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  3. Of the world’s 774m illiterate adults two-thirds are women, a share that has remained unchanged for the past two decades. But gi

Of the world’s 774m illiterate adults two-thirds are women, a share that has remained unchanged for the past two decades. But gi

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问题     Of the world’s 774m illiterate adults two-thirds are women, a share that has remained unchanged for the past two decades. But girls everywhere are beginning to catch up. Across the emerging world, 78% of them are now at primary school, an only slightly smaller proportion than boys (82%). At secondary level enrolment remains lower and girls are further behind, but things are getting better there too.
    The big surprise of the past few decades has been women’s huge advance into tertiary education. Across rich countries the share of those aged over 25 who have had some form of higher education is now 33% , against 28% of men in the same age group. Even in many developing regions they make up a majority of students in higher education.
    It is too soon to feel sorry for men. Although women now earn more first degrees, they mostly still get fewer PhDs, and if they stay on in academia they are promoted more slowly than men. Many of them are put off by the way the academic promotion system works, explains Lotte Bailyn, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. To get ahead, young hopefuls have to put in a huge amount of time and effort just when many women start to think about having a family, so they do not apply for senior posts. Ms Bailyn approvingly notes the recent decision by America’s National Science Foundation, which funds a big chunk of the universities’ basic research, to allow grant recipients to take a break.
    Crucially, women’s lead at first-degree level does not so far seem to have translated into better job opportunities. In a paper published earlier this year Ina Ganguli of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government concluded that the achievement of educational parity is a "cheque in the mail" that may presage more women joining the labor force, but lots of other factors—such as cultural attitudes and the availability of child care—also play a part. On its own, educational parity—even superiority—is not enough.
    Women may not be helping themselves by concentrating heavily on subjects that set them apart from men. In rich countries they account for over 70% of degrees in humanities and health, whereas the vast majority of degrees in mathematics and engineering go to men. Women with humanities degrees are less likely to be in demand for jobs in high-tech industries, which tend to pay well. At postgraduate level the gap between subjects gets even bigger. And on MBA courses, the classic avenue to senior corporate jobs, women make up only about a third of the students.
    Such differences between males and females show up quite early in life, but not nearly big enough to explain the huge differences in the choice of subject at university level. The OECD’s PISA researchers conclude that the choices have little to do with ability and may well be influenced by ingrained stereotypes. That would help to explain why they vary so much from country to country. In Japan women are awarded only 11% of all degrees in engineering, manufacturing and construction; in Indonesia their share is exactly half.  
The contrast between Japanese women and Indonesian women in the last paragraph suggests that______.
选项 A、women in different countries vary widely in their mathematic ability
B、the different preference for subjects between male and female is a phenomenon specific to some countries
C、culture will have some effect on girls’ performance in majors closely linked with mathematics
D、girls’ preference to choose health and humanities as majors is largely influenced by cultural stereotype
答案D
解析 文章倒数第二段提到了男女在专业选择方面表现出的倾向性，最后一段集中讨论这种倾向性出现的原因。在作者看来，男女之间确实存在学科优势方面的差异，但是这种差异绝对还没有大到左右男女专业选择的倾向的地步。为了说明到底是哪种因素在男女专业选择方面起到了决定性作用，作者列举了日本和印度尼西亚的数据。在日本，拥有工程、制造和建筑学位的女性仅占11％，而在印度尼西亚女性恰好占一半。数据的对比说明了“the choices have little to do with ability and may well be influenced by ingrained stereotypes”，“选择的差异性与能力基本无关，可能跟根深蒂固的传统观念有关”。因此，本题的正确答案应该选[D]。[A]错误，国与国之间在女性选择专业方面出现如此大的差异，绝对不可能是由于能力造成的，只可能是文化的影响。[B]错误，男女偏科的问题各国皆有，但是男女擅长不同的科目对他们选择专业的影响在各国就不尽相同。[C]利用culture一词设置干扰，原文讨论的是文化对于女性选择专业的影响，而不是文化对女性在与数学科学相关的科目上表现不尽如人意的影响。
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