There are desert plants which survive the dry season in the form of inactive seeds. There are also desert insects which survive as inactive larvae (幼虫). In addition, difficult as it is to believe, there are desert fish which can survive through years of drought (干旱) in the form of inactive eggs. These are the shrimps (小虾) that live in the Mojave Desert, an intensely dry region in the south-west of the United States where shade temperatures of over 50C are often recorded.
    The eggs of the Mojave shrimps are the size and have the appearance of grains of sand. When sufficient spring rain falls to form a lake, once every two to five years, these eggs hatch (孵化). Then the water is soon filled with millions of tiny shrimps about a millimetre long which feed on tiny plant and animal organisms which also grow in the temporary desert lake. Within a week, the shrimps grow from their original 1 millimetre to a length of about 1.5 centimetres.
    Throughout the time that the shrimps are rapidly maturing, the water in the lake equally rapidly evaporates. Therefore, for the shrimps it is a race against time. By the twelfth day, however, when they are about 3 centimetre long, hundreds of tiny eggs form on the underbodies of the females. Usually by this time, all that remains of the lake is a large, muddy patch of wet soil. On the thirteenth day and the next, during the final hours of their brief lives, the shrimps lay their eggs in the mud. Then, having ensured that their species will survive, the shrimps die as the last of the water evaporates.
    If sufficient rain falls the next year to form another lake, the eggs hatch, and once again the shrimps pass rapidly through their cycle of growth, adulthood, egg-laying, and death. Some years there is insufficient rain to form a lake: in this case, the eggs will remain dormant for another years, or even longer if necessary. Very, very occasionally, perhaps twice in a hundred years, sufficient rain falls to form a deep lake that lasts a month or more. In this case, the species passes through two cycles of growth, egg-laying, and death. Thus, on such occasions, the species multiplies considerably, which further ensures its survival.

    Opportunities for rewarding work become fewer for both men and women as they grow older. After age 40, job hunting becomes even more difficult. Many workers stay at jobs they are too old for rather than face possible rejection. Our youth-oriented, throw-away culture sees little value in older people. In writer Lilian Hellman’s words, they have “the wisdom that comes with age that we can’t make use of. “
    Unemployment and economic need for work is higher among older women, especially minorities, than among younger white women. A national council reports these findings: though unemployed longer when seeking work, older women job-hunt harder, hold a job longer with less absenteeism (缺勤), perform as well or better, are more reliable, and are more willing to learn than men or younger women. Yet many older women earn poor pay and face a future of poverty in their retirement years. When “sexism meets ageism, poverty is no longer on the doorstep it moves in,” according to Tish Sommers, director of a special study on older women for the National Organization for Women.
    Yet a 1981 report on the White House Conference on Aging shows that as a group, older Americans are the “wealthiest, best fed, best housed, healthiest, most self-reliant older population in our history. “This statement is small comfort to those living below the poverty line, but it does explode some of the old traditional beliefs and fears. Opportunities for moving in and up in a large company may shrink but many older people begin successful small businesses, volunteer in satisfying activities, and stay active for many years. They have few role models because in previous generations the life span was much shorter and expectations of life were fewer. They are ploughing new ground.
    Employers are beginning to recognize that the mature person can bring a great deal of stability and responsibility to a position. One doesn’t lose ability and experience on the eve of one’s 65th or 70th birthday any more than one grows up instantly at age 21.

    The most exciting kind of education is also the most personal. Nothing can exceed the joy of discovering for yourself something that is important to you! It may be an idea or a bit of information you come across accidentally—or a sudden insight, fitting together pieces of information or working through a problem. Such personal encounters are the “payoff” in education. A teacher may direct you to learning and even encourage you in it—but no teacher can make the excitement or the joy happen. That’s up to you.
    A research paper, assigned in a course and perhaps checked at various stages by an instructor, leads you beyond classroom, beyond the texts for classes and into a process where the joy of discovery and learning can come to you many times. Preparing the research paper is an active and individual process, and ideal learning process. It provides a structure within which you can make exciting discoveries, of knowledge and of self, that are basic to education. But the research paper also gives you a chance to individualize a school assignment, to suit a piece of work to your own interests and abilities, to show others what you can do. Writing a research paper is more than just a classroom exercise. It is an experience in searching out, understanding and synthesizing, which forms the basis of many skills applicable to both academic and nonacademic tasks. It is, in the fullest sense, a discovering, an education. So, to produce a good research paper is both a useful and a thoroughly satisfying experience!
    To some, the thought of having to write an assigned number of pages, often more than ever produced before, is disconcerting. To others, the very idea of having to work independently is threatening. But there is no need to approach the research paper assignment with anxiety, and nobody should view the research paper as an obstacle to overcome. Instead, consider it a goal to accomplish, a goal within reach if you use the help this book can give you.

    In our culture, the sources of what we call a sense of “mastery”—feeling important and worth-while-and the sources of what we call a sense “pleasure”-finding life enjoyable-are not always identical. Women often are told “You can’t have it all.” Sometimes what the speaker really is saying is: “You chose a career, so you can’t expect to have closer relationships or a happy family life.” or “You have a wonderful husband and children—What’s all this about wanting a career?” But women need to understand and develop both aspects of well-being, if they are to feel good about themselves.
    Our study shows that, for women, well-being has two dimensions. One is mastery, which includes self-esteem (自尊), a sense of control over your life, and low levels of anxiety and depression. Mastery is closely related to the “doing” side of life, to work and activity. Pleasure is the other dimensions, and it is composed of happiness, satisfaction and optimism (乐观). It is tied more closely to the “feeling” side of life. The two are independent of each other. A woman could be high in mastery and low in pleasure, and vice versa. For example, a woman who has a good job, but whose mother has just died, might be feeling very good about herself and in control of her work life, but the pleasure side could be damaged for a time.
    The concepts of mastery and pleasure can help us identify the sources of well-being for women, and remedy past mistakes. In the past, women were encouraged to look only at the feeling side of life as the source of all well-being. But we know that both mastery and pleasure are critical. And mastery seems to be achieved largely through work. In our study, all the groups of employed women rated significantly higher in mastery than did women who were not employed.
    A woman’s well-being is enhanced (增进) when she takes on multiple roles. At least by middle adulthood, the women who were involved in a combination of roles-marriages, motherhood, and employment were the highest in well-being, despite warnings about stress and strain.

    When we consider the comfortable circumstances of a working family today, the life of the working man in 1882 seems miserable indeed. But earlier it had been even hard. At the beginning of the (S1) nineteenth century working hours were from sunrise to sunset, pay was awful, and working conditions being poor and dangerous. (S2)
    The working man had little schooling beyond his craft, and there was little hope that their children would have (S3) nothing better. There were no public schools, and besides, the few (S4) pennies which the children could earn needed to help support the (S5) family, if he was present because of sickness, there was often no (S6) job from him when he returned. Since there were always plenty of (S7) other workers to take his job, he was likely to be hired if he asked (S8) for more pay.
    Viewed against today’s standards, the attitude of the nineteenth-century factory owners seems incredible. They believed that was good business to hire men, women and children as cheaply (S9) as possible, make them to work as they could and, when (S10) they became inefficient, worn out, or unable to work for any reason, discharge them.

Directions: For this part, you are allowed thirty minutes to write a composition on the topic We Need to Broaden Our Knowledge. You should write no less than 120 words and you should base your composition on the outline (given in Chinese) below:
(1)科学技术是社会发展所不可缺少的
(2)社会科学和自然科学相互渗透
(3)现代大学生需要广博的知识
Remember to write your composition coherently and neatly.

We Need to Broaden Our Knowledge