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
题目问从第二段可以推断出人们把作者的失败归于什么。
A, 她是一个女人的事实。
B, 她参与了性别政治。
C, 她作为女天体物理学家的过于自信。
D, 在男性主导的社会中她身负重担。
第二段讲的是作者对性别问题的态度由不在乎转变为热情关注的过程。19岁时完全超脱(it did not bother me in the least),麻省理工求学及之后研究时开始受到干扰(the issue started to bother me),这种干扰就是作者所有的成就:工作、研究论文、获奖,都受到性别偏见这副有色眼镜的过滤(viewed through the lens of gender politics),而后作者写了一句So were my failures,so在这里是代指,指代viewed through the lens of gender politics,即my failures were also viewed through the lens of gender politics,意思就是人们是从性别政治的角度看待她的失败,也就是认为她的失败是由性别偏见引起的。这样的话,符合这个意思的只有A。
B所说的她参与了性别政治是个迷惑选项。参与性别政治是指为女性利益奔走呼号,第二段末尾也确实提到了作者的女性主义热情,但这是性别歧视发生之后才可以进行的,否则,如果没有发生歧视,奋力捍卫女性的利益的缘由就不存在了。而作者的失败,如果是因性别问题而起的话,则是早于失败之前就已经发生作用了。因此从逻辑上讲,作者自己的失败应该是先于参与捍卫女性利益发生的,后者不可能成为前者发生的原因。
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.
题目问作者在攻读哲学博士和进行博士后研究时要同什么进行不断地斗争。
四个选项中,A说是缺少在太空科学领域成功的信心。文章提到了作者失去信心的问题,It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 ,但这个信心是作者在面对世人对女性偏见时有信心不予理睬,而不是科研领域的信心。
B说是来自她的圈内圈外的不公平指责。世人戴着性别的有色眼镜看她(was viewed through the lens of gender politics),但这也仅仅是一种态度罢了,还没到指责、责难的地步。所以B的说法不能算对。
C说是人们对女性科学家的固有态度。文中第二段从But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me这句开始,讲述了作者面对世人成见时如何挺身而出、为女性仗义执言。这也就是C 所表达的意思。
D说是对自然与培育的广泛误解。根据第二段,nature versus nurture的问题是作者与人争论的话题之一,是诸多对女性的成见之一,文中具体举出的例子就另有left brain versus right brain。而作者要斗争的是所有遭受的成见,D所说的这其中一种成见不可能是题目所说的整个时期内一直都要斗争的对象。
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.
题干问作者谈到她的班级时为何流露出满意之情。
与题目相关的原文是这样的: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,汉译为:我现在在纽约一所女子大学Barnard做研究和教书,最近有人问我,我的班级里45名学生中有多少个女生。你想象不到我能够回答“45个”时的满意之情。
从前文的叙述可以知道,作者一直需要面对的问题是在男性主导的领域女性太少的问题。19岁时,她是班里唯一的女生(the only woman in the classroom),做研究后,人们总是问她在一个男性主导的领域里工作的情形(the only woman in the classroom work in a field dominated by men)。可见,在作者研究的领域里,女生是很少的,而现在班里45人全部是女生,作者很有可能是为在自己研究的领域里出现了这么多的女性而感到满意。在这里作者使用了Be able to answer而不直接用answer,暗含以前是不可能说出这样的数字的。这个词组的选用也暗示了作者是在为数字的由少到多而满意。