英语报刊阅读第四版课后问题答案

L1 1 They tend to acknowledge the more recent immigrants only in retrospect The immigrants have to wait until they have proved themselves by working raising a respectable family achieving citizenship and maybe even winning a Nobel Prize 2 The present wave of Hispanic immigration and European waves are similar in roots But there are two important differences the European waves were legal whereas the current wave is illegal The numbers are also different The current wave is much larger in scale 3 The evidence shows that the new immigrants behave in positive ways similar to their predecessors They are family oriented they value education and their children are learning English Overtime they are intermarrying among growing numbers of other ethnic groups They are people of faith They are energetic looking to move up in life through better jobs they work hard and for long hours 4 They often take jobs many Americans simply no longer wish to do By and large the most recent surge of immigrants is made up of people who are young and mobile and who work in the least desired sectors of the U S economy such as agriculture and service industries for relatively low pay Today only about 10 percent of white males leave high school and high school graduates won t take the menial jobs that many immigrants are happy to take on So for the most part the new immigrants and native Americans are not competing for the same jobs Even when they do compete more directly with low skilled U S born workers the job preference is different Immigrants find work in agriculture while less educated natives often end up in manufacturing 5 Immigrants at both the low end and the high end of the skill sets are needed More immigrants are needed because the retirement of the 80 million baby boomers will increase the burden of supporting the non working seniors and more immigrants will help reduce the burden 6 Family reunification should be supported to the extent of holding the nuclear family together Keeping spouses and children together makes humanitarian sense However the chain immigration of extended family relatives should be controlled The random visa lottery program should be eliminated 7 No it does not mean an amnesty for them It spells out a long route to legality and citizenship Illegal immigrants could apply for a green card only after the 4 million families who are now in line for immigration visas have been cleared through the system the process would take an estimated 8 years So they would not have an advantage over those who have played by the rules They would also have to pay fines and demonstrate that they have clean records In a sense they would be allowed to earn citizenship over time 8 The bill wins conservative support for the position by calling for substantially stepped up security to be in place before more immigrants are admitted 9 The Republicans are willing to provide illegal immigrants the path to citizenship in return for getting a more secure border and eliminating the much abused extended chain of family relatives L5 1 She talked about a lecture he had attended The thesis was that the human body has changed irrevocably over the last quarter of a century and that the physical environment will gradually adapt to accommodate the new shape 2 According to Greg Critser the reason for Americans overweight was that the population was growing more slowly than the food supply and as a result fast food invented as an affordable way of getting families to eat together became a means of selling surplus fat and sugar to the masses 3 David Blaine s starvation stunt was a spectacle to the British Families turned out en masse at weekends to see how his hunger strike was going Some normal size people turned up to mock throwing eggs cooking food and even trying to cut off the water supply to the hungry American The reason for such behavior is that the notion of somebody giving up food for 44 days is unthinkable for the British and there are so few starving Americans in the world which makes his self imposed ordeal appear ludicrously self indulgent What s more the stunt highlighted the disordered relation to eating which has become habitual in the western society 4 The impact of fast food on Mexicans is obvious Obesity has increased by 158 per cent in Mexico in a decade since fast food outlets began to replace the traditional diet 5 As fast food developed cooking has become a spectator sport something to watch famous people do on telly as the populations of affluent countries rely increasingly on supermarket meals and takeaways 6 People in western societies in order to slim down are endlessly trying Atkins and other fashionable diets such as the cabbage soup diet or modified Atkins 7 The traditional working class diet was plain food while present day working class diet is superficially much more cosmopolitan curries pizzas the ubiquitous Chinese takeaway but adapted to satisfy the British appetite for saturated fat salt and sugar 8 The result of westerners reversal of eating habits is that as millions of ordinary people grow fat the elite become slender 9 The author wanted to join the euro L9 1 Tolstoy s observation on happy and unhappy families was Happy families are all alike every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way 2 He thinks that Tolstoy