You will hear an interview with Eue Woods. For each question(23-30), mark one letter(A, B or C)for the correct answer. A

You will hear an interview with Elle Woods.
For each question(23-30), mark one letter(A, B or C)for the correct answer.
After you have listened once, replay the recording.
You have 45 seconds to read through the questions.
[Pause]
Now listen, and mark A, B or C.
Man: The expression "the glass ceiling" first appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 1986. The idea behind the expression was that a transparent barrier, a glass ceiling, blocked them. When women started their careers, it was steely strong in stopping them from attaining equality with men later on. Today, we have Elle Woods, the author of "Breaking the Glass Ceiling", in the studio to discuss this issue.
Woman: The glass ceiling refers to the fact that in large European and North American corporations women only account for slightly over 10% of senior executives and 4% of CEOs and chairmen. In my book, I looked at the persistent failure of women to climb as far up the corporate ladder as might be expected from their representation in the working population as a whole.
Man: The situation has been getting better lately, hasn’t it?
Woman: Unfortunately, no, particularly in the issue of women’s pay. Even when women do reach the highest levels of corporate management, they do not receive the same pay as men for the same job: a figure of 75% is often quoted. And rather than getting better over time, the position seems to be deteriorating. One survey found that women executives in the United States were earning even less than their male counterparts’ in 2000. So worried was the American government about the issue that in 1991 it set up something called the Glass Ceiling Commission, a 21-member body appointed by the president and Congress and chaired by the labour secretary.
Man: And what was the focus of this commission?
Woman: The commission focused on barriers in three areas. The first one is the filling of management and decision-making positions: the second, skills-enhancing activities: and the third, compensation and reward systems.
Man: Promising it might sound, and yet, according to your book, the Glass Ceiling Commission didn’t make a big difference?
Woman: Well, the Glass Ceiling Commission "completed its mandate" in 1996 and was disbanded. Needless to say, the problem did not disappear with it.
Man: How do you explain the glass ceiling scenario?
Woman: Several theories have been presented to explain the glass ceiling. One of them is called "the time factor." The time factor indicates that the cohorts of first-class female graduates have not yet had time to work through the pipeline and reach the top of the corporate hierarchy. Qualifications for a senior management post usually include a graduate degree and 25 years of continuous work experience. In the early 1970s, when today’s senior managers were graduating, fewer than 5% of law and MBA degrees were being awarded to women. Nowadays, women gain over 40% of all law degrees in the United States and 35% of MBAs.
Man: Does motherhood play a role in the glass ceiling as well?
Woman: Sometimes the blame for the glass ceiling is laid at the door of motherhood. Women are distracted from their career path by the need to stay at home and rear children. They are unable to undertake the tasks required to reach the top: for example, extended trips abroad, wearing air miles like battle medals, long evenings "entertaining" clients and changing plans at short notice.
Man: In her 1977 book "Men and Women of the Corporation", Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor, suggested that managerial women are so often a token female in their work environment that they stand out from the rest. This makes them and their failures much more visible, and exaggerates the differences between them and the dominant male culture.
Woman: Yeah, that’s another theory. Professor Kanter called it "Lack of role models."
Man: Some authors recently have gone so far as to challenge the metaphor of the glass ceiling, arguing that it presents the image of a one-off blockage somewhere high up the career ladder. What’s your view on this? Is there only one big challenge at the finishing line?
Woman: I disagree. In reality there is a whole series of obstacles along the way that hold women back.