2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 82

Unit 82

When it comes to schooling, the Herrera boys are no match for the Herrera girls. Last week, four years after she arrived from Honduras, Martha, 20, graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. She managed decent grades while working 36 hours a week at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Her sister, Marlin, 22, attends a local community college and will soon be a certified nurse assistant. The brothers are a different story. Oscar, 17, was expelled two years ago from Fairfax for carrying a knife and later dropped out of a different school. The youngest, Jonathan, 15, is now in a juvenile boot camp after running into trouble with the law. “The boys get sidetracked more,” says the kids’ mother, Suyapa Landaverde. “The girls are more confident.”

This is no aberration. Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys, according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed, five-year study of immigrant children—the largest of its kind, including Latino, Chinese and Haitian kids—by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Though that trend holds for U. S. -born kids as well, the reasons for the discrepancy among immigrants are different. The study found that immigrant girls are more adept at straddling cultures than boys. “The girls are able to retain some of the protective features of （their native） culture” because they’re kept closer to the hearth, says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, “while they maximize their acquisition of skills in the new culture” by helping their parents navigate it.

Consider the kids’ experiences in school. The study found that boys face more peer pressure to adopt American youth culture—the dress, the slang, the disdain for education. They’re disciplined more often and, as a result, develop more adversarial relationships with teachers—and the wider society. They may also face more debilitating prejudices. One teacher interviewed for the study said that the “cultural awareness training” she received as part of her continuing education included depictions of Latino boys as “aggressive” and “really macho” and of the girls as “pure sweetness.”

Gender shapes immigrant kids’ experiences outside school as well. Often hailing from traditional cultures, the girls face greater domestic obligations. They also frequently act as “cultural ambassadors,” translating for parents and mediating between them and the outside world, says Carola Suarez-Orozco. An unintended consequence: “The girls get foisted into a responsible role more than the boys do.” Take Christina Im, 18, a junior at Fairfax who arrived from South Korea four years ago. She ranks ninth in a class of 400 students and still finds time to fix dinner for the family and work on Saturdays at her mother’s clothing shop. Her brother? “He plays computer games,” says Im.

The Harvard study bears a cautionary note: If large numbers of immigrant boys continue to be alienated academically—and to be clear, plenty perform phenomenally—they risk sinking irretrievably into an economic underclass. Oscar Herrera, Martha’s dropout brother, may be realizing that. “I’m thinking of returning to school,” he recently told his mother. He ought to look to his sisters for guidance.

注（1）：本文選自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文習(xí)題命題模仿對象為2005年真題Text 1。

1. In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ______.

A) posing a contrast

B) justifying an assumption

C) making a comparison

D) explaining a phenomenon

2. The statement “they also frequently act as ‘cultural ambassadors’”（Line 2, Paragraph 4） implies that ______.

A) they work as a translator for their parents

B) they help their parents have a better understanding of the foreign culture

C) they encourage their parents to go into the outside world

D) their parents help them realize their dream of becoming an ambassador

3. Immigrant boys do not fare well in the outside world because of the following reasons, EXCEPT that ______.

A) American youth culture has a bad influence on the boys

B) people have prejudice against them

C) their sense of responsibility is not as strong as that of the girls

D) they do not get well along with the teachers and the outside world

4. Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco have eventually found in their study that ______.

A) the immigrant boys should not be allowed to go into the outside world

B) the immigrant boys have no judgment about the youth culture

C) the immigrant girls do a better job than the immigrant boys

D) the immigrant boys should be severely disciplined

5. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A) All the dropouts should receive good education.

B) Many immigrant boys are likely to fall into trouble in the future.

C) Schooling education has been neglected.

D) More attention should be paid to the immigrant children.

篇章剖析

本文采用提出問題—分析問題的模式，指出移民中男孩子和女孩子在學(xué)業(yè)方面的表現(xiàn)差別很大，并進(jìn)一步分析其原因，指出其可能造成的后果。文章第一段以馬撒的兄弟姐妹為例，指出家中男孩和女孩在學(xué)業(yè)上的差別；第二段至第四段都是用來分析造成這一現(xiàn)象的原因；第五段指出可能會(huì)造成的后果。