was totally wrong He believes that unhappy families are really similar to one another and there s much more variability among happy families 3 According to the researchers it is those other parts of relationships the positive factors that are potent predictors of whether couples feel committed to relationships 4 They have placed stresses on long term relationships Two income couples juggling demanding jobs and professional advancement can sometimes detract from family and intimate relationships Simultaneously the rising number of women in the workforce has given women the economic security to leave unhappy relationships the sexual revolution has made sex before and outside marriage common and the destigmatization of divorce has contributed to the phenomenon of serial monogamy 5 Huston finds that the juxtaposition of high expectations with the stress and cycles of relationships appears to be an important reason why many relationships don t work 6 They reported being content at the start of relationships and still contented two years later Their feelings about relationships were not intense but they were positive 7 She found that very successful couples had something besides children that was enjoyable to their relationship It could be travel hospice work working on a summer place Those things bring stability because they confer pleasure and identity in the way people live together 8 Those factors are social and family supports socioeconomic status government and workplace policies They can help and hinder relationships L11 1 No the decision to live alone is common in diverse cultures whenever it is economically feasible Germany France and Britain have a greater proportion of one person households than the U S as does Japan According to the author China India and Brazil are also seeing fast growth of one person households 2 The dated images of living alone are anxiety dread and loneliness 3 After interviewing 300 single people he finds that living alone seems to encourage more not less social interaction 4 Dynamic markets flourishing cities and open communications systems make the life of single people more appealing because they give them the capacity not only to live alone but to engage with others when and how they want to and on our own terms 5 Her research found that single people 35 and older were more likely than those who lived with a spouse or a romantic partner to spend a social evening with neighbors or friends 6 Those surveys find that married people with children are more likely than single people to hunker down at home Those in large suburban homes often splinter into private homes to be alone 7 New communication technologies make living alone a social experience so being home alone does not feel involuntary or like solitary confinement The person alone at home can digitally navigate through a world of people information and ideas Internet use does not seem to cut people off from real friendships and connections 8 Keith Hampton finds that heavy web users are more likely than others to have large and diverse social networks more likely to meet diverse people with different perspectives and beliefs 9 Through interviews the author found that elder single people had a clear preference for living alone which allowed them to retain their feelings of independence and integrity and a clear aversion to moving in with friends or family or into a nursing home 10 No According to Deborah Carr s research at 18 months after a spouse only one in four elderly men and one in six elderly women say they are interested in remarrying one in three men and one in seven women are interested in dating some day and only one in four men and one in eleven women are interested in dating immediately 11 Pundits predicted that rates of living alone would plummet because of the challenged economy However thus far there s little evidence that this has happened The latest census report estimates that more than 32 million Americans live alone today up from 27 2 million in 2000 and 31 million in 2010 L12 1 In November 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued the decision that one second past midnight on May 17 2004 gay marriage will become legal The basis of the court s decision is the state constitution s promise of equal rights 2 They were full of jubilation and congratulated each new couple on their marriage They claimed that the ceremonies mark the biggest advance in civil rights since racial segregation was abolished 3 The right s reaction was less militant than might have been expected Only about 50 demonstrators showed up at Boston s city hall to protest about Marriage Destruction Day Even in the state s less liberal towns gay couples were treated politely with standard New England reserve The staff were following the orders of the governor who had ruled that the law should be respected 4 The republican Governor Mitt Romney is trying to enforce a long neglected 1913 state law that denies marriages licences to out of state couples whose home states would outlaw their unions 39 states have passed laws restricting marriage to heterosexual unions In the meantime Conservatives in Massachusetts want to push through an amendment to their state constitution 5 According to Jonathan Rauch America no longer really has a national consensus about what marriage