2015同等学力英语阅读理解练习(40)

　　Even today in the modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer to have a boy rather than a girl. One longstanding reason why boys have been seen as a greater blessing has been that they are expected to become better economic providers for their parents’ old age. Yet it is time for parents to think again. Girls may now be a better investment。

　　Girls get better grades at school than boys, and in most developed countries more women than men go to university. Women will thus be better equipped for the new jobs of the 21st century, in which brains count a lot more than brawn. In Britain far more women than men are now training to become doctors. And women are more likely to provide sound advice on investing their parents’ nest egg: surveys show that women consistently achieve higher financial returns than men do。

　　Furthermore, the increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the past couple of decades. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants. Add the value of housework and child-rearing, and women probably account for just over half of world output. It is true that women still get paid less and few make it to the top of companies, but, as prejudice fades over coming years, women will have great scope to boost their productivity—and incomes。

　　Governments, too, should embrace the potential of women. Women complain (rightly) of centuries of exploitation. Yet, to an economist, women are not exploited enough: they are the world’s most under-utilised resource; getting more of them into work is part of the solution to many economic woes, including shrinking populations and poverty。

　　Some people fret that if more women work rather than mind their children, this will boost GDP but create negative social externalities, such as a lower birth rate. Yet developed countries where more women work, such as Sweden and America, actually have higher birth rates than Japan and Italy, where women stay at home. Others fear that women’s move into the paid labour force can come at the expense of children. Yet the evidence for this is mixed. For instance, a study by Suzanne Bianchi at Maryland University finds that mothers spent the same time, on average, on childcare in 2003 as in 1965. The increase in work outside the home was offset by less housework—and less spare time and less sleep。

　　1.What is the paragraph preceding the text mainly about?

　　[A] The history of the developed countries。

　　[B] The importance of sex。

　　[C] The preference of grandparents。

　　[D] The development of juveniles。

　　2.The word “brawn” in Line 3, paragraph 2 most probably means____。

　　[A] race [B] diploma [C] color [D] muscle

　　3.The author’s attitude toward women’s prospect can he described as_____。

　　[A] pessimistic [B] cautious [C] skeptical [D] desperate

　　4.It can be inferred from the text that countries the world over still fail to recognize the driving force of women in_____。

　　[A] exploiting the natural resources

　　[B] contributing inadequate solutions

　　[C] building up a well-off living condition

　　[D] ranking many economic woes

　　5.The reduction of rest period by women is mentioned to_____。

　　[A] shed light on negative social externalities

　　[B] refute some people’s worry

　　[C] cast doubt on the mixed evidence

　　[D] confirm the higher birth rates

　　参考答案：C　D　B　C　B