A story posted by The New York Post Monday tells the tale of Katrina Holte, a Hillsboro woman who quit her job to cosplay a 1950s housewife.
Let me start by expressing admiration to Holte for using her 2019 freedoms to follow her 1950s dreams. Everyone should be so lucky as to get to decide what they wear and how they spend their time. That’s the future our foremothers fought for.
But as much fun as I am sure she is having living a vintage (复古的) life, which literally includes watching shows like “I Love Lucy” and listening to vinyl recordings (刻录碟片) , I think it’s important to remember that being a 1950s housewife was actually totally awful, and something our grandmothers and mothers fought against.
For example, once I called my grandma and asked her for her recipe for Cloud Biscuits, these delicious biscuits she used to make that we would cover with butter and homemade raspberry jam on Thanksgiving.
“Why would you want that?” she said. “Go to the store. Go to the freezer section. Buy some pre-made biscuits and put them in the oven.”
She straight-up refused to give me the recipe, because it was hard and took a long time to make. In her mind, it was a waste of time.
Getting off the phone, it occurred to me that spending every day of your life serving a husband and five children wasn’t fun at all. And then there are the grandchildren who eventually come along demanding Cloud Biscuits, a whole new expanded set of people to feed.
She was basically a slave to those hungry mouths, cooking scratch meals three times a day
When she wasn’t trapped in the kitchen, she had to keep the house clean, make sure she looked good enough to be socially acceptable, and make sure her kids and husband looked good enough to be socially acceptable. And she had no days off.
I know my grandma loves her kids and her grandkids, her husband and the life she led, but man, it must have been a lot of thankless, mindless labor.
No wonder everyone went all-in on processed foods when they came around. Imagine the nice break something like a microwave dinner would give a woman working, unpaid, for her family every single day?
I also had another grandma. She was a scholar who helped found the Center for the Study of Women in Society at University of Oregon. She was a pioneering second-wave feminist who wrote books, gave lectures and traveled the world.
But, she did all of that after divorcing my grandpa, when most of her kids were out of the house. Back then, in the 1950s and the 1960s, there was no illusion about women “having it all”. How could that even possibly happen? If you were taking care of a family, waiting on your husband, you had no time to follow your dreams, unless you made that your dream
A lot of women took that approach. We call it Stockholm Syndrome now.
And of course, these women I am talking about are upper-middle-class white women. Romanticizing the 1950s is especially disgusting when you think about how women of color and poor women were treated back then, and the lack of education and choices available to them.
Because the women in this country demanded something approaching equality, Holte has the chance to live out her fantasy. Not every woman in America is so lucky.
We still don’t have pay equality and in many states, we still don’t have autonomy over our own bodies. Poor women and women of color still lack the opportunities of their wealthy and white peers.
And while it’s getting better, women are still expected to be responsible for the emotional labor of running a household and raising the children.
But at least we can get jobs. At least we don’t have to sew our own clothes, wear a full face of makeup every day and spend hours making Cloud Biscuits some ungrateful kid will wolf down, barely remembering to say thank you.
1.According to the author, what is the future our foremothers fought for?
A.Watching shows like “I Love Lucy” and listening to vinyl recordings.
B.Having the freedom to make choices in their daily life.
C.Making Cloud Biscuits for their kids and husbands.
D.Making sure their kids and husbands socially acceptable.
2.What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 13 refer to?
A.Writing books, giving lectures and traveling the world.
B.Divorcing husband when kids were out of house.
C.Taking care of a family and waiting on husband.
D.Women’s illusion about “having it all”.
3.What does the “Stockholm Syndrome” in paragraph 14 really mean in the passage?
A.Women have been used to the unfair treatment at home
B.Women nowadays like the way of life in the 1950s.
C.Victims end up sympathizing with the abusers.
D.Women have the chance to live out their dreams.
4.The author thinks of the life of a 1950s housewife as ________.
A.fantastic B.admirable
C.awful D.unforgettable
5.What can we learn from the passage?
A.It was a waste of time to give grandchildren the recipe.
B.All women are not lucky to follow their own dreams in America now.
C.Housewives received recognition for their efforts from family members.
D.The upper-middle-class white women did a better job in running the household.
6.What is the author’s main purpose in writing this passage?
A.To show great appreciation to her grandmas.
B.To call on housewives to claim the pay for the housework they undertake.
C.To draw readers’ attention to the situations women face, especially those poor and of color.
D.To arouse women’s awareness of equal pay at work.
What will higher education look like in 2050? That was the question addressed Tuesday night by Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University.
“We’re at the end of the fourth wave of change in higher education,” Crow began, arguing that research universities followed the initial establishment of higher education, Public colleges, and land-grant schools in the timeline of America.
In less than a half-century, he said, global market competition will be at its fastest rates of change ever, with several multitrillion — dollar economies worldwide. According to a recent projection, the nation’s population could reach 435 million, with a large percentage of those residents economically disadvantaged. In addition, climate change will be meaningfully uncontrollable in many parts of the world.
The everyday trends seen today, such as declining performance of students at all levels, particularly in math and science, and declining wages and employment among the less educated, will only continue. Crow maintained, and are to say the least, not contributing to fulfilling the dream of climbing the social ladder mobility, quality of life, sustainable environment, and longer life spans that most Americans share.
“How is it that we can have these great research universities and have negative-trending outcomes?” Crow said in a talk “I hold the universities accountable.... We are part of the problem.” Among the “things that we do that make the things that we teach less learnable,” Crow said, are the strict separation of disciplines, academic rigidity, and conservatism, the desire of universities to imitate schools at the top of the social ranks, and the lack of the computer system ability that would allow a large number of students to be educated for a small amount of money.
Since 2002, when Crow started being in charge at Arizona State — which he calls the “new American university” — he has led more than three dozen initiatives that aim to make the school “inclusive, scalable, fast, adaptive, challenge-focused, and willing to take risks.”
Among those initiatives were a restructuring of the engineering and life sciences schools to create more linkages between disciplines; the launch of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of sustainability; the start of a Teachers College to address K-12 performance and increase the status of the Education Department at the university; and broadened access, increasing the freshman class size by 42 percent and the enrollment of students living below the poverty line by 500 percent.
Universities must start, Crow noted, “by becoming self-reflective architects, figuring out what we have and what we actually need instead of what legend tells us we have to be.” Research universities today have “run their course,” he added. “Now is the time for variety.”
During a discussion afterward, Crow clarified and expanded on some of his points. He discussed, for example, the school's distance-leading program. “Nearly 40 percent of undergraduates are taking at least one course online,” he said, which helps the school to keep costs down while advancing interactive learning technologies.
He said that Arizona State is working to increase the transfer and completion rates of community-college students, of whom only about 15 percent, historically, complete their later degrees. “We’ve built a system that will allow them to track into universities,” particularly where “culturally complex barriers” beyond finances limit even the most gifted students.
1.The fourth wave of change in America's higher education refers to ________.
A.public colleges B.land-grant schools
C.research universities D.initial higher education
2.Which is NOT part of the American dream most people share _________.
A.People enjoy a quality life. B.People live longer and longer.
C.The freedom to move around. D.An environment that is sustainable.
3.Which one is similar to the underlined word “architect” in meaning?
A.The author of the guidebook is an architect by profession.
B.If you want to refurnish the house, consult the architect.
C.Deng Xiaoping is one of the architects of the PRC.
D.Tom is considered one of the best landscape architect here.
4.With the distance-learning program, Arizona State University is able to ___________ .
A.enroll 40% of its students online
B.keep costs down without a loss of quality
C.provide an even greater number of courses
D.attract the most gifted students all over the world
Why would human beings waste a third of their lives sleeping when they could be doing more important things like looking after their families or working? Some scientists believe sleeping helps recharge the body, while others think it is important for strengthening newly-formed memories. Now, there is new evidence which suggests that the purpose of sleep may be to forget some of the millions of new things we learn each day.
The neurons (神经元) in the human brain consist of fibers called dendrites (树突). These grow as we learn new things and connect the brain's cells to each other at contact points called synapses (突触). The larger the dendrites become and the more cells they connect, the more information we store.
In 2003, Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli, both biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, suggested a new idea: The things our brains learn each day result in so many synapses that things start to get a little messy. Sleeping allows us to sort through the "noise" and dispense all the unnecessary information, leaving behind only the most important memories-
Recently, the university's research has provided direct evidence to support the theory. The experiment involved analyzing 6,920 synapses in the brain shavings from two groups of mice over a four — year period; one group had been allowed to sleep, while the other had been kept awake and entertained with toys. The researchers discovered that the brain shavings of the sleeping mice had nearly 20 percent fewer synapses than those that had been kept awake and entertained.
It was also evident during the study that the brain does not shave every synapse. 20% of neurons remained unchanged; these were most likely well-established memories. Therefore, although we may be sleeping to forget some of what we've learned, the brain "forgets" in a smart way.
Most researchers believe clearing our brains is not the only purpose of sleep. Resting our minds and bodies has also been found to help with other biological functions like strengthening our immunity. Though scientists may never agree on a single reason, they are all sure of one thing — a good night's rest is essential for our health. So try and spend at least a third of your day sleeping!
1.What will happen when we learn new things?
A.We tend to forget some key information.
B.We develop the ability to recharge the body.
C.The dendrites expand and connect brain's cells.
D.The neurons gather at what are called contact points.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “dispense” in Paragraph 3?
A.Pick up. B.Get rid of.
C.Bring down. D.Pull out of.
3.What is the author's purpose of writing the text?
A.To prove a new theory.
B.To report a new discovery.
C.To show sleep good for memory.
D.To discuss how long one should sleep.
Prospect Park Soiree (晚会)
DESCRIPTION
Attend the most celebrated party of the year! We provide the entertainment and breathtaking setting, while you gather with thousands of friends — new and old — to enjoy an evening under stars in Prospect Park.