means In a Los Angeles Times poll 24 Americans said that gays should be allowed to marry and 34 opposed any form of legal union for same sex couple but the bigger number 38 plumped for civil unions 6 Republicans think that the issue can be used to galvanise the conservative base this year Various ballot initiatives are planned around the country the idea being that they will draw to the polls the social conservatives who supposedly stayed at home 7 Because he believes that terminating a pregnancy is a fairly grisly affair and the gay marriage conflict will be less vicious than the abortion conflict L16 1 According to Debrahlee Lorenzana she was fired because dressed in pencil skirts turtlenecks and wearing peep toe stilettos she was considered too hot 2 She loves plastic surgery and thinks that it s the best thing that ever happened 3 Handsome men earn on average 5 percent more than their less attractive counterparts Good looking women earn 4 percent more It s looks not merit that all too often rule 4 A couple of decades ago it was a makeup less Kate Moss who was considered the beauty ideal Now it s a plastic surgery plumped Paris Hilton 5 According to economist Daniel Hamermesh a good looking man will make some 250 000 more than his least attractive counterpart 6 In the current economy when employers have hiring options looks aren t just important they re critical 7 57 percent of hiring managers told Newsweek that qualified but unattractive candidates are likely to have a harder time landing a job while more than half advised spending as much time and money on making sure they look attractive as on perfecting a r sum When it comes to women apparently 61 percent of managers said it would be an advantage for a woman to wear clothing showing off her figure at work Looks are placed above education in order of importance 8 According to Plato s golden proportions an ideal face has a width exactly two thirds of its length and a nose no longer than the distance between the eyes 9 Studies show that unattractive women remain at a disadvantage in low level positions like secretary while in upper level fields that are historically male dominated good looking women can suffer a so called bimbo effect They are viewed as too feminine less intelligent and ultimately less competent 10 Aging is a disadvantage There exists bias against elderly men and women Eighty four percent of managers told Newsweek they believe a qualified but visibly older candidate would make some employers hesitate and while ageism affects men too it s particularly tough for women L19 1 Calcuttans live in extremely poor conditions surviving in a shack or on the street with little access to clean water food or health care But they score about a 4 meaning they are slightly more happy than not This example shows that happiness is more related to attitude than to material well being 2 They have been evaluating what they term the Subjective Well Being SWB of people around the world by inviting them to answer questions about their moods and outlook Their finding is that human beings no matter where they live and almost without regard to how they live are preset to be happy 3 He thinks of the predilection as a gift bestowed on people by evolution that helps people adapt and flourish even in fairly trying circumstances The other explanation is that people are socialized to be happy in order to facilitate smooth social functioning 4 According to a survey of college students in the mid 1990s the three most cheerful locales are Puerto Rico Columbia and Spain Ed Diener thinks that the high spirits of the relatively poor Puerto Ricans and Columbians stem from a positivity tendency that may be rooted in cultural norms regarding the value of believing in aspects of life in general to be good 5 East Asians tend to weight the worst areas of their life when computing their life satisfaction Shinabo Kitayama explains that it may be a reflection of a difference in cultural expectation He believes that Asians from the beginning of life are trained to focus on the negative aspects of themselves and that extends to Asians view of happiness itself 6 According to Kitayama Asians often see little value in personal happiness that upsets family or group harmony When asked to estimate their happiness in surveys Asians might naturally underrate themselves The reason is that Asian happiness is much more social than personal 7 Economic and political modernization has brought about many changes in Asia A wealth of new possibilities are now available to Asians across the region yet many of those choices what to buy where to work when to marry come into direct conflict with the old interdependent values still held by the society or by their families There is enormous stress in these transitional cultures The result can be a kind of cognitive dissonance that leaves Asians individually freer but perhaps less happy at least in the short run 8 According to researchers at Rotterdam s Eramus University the happiest people in the world are Danes the Swiss and the Maltese all of whom score 8 on a 10 point scale of happiness 9 According to the article in the Western cultures the pursuit of happiness is a national obsession whereas in the Eastern cultures as Chung Tsu put it happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness