63. From Paragraph 2, we can infer that people would attribute the author’s failures to ________.
A) the very fact that she is a woman
B) her involvement in gender politics
C) her over-confidence as a female astrophysicist
D) the burden she bears in a male-dominated society
題目問從第二段可以推斷出人們把作者的失敗歸于什么。
A, 她是一個女人的事實。
B, 她參與了性別政治。
C, 她作為女天體物理學家的過于自信。
D, 在男性主導的社會中她身負重擔。
第二段講的是作者對性別問題的態度由不在乎轉變為熱情關注的過程。19歲時完全超脫(it did not bother me in the least),麻省理工求學及之后研究時開始受到干擾(the issue started to bother me),這種干擾就是作者所有的成就:工作、研究論文、獲獎,都受到性別偏見這副有色眼鏡的過濾(viewed through the lens of gender politics),而后作者寫了一句So were my failures,so在這里是代指,指代viewed through the lens of gender politics,即my failures were also viewed through the lens of gender politics,意思就是人們是從性別政治的角度看待她的失敗,也就是認為她的失敗是由性別偏見引起的。這樣的話,符合這個意思的只有A。
B所說的她參與了性別政治是個迷惑選項。參與性別政治是指為女性利益奔走呼號,第二段末尾也確實提到了作者的女性主義熱情,但這是性別歧視發生之后才可以進行的,否則,如果沒有發生歧視,奮力捍衛女性的利益的緣由就不存在了。而作者的失敗,如果是因性別問題而起的話,則是早于失敗之前就已經發生作用了。因此從邏輯上講,作者自己的失敗應該是先于參與捍衛女性利益發生的,后者不可能成為前者發生的原因。
64. What did the author constantly fight against while doing her Ph.D. and post-doctoral research?
A) Lack of confidence in succeeding in space science.
B) Unfair accusations from both inside and outside her circle.
C) People’s stereotyped attitude toward female scientists.
D) Widespread misconceptions about nature and nurtured.
題目問作者在攻讀哲學博士和進行博士后研究時要同什么進行不斷地斗爭。
四個選項中,A說是缺少在太空科學領域成功的信心。文章提到了作者失去信心的問題,It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 ,但這個信心是作者在面對世人對女性偏見時有信心不予理睬,而不是科研領域的信心。
B說是來自她的圈內圈外的不公平指責。世人戴著性別的有色眼鏡看她(was viewed through the lens of gender politics),但這也僅僅是一種態度罷了,還沒到指責、責難的地步。所以B的說法不能算對。
C說是人們對女性科學家的固有態度。文中第二段從But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me這句開始,講述了作者面對世人成見時如何挺身而出、為女性仗義執言。這也就是C 所表達的意思。
D說是對自然與培育的廣泛誤解。根據第二段,nature versus nurture的問題*考試&大是作者與人爭論的話題之一,是諸多對女性的成見之一,文中具體舉出的例子就另有left brain versus right brain。而作者要斗爭的是所有遭受的成見,D所說的這其中一種成見不可能是題目所說的整個時期內一直都要斗爭的對象。
65. Why does the author feel great satisfaction when talking about her class?
A) Female students no longer have to bother about gender issues.
B) Her students’ performance has brought back her confidence.
C) Her female students can do just as well as male students.
D) More female students are pursuing science than before.
題干問作者談到她的班級時為何流露出滿意之情。
與題目相關的原文是這樣的:Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women’s college in New York City. Recently, someone asked me how many of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer, 45,漢譯為:我現在在紐約一所女子大學Barnard做研究和教書,最近有人問我,我的班級里45名學生中有多少個女生。你想象不到我能夠回答“45個”時的滿意之情。
從前文的敘述可以知道,作者一直需要面對的問題是在男性主導的領域女性太少的問題。19歲時,她是班里唯一的女生(the only woman in the classroom),做研究后,人們總是問她在一個男性主導的領域里工作的情形(the only woman in the classroom work in a field dominated by men)。可見,在作者研究的領域里,女生是很少的,而現在班里45人全部是女生,作者很有可能是為在自己研究的領域里出現了這么多的女性而感到滿意。在這里作者使用了Be able to answer而不直接用answer,暗含以前是不可能說出這樣的數字的。這個詞組的選用也暗示了作者是在為數字的由少到多而滿意。