Wear your most festive clothes, prepare a delicious feast, and dine and dance under the stars in one of Prospect Park's most secluded (僻静的) locations. Show off your creativity with a show-stopping topper — a fabulous hat — as well as table decor that celebrates the beautiful surroundings.
We are excited to introduce this year's entertainment! Inspired by the Big Band Era of Jazz, Dandy Wellington and his Band have taken the sounds of the 1930's and 40's and created a world of well-dressed music. Post-dinner, enjoy a DJ dance party with DJ Cosmo Baker, who has played alongside artists as diverse as Drake, Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Pitbull, Trey Songz and Moby.
Proceeds (收入) benefit Prospect Park Alliance, the non-profit organization that sustains (供养), restores and advances Prospect Park for the benefit of the diverse communities that call Brooklyn home.
EVENT DETAILS:
5pm: Gates open
6 pm: Dinner begins with live jazz of Dandy Wellington and his band.
8 pm: Dance party begins with a live set by DJ Cosmo Baker
10 pm: Soiree concludes .
Learn more and view our event galleries!
Please note:
• Guests bring their own food and table decor. Tables and chairs are provided.
• Tables each accommodate up to 10 guests.
• Groups of 20+ can contact us at soiree@prospectpark. org for assistance.
• Groups smaller than 10 people are encouraged to share tables.
• Prospect Park Soiree will take place, rain or shine.
• Help us keep the Park green: trash bags will be provided.
• Barbecues and other open flames are not allowed in Prospect Park.
• Tents and other structures are not permitted.
• Tickets are non — refundable (不可退费的), but are transferable.
1.What can we learn about Prospect Park Soiree?
A.People can attend the amusement activities for free.
B.People can camp in Prospect Park under the stars.
C.Prospect Park Alliance provides financial support for it.
D.Prospect Park Soiree includes a live jazz and a dance party,
2.If you and one of your friends attend Prospect Park Soiree,_________.
A.you will be advised to share a table with other people
B.you'd better introduce him/her to other participants
C.you should contact the staff by emailing in advance
D.you are expected to bring tables and chairs with you
On a freezing December afternoon, Tyler Freburger was standing in front of a set of mirrors wearing a suit picked out for him by a tailor to attend a funeral. As a homeless veteran (老兵) living in Baltimore, Mr. Freburger would usually have difficulty _______ such an outfit (一套衣服), especially one selected for him _______. But in this instance, he was _______ the nonprofit Sharp Dressed Man.
Since 2011, the organization has been helping men improve their lives by _______ them for job interviews and other_______with well-fitting suits. This is not a “grab any jacket off the rack (架子)” kind of experience; _______, the nonprofit provides a “measure-to-fit” personalized styling experience. The nonprofit was _______by clothing designer Christopher Schafer. He opened a shop in downtown Baltimore not long after _______ from London, where he learned the art of_______and design. Once when Schafer was ________________ some custom suits to a customer, he was ________________ handed two bags of gently ________________suits in return.
“He said I ________________ him with how I made his custom suits fit, and he couldn't wear his old suits anymore.” Schafer found a nonprofit that would ________________ the suits, but as time went on, more of his ________________ did the same thing. At the suggestion of a friend, he decided to found his own nonprofit, Sharp Dressed Man.
The organization's space ________________ a traditional men's clothing store, ________________ with volunteer tailors and racks of clothing. It's open one day a week for those who have been referred.
Schafer sees the nonprofit as filling the ________________ between job training and the ________________required for a person to land a job. “If you treat a guy with ________________ he has a better chance of treating himself with it,” he says.
1.A.sorting B.storing C.sewing D.securing
2.A.automatically B.personally C.partly D.generally
3.A.appointed to B.accustomed to C.referred to D.opposed to
4.A.promoting B.arranging C.rewarding D.equipping
5.A.occasions B.discounts C.benefits D.systems
6.A.thus B.meanwhile C.otherwise D.instead
7.A.found B.launched C.surrounded D.shifted
8.A.escaping B.returning C.differing D.hearing
9.A.counting B.transporting C.measuring D.packing
10.A.delivering B.ordering C.folding D.advertising
11.A.naturally B.doubtfully C.urgently D.unexpectedly
12.A.fancy B.alternative C.worn D.clumsy
13.A.bothered B.spoiled C.discouraged D.interrupted
14.A.exhibit B.possess C.accept D.clean
15.A.relatives B.designers C.clerks D.clients
16.A.suits B.threatens C.resembles D.strengthens
17.A.adequate B.complete C.economic D.complicated
18.A.hardship B.relationship C.gap D.position
19.A.status B.feel C.talent D.look
20.A.dignity B.curiosity C.honesty D.caution
— Eric, I am burnt out as I've been working on my essay all the lime.
—______ . You will surely make it.
A.Don't put on airs B.Give me a break
C.Don't get on my nerve D.Hang in there
