbery is...）
take advantage of：利用，占...的便宜（it was mainly women who took advantage of them）
passed over for：被忽略，未被考虑（mothers are passed over for raises and promotion）
sets women back：使女性受阻，倒退（time out of the workplace sets women back）
【亮点句型解析】
虚拟语气（Had引导的倒装）：
"Had that trend continued, the gender wage gap would have been closed by 2017."
（如果那个趋势持续下去，性别工资差距到2017年就已经消失了。）这种倒装结构代替了 `If` 引导的从句，语气更正式且有力。
"Had that trend continued, the gender wage gap would have been closed by 2017."
（如果那个趋势持续下去，性别工资差距到2017年就已经消失了。）这种倒装结构代替了 `If` 引导的从句，语气更正式且有力。
Not... but... 对比结构：
"It isn’t the goods themselves we seek, it is the love we stand to gain through our possession of them."
（我们寻求的不是物品本身，而是通过拥有它们而获得的爱。）此句型精准揭示了行为背后的深层动机，是极佳的议论文表达方式。
"It isn’t the goods themselves we seek, it is the love we stand to gain through our possession of them."
（我们寻求的不是物品本身，而是通过拥有它们而获得的爱。）此句型精准揭示了行为背后的深层动机，是极佳的议论文表达方式。
whether or not 让步结构：
"...forcing them to take breaks, whether or not those breaks were mandated."
（...迫使她们休息，无论这些休息是否是强制性的。）这种表达常用于强调某种必然结果，不受外部条件的影响。
"...forcing them to take breaks, whether or not those breaks were mandated."
（...迫使她们休息，无论这些休息是否是强制性的。）这种表达常用于强调某种必然结果，不受外部条件的影响。