Passage One
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
The prospects for women who are scientists and engineers at major research universities have improved, although women continue to face unfair treatment in salary and access to some other resources, a panel of the National Research Council concludes in a new report.
In recent years “men and women faculty in science, engineering and mathematics have enjoyed comparable opportunities,” the panel said in its report, released on Tuesday. It found that women who applied for university jobs and, once they had them, for promotion and tenure (终身任职), were at least as likely to succeed as men.
In another report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Wisconsin reviewed a variety of studies and concluded that the achievement gap between boys and girls in mathematics performance had narrowed to the vanishing point.
Although girls are still of a smaller number in the ranks of young math prodigies (神童), they said, that gap is narrowing, which undermines claims that a greater prevalence (unequal流行) of profound mathematical talent in males is biologically determined. The researchers said this and other phenomena “provide abundant evidence for the impact of sociocultural and other environmental factors on the development of mathematical skills and talent and the size, if any, of math gender gap.”
The research council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, gathered its expert panel at the request of Congress. The panel surveyed six disciplines — biology, chemistry, mathematics, civil and electrical engineering, and physics — and based its analysis on interviews with faculty members at 89 institutions and data from federal agencies, professional societies and other sources. The panel was led by Claude Canizares, a physicist who is vice president for research at M.I.T, and Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale Medical School, an expert on learning.
The Wisconsin researchers, Janet S. Hyde and Janet E. Mertz, studied data from 10 states
collected in tests authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act as well as data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal testing program. Differences between girls’ and boys’ performance in the 10 states were “close to zero in all grades,” they said, even in high schools where gaps had existed earlier. In the national assessment, they said, differences between girls’ and boys’ performance were “trivial”.
57. We learn from the passage that female scientists and engineers in some universities ________.
A) tend to compare themselves with men
B) suffer from overwhelming unequal treatment
C) find it difficult to get ideal jobs
D) have a future as bright as men
58. According to the researchers at the University of Wisconsin, ________.
A) girls usually think narrowly in math while boys don’t
B) girls can do almost as well as boys in mathematics
C) most girls perform better in mathematics than boys
D) there are very few girls who are really talented in math
59. What is the conclusion of the research council based on?
A) The analysis made by 89 college teachers and data from different agencies.
B) The survey of six subjects, interviews with teachers and data from different kinds of sources.
C) The survey at the request of the Congress and talks with teachers from 89 institutions.
D) The research made by the National Academy of Sciences and the survey within six fields.
60. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A) Neither gender nor age affects students’ performance in mathematics.
B) People expect to see gaps between girls’ and boys’ performance in high school.
C) Different tests show different results concerning students’ performance. 
D) Data from 10 states are not as accurate as those from the national tests.
61. The passage is mainly about ________. 
A) the unfair treatment towards female in universities
B) women bridging gap in science opportunities
C) the achievement of female scientists in universities
D) a national study of teaching methods of mathematics
Passage Two
Questions 62 to 66 are based on the following passage.
It’s time to stop complaining. The economy might be melting down like butter in a hot pot, but for some people — you, maybe? — this could be a very good thing.
Here’s why. At no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of company. Possibly a very profitable company. Let’s call these start-ups LILOs, for “a little in, a lot out;” These are Web-based businesses that cost almost nothing to get off the ground yet can turn into great moneymakers.

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