In the famous musical My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle, the poor daughter of a dustman who speaks with a thick Cockney accent, becomes the unwitting (不知晓的) target for a bet between two phonetics scholars. By the end of the musical, Doolittle is able to pronounce all of her words like a member of the British elite, fooling everyone at an embassy ball about her true origins.
It’s hard to imagine a version of My Fair Lady set in the U.S. because, unlike the British, Americans seem either unwilling or unable to honestly acknowledge their own social class. But a new set of scientific studies conducted by Michael Krauss and his colleagues at Yale University show that Americans find it easy to make distinctions about other people’s social class just by listening to them speak.
In one study, the researchers asked 229 people to listen to 27 different speakers who varied in terms of their age, race, gender and social class. The participants heard each speaker say a total of seven different words. Based on just this short audio, participants were able to correctly identify which speakers were college-educated 55 percent of the time-more than what would be expected by chance. A major limitation of this study, however, was that it used college education as a criterion for social class.
Then in another experiment, 302 participants were asked to either listen to or read transcripts (文本) from 90 seconds of recorded speech in which the speakers talked about themselves without explicitly mentioning anything about their social class. Participants were asked to judge what they thought the social classes of the speakers were by using a 10-rung ascending (上升的) ladder of increasing income, education and occupation. They found that participants who heard the audio recordings were more accurate in judging where the speakers fell in terms of their social status.
To show whether these inferences have real-world consequences, Kraus and his colleagues ran another experiment. They recruited 274 participants, all of whom had past hiring experience, to either listen to the audio or read a transcript of the content. The findings showed that participants were able to accurately judge the social class of the candidates and that this effect was stronger for participants who had heard the audio recordings. In addition, participants judged the higher-class candidates as more competent, a better fit for the job and more likely to be hired.
Taken together, this research suggests that despite our discomfort about the topic, Americans are able to easily detect one another’s social class from small snippets of speech. Moreover, we use this information to discriminate against people who seem to be of a lower social class. This research identifies social class as another potential way that employers may discriminate against candidates, perhaps without even realizing it.
1.The author introduces his topic by______.
A.making a comparison
B.justifying an assumption
C.explaining a phenomenon
D.relating the plot of a musical
2.What do the experiments suggest?
A.Participants tend to make objective judgments.
B.The content rather than the speaking style is reliable.
C.One’s social class can be inferred from how they speak.
D.Education and income are the main criteria for social status.
3.According to the passage, judgments about the way people talk_____.
A.disagree with the facts
B.affect hiring decisions
C.favour competent people
D.hardly provide reference
4.What can be learned from the last paragraph?
A.Americans are slow to judge social classes.
B.People in a low social class lose jobs easily.
C.Social-class discrimination is hard to address.
D.Speech can create social-class discrimination.
When you throw something in the trash, soon a garbage truck will come to take it away. Then where does it go? That depends on where you live. Different towns deal with trash in different ways. | |
Recycling A recycling truck picks up paper, cardboard, metal, plastic and glass. These go to the recycling plant to be sorted and made into new things. |
|
Incinerator An incinerator is a huge stove that burns trash to make heat and electricity. The ash that’s left gets buried in a landfill. Trash ash can be poisonous, so it has to be stored carefully. But is takes up a lot less room than just plain trash. |
|
Compost Food waste might go to a composter. In a compost heap (堆肥堆), bacteria and worms break down dead plants and old food. They turn it in into good, rich oil. Some people keep compost heaps in their gardens. Big commercial composters handle waste from restaurants and farms. |
|
Landfills Some trash gets buried in landfills. A landfill starts as a big hole. Trucks dump trash. Big earth movers push it into place and crush it down. They cover the trash with dirt to keep scavengers (食腐动物) away. The bottom of a landfills is lined with a barrier to keep bad things from leaking into the ground. Pipes drain away liquid. When the landfill is full, it’s covered with earth. It might become a park or lawn. |
|
1.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Recycling helps to generate energy.
B.Bacteria and worms helps handle food waste.
C.The landfill is used to drive scavengers away.
D.Trash ash is carefully handled to save room.
2.What’s the purpose of the passage?
A.To inform us of trash treatment.
B.To appeal for trash classification.
C.To discuss solutions to trash pollution.
D.To raise awareness of the harm of trash.
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What has happened to South Howe Broch?
A.It has completely disappeared.
B.It has been falling into the sea.
C.It has been protected by a sea wall.
2.Which of the following sites has been badly affected by severe weather events?
A.Midhowe Broch. B.The Orkney Islands. C.The University of the Highlands and Islands.
3.Which period does the Midhowe Broch belong to?
A.The Iron Age. B.Viking rule. C.The Middle Ages.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.Climate has greatly changed in Scotland.
B.Climate change threatens Scottish historical structures.
C.Ancient British structures remain after severe climate change.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.What might be responsible for Alice's headache?
A.Lack of sleep. B.Tiredness. C.Stress.
2.What does Alice probably do?
A.She's a student. B.She's a housewife. C.She's an employee.
3.What's the man's suggestion to the woman?
A.Changing her job. B.Forgetting her to-do-list. C.Relaxing herself with what she likes.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.What does the man want to do?
A.Open a credit card account. B.Check his credit report. C.Pay off credit card debt.
2.How many valid credit cards does the man have now?
A.None. B.One C.Five.
3.What caused the man's problem?
A.He had unpaid debts. B.He was unable to pay. C.He failed to pay on time.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Where does the conversation probably take place?
A.In a library. B.In a bookshop. C.In a supermarket.
2.How can people find the books they want?
A.By checking the online catalogue.
B.By searching books on the phone.
C.By putting in author names online.
3.In what situation will the man get charged?
A.When he borrows the books without his ID card.
B.When he doesn't have the membership card.
C.When he keeps the books without renewing them.
