C

The early lack of exposure to science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM)can be harmful to achieving gender(性别)balance in these fields. It begins when we are young and continues throughout our time in high school.

While at home, girls generally don't get to experience the level of exposure or encouragement in STEM fields that their male counterparts do. It is often subtle, but it's the first hurdle that faces and confuses so many women. Boys, on the other hand, get on their path, and are encouraged to do so, generally earlier than girls. For example, boys are more often given science sets as toys, which spark an interest in these subjects.

In school, boys are often pushed to take the more challenging math and science classes. So if we want to attract the best and brightest minds into the fields that will advance us as a people, a country, and a planet, we can no longer look to only half of the population. Young girls cannot possibly consider opportunities they do not know exist. If girls are not exposed to certain subject and career paths, they are highly unlikely to choose to follow them in college.

Our bias(偏见)toward girls, either from families or from schools, is so rooted in our culture that we often don't even recognize it. Although the situation has changed greatly in the past 20 or 30 years, there is still a sense, that girls aren't as good at math, for instance, even though there is almost no evidence to support such a belief.

It is important that as a society we deal with gender stereotypes long before young people are faced with a decision to declare or choose a major in college. Without making efforts to break them, we are limiting the potentials of our youth, both male and female. Providing the necessary resources, exposure, and encouragement would help young women understand that their gender shouldn't determine the career path they choose, and that pursuing a STEM career does not make them less feminine.

63. According to the passage, not many girls grow to enter STEM fields because _____.·

A. girls are not as good at STEM as boys

B. girls do not like to take science classes

C. girls get fewer chances to know about STEM

D. girls seldom survive the high pressure positions

64. The underlined word “it" in Para. 4 refers to _____.

A. our bias B. our culture C. the situation D. a sense

65. The main purpose of the passage is to _____..

A. show women's potentials in STEM fields

B. praise women's contributions to STEM fields

C. describe the present gender bias in STEM fields

D. call for more involvement of women in STEM fields

66. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

D

Online shoppers would rather receive an offer for a product or service than make their own offer, according to a study led by a Michigan State University scholar that has implications for the fast-growing e-commerce industry. The findings may come as a surprise given that shopping online is an anonymous(匿名的)process that seemingly can give consumers more confidence to drive a hard bargain, said Don Conlon, Professor of Management in MSU's Broad College of Business.

But the study found that participants who made their own offers were less successful in sealing the deal and, when they were successful, worried they overpaid. Many shoppers found the process of researching an offer to be a hassle. "Americans are very busy, and it's less time-consuming to be the one receiving the offer rather than the one proposing the offer,” Conlon said. “People tend to be happier when they're in the receiver role.”

Online spending in the United States is expected to jump 45 percent in the next four years, from$226 billion this year to$327 billion in 2017, according to Forrester Research Inc. Nevertheless, researches into this prosperous market remain largely focused on the strategies of companies, rather than those of shoppers. Conlon's study is, obviously, a rare exception. Conlon got the idea for the study after considering the difference between two popular sites for hotels and airline flights, priceline.com, which takes bids, and hotwire.com, which provides offers. Using these two models, Conlon and his fellow researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 850 people who were charged with booking a fictional hotel room and acquiring a fictional antique car. Not only did participants prefer to receive bids, Conlon said, but they also secured more deals in that receiver role. Further, when they had to make the bids, they were left more mentally taxed and regretful.

From an industry perspective, putting customers in the receiver role may help fill more hotel rooms and airplane seats. “If you're a business with a lot of products, ” Conlon said, “you may want to be the one making the offers.” However, when selling single items, such as an antique car, accepting bids may be a better option since that typically drives up the price, he said.

67. What can we learn from Para. 1?

A. The result of the study gives customers more confidence.

B. Scholars aren't surprised at the findings of the study.

C. Online shoppers don't bargain as much as expected.

D. E-commerce industry drives more hard bargains.

68. It can be concluded from Conlon's experiments that _____.

A. online shopping is time-consuming

B. given prices help promote online sales

C. online businesses provide a lot of products

D. receiving offers makes online shoppers regretful

69. The underlined word“taxed" in Para. 4 probably means _____.

A. burdened B. numbed C. relieved D. challenged

70. The passage is mainly about _____.

A. the big advantages of online shopping

B. the rapid development of online shopping

C. online shoppers' preference for taking offers

D. online companies' strategies to improve service