大学英语四级考试阅读讲义(五十六)

　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
　　Women do not put money aside for a variety of reasons. They come and go in the work force, taking time off early to raise children and later, to tend to elderly relatives. When they do work, they earn less, regardless of age, industry or education. But societal patterns cannot be blamed for everything. Sometimes the problem is vanity, a refusal by an individual to think about white hair and wrinkles. Other times, saving money gets lost in the crush of family and career. Adele Morrissette, the 40-year-old head of media and entertainment investment banking at Cowen & Company, believes that “sometimes women who work hard don't pay enough attention to saving. We are too busy thinking about making money.”
　　Whatever the cause, the effect can be devastating. As an American woman, you have an almost nine-out-of-ten chance of ending up alone. Either your marriage is one of the four in ten that will be broken up by divorce, or you will outlive your male partner by four to six years—even longer if you are younger than he (and you probably are). And don't deceive yourself. Widows aren't all blue-haired ladies playing mahjong (麻将) in Miami. They're also your fiftyish big sisters from college. Whether by death or divorce, you will likely someday be solely responsible for your financial security and well-being. If you aren't preparing for that, you are at high risk of outliving your assets. Three out of four older poor Americans are female.
　　One woman gets to the core when she complains,“Our mothers didn't have to do this.”Daddy did. So girls often grew up not knowing the language, thinking that financial matters were for somebody else to worry about. The result shows up in surveys: most women don't know that common stocks historically outperform bonds, don't understand that when interest rates go up, the price of a bond goes down, agree somewhat or strongly with the statement“I'm not really sure how a mutual fund works.”
　　31. This passage is mainly about .
　　A) the cause and effect of women's not saving money
　　B) women's low position in the society
　　C) why women earn less than men
　　D) the reason why women do not save money
　　32. What is NOT true according to the passage?
　　A) 40% American families end in divorce.
　　B) Among the older poor Americans, 75% are female.
　　C) Every woman has to be responsible for her own living at old age.
　　D) A woman generally survives her husband by 4～6 years.
　　33. According to Adele Morrissette, women .
　　A) should not work too hard
　　B) pay more attention to making than saving money
　　C) should think out better ways to make money
　　D) are so busy that they are not able to make money
　　34. The main idea of paragraph 2 is .
　　A) if a woman does not save money, she will lose her property
　　B) a woman will have to live on her own when her husband dies or when she gets divorced
　　C) 90% American old women live by themselves
　　D) a woman should save money for her possible future independence
　　35. In paragraph 3 line 2 “the language” most probably means .
　　A) human speech in general
　　B) the speech used by the men living in that society
　　C) the special terms concerning financial matters
　　D) words used in everyday communication