Section A: Banked Cloze

Directions: 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.

“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.” Those were the words uttered by pioneering British scientist Rosalind Franklin, who firmly believed that the pursuit of science should be (26) ______ to all.

As a woman working in the first half of the 20th century, Franklin's contributions to some of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time—including the structure of DNA—were sadly (27) ______ in her lifetime.

More than 60 years after Franklin's death, we are (28) ______ living in a different world, where women play an important part in every echelon of our society—not least in science, innovation, higher education and research. UK universities are world leaders when it comes to advancing and (29) ______ gender equality.

In the past decade, we have seen a (30) ______ increase in England in the number of women accepted on to full-time undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem subjects). And in the last academic year, women (31) ______ for more than half of all Stem postgraduates at UK universities.

Data shows us the (32) ______ to success gets harder for women to climb the further up they go. Although women make up the majority of undergraduates in our universities, just under half of academic staff are female. At (33) ______ levels, only a quarter of professors are women, and black women make up less than 2% of all female academic staff.

There are also stark differences in pay across grades. The gender pay gap based on median salaries across the sector in 2016-2017 was 13.7%, (34) ______ there is still some way to go to ensure women are rising through the ranks to higher grade positions and being paid (35) ______.

Word Bank

A) accessible

B) accounted

C) adaptation

D) appropriately

E) considerable

F) effective

G) ladder

H) misread

I) nomination

J) overlooked

K) promoting

L) senior

M) submission

N) suggesting

O) thankfully

Answers & Explanations

26. A (accessible)。解析：位于 be 之后作表语。意为科学的 pursuit (追求) 应该是每个人都 accessible（可接触的/可参与的）。

27. J (overlooked)。解析：过去分词构成被动语态。Franklin 的 contributions (贡献) 在她的 lifetime 中被遗憾地 overlooked（忽视）了。

28. O (thankfully)。解析：副词作状语。Franklin 去世60年后，thankfully（庆幸地）我们 living 在一个不同的 world。

29. K (promoting)。解析：与 advancing (推进) 并列。意为英国 universities 在推进和 promoting（提升/促进）gender equality (性别平等) 方面处于领先。

30. E (considerable)。解析：修饰名词 increase (增加)。意为在 England 看到了人数 considerable（相当大的）增长。

31. B (accounted)。解析：动词过去式作谓语。固定搭配 accounted for 意为“占（比例）”。女性 accounted for 了一半以上的 postgraduates (研究生)。

32. G (ladder)。解析：位于 climb (攀登) 的宾语位置。ladder to success 意为“成功的 ladder (阶梯)”。

33. L (senior)。解析：修饰 levels (级别)。意为在 senior（高级的）层面上，只有四分之一的 professors 是 women。

34. N (suggesting)。解析：现在分词作伴随状语。意为 pay gap (薪酬差距) 的存在 suggesting（暗示/表明）还有 some way to go。

35. D (appropriately)。解析：修饰被动语态 being paid。确保女性获得 appropriately（得体地/适当地）薪酬支付。