詞匯注釋

sidetrack /?sa?dtr?k/ vt. 導(dǎo)入側(cè)線，轉(zhuǎn)移目標(biāo)，使受牽制

aberration /?b??re??(?)n/ n. 失常；偏差

outperform /?a?tp??f??m/ vt. 做得比…好，勝過

preliminary /pr??l?m?n?ri/ adj. 預(yù)備的，初步的

discrepancy /d??skrep?nsi/ n. 相差，差異，矛盾

adept at 熟練于…

straddle /?str?d(?)l/ v. 跨坐

navigate /?n?v?ge?t/ vt. 航行于，駕駛，操縱

peer /p??(r)/ n. 同齡人；同事

discipline /?d?s?pl?n/ v. 懲戒，懲罰

adversarial /??dv??se?r??l/ adj. 敵手的，對手的，對抗（性）的

debilitate /d??b?l?te?t/ vt. 使衰弱，使虛弱

macho /?mɑ?t???/ adj. 男子的，男子氣的

gender /?d?end?(r)/ n. 【語】性，〈口〉性別，性，性交

hail from 來自，在某地生長

mediate /?mi?d?e?t/ v. 仲裁，調(diào)停

foist /f??st/ vt. 偷偷插入，使混入，硬賣給，私自添加，把…強(qiáng)加（于），把…塞（給）

alienate /?e?l??ne?t/ v. 疏遠(yuǎn)

phenomenally /f??n?m?n?li/ adv. 現(xiàn)象上地，明白地；驚人地

irretrievably /?r??tri?v?b(?)li/ adv. 不能挽回地，不能補(bǔ)救地

look to sb. for sth. 依賴或指望某人提供或做某事物

難句突破

Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys, according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed, five-year study of immigrant children—the largest of its kind, including Latino, Chinese and Haitian kids—by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

主體句式：Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys...

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：本句是一個(gè)簡單句。according to意為“依據(jù)，按照”，來補(bǔ)充說明“Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys”這一結(jié)論源自何處；the largest of its kind是study的同位語；including現(xiàn)在分詞進(jìn)一步修飾study；by表示這項(xiàng)研究是由誰來做的。

句子譯文：根據(jù)哈佛大學(xué)教育學(xué)研究生院的馬賽羅和卡羅拉·蘇瑞茲·歐羅科剛剛完成的一項(xiàng)歷時(shí)五年的初步研究的結(jié)果——這項(xiàng)研究是同類研究中規(guī)模最大的，研究對象為移民子女，其中包括拉丁美洲人、中國人和海地人——移民女孩子的表現(xiàn)一貫比男孩子出色。

題目分析

1. C 論證方式題。作者以馬撒的兄弟姐妹為例，意在指出男孩和女孩在學(xué)業(yè)方面的不同表現(xiàn)，從而引出論題。

2. B 語義題。從第二段“while they maximize their acquisition of skills in the new culture” by helping their parents navigate it. 我們知道這些移民孩子的父母對新文化的理解、把握和適應(yīng)還得益于孩子的幫助。原文對應(yīng)信息是They also frequently act as “cultural ambassadors,” translating for parents and mediating between them and the outside world，從這句話我們可以看出cultural ambassadors的含義。

3. A 細(xì)節(jié)題。選項(xiàng)B在文中的對應(yīng)信息是第三段的They may also face more debilitating prejudices；選項(xiàng)C在文中的對應(yīng)信息是第四段的the girls face greater domestic obligations；選項(xiàng)D在文中對應(yīng)的信息是第三段的They’re disciplined more often and, as a result, develop more adversarial relationships with teachers—and the wider society.只有選項(xiàng)A不正確，它的意思與文中對應(yīng)的信息有出入，原文對應(yīng)信息是第三段的The study found that boys face more peer pressure to adopt American youth culture—the dress, the slang, the disdain for education.

4. C 細(xì)節(jié)題。文中第一段以對比手法入手，在第二段開頭就引出了文章的論題。原文對應(yīng)信息是Immigrant girls consistently outperform boys, according to the preliminary findings of a just-completed, five-year study... by Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

5. B 推理題。原文對應(yīng)信息是If large numbers of immigrant boys continue to be alienated academically —and to be clear, plenty perform phenomenally—they risk sinking irretrievably into an economic underclass.

參考譯文

談到學(xué)業(yè)問題，赫蕾拉家的男孩根本無法與女孩比。上周，20歲的馬撒從洛杉磯的費(fèi)爾法克斯高中畢業(yè)，她從洪都拉斯來到美國至此已經(jīng)有4年了。盡管她每周都要在肯德基快餐店工作36個(gè)小時(shí)，還是取得了相當(dāng)好的成績。她的姐姐馬林今年22歲，在當(dāng)?shù)氐囊凰鐓^(qū)大學(xué)讀書，不久就將成為一名有資格證書的助理護(hù)士。她兄弟們的情況就完全不一樣了。17歲的奧斯卡兩年前因?yàn)閿y帶小刀被費(fèi)爾法克斯學(xué)校開除，后又從另一所學(xué)校輟學(xué)。最小的喬納森今年15歲，惹上官司后現(xiàn)在在青少年新兵訓(xùn)練營?！斑@些男孩子多不走正道，”孩子們的母親蘇雅帕·蘭達(dá)沃爾德說，“而女孩子卻越發(fā)自信了?！?

這不足為奇。根據(jù)哈佛大學(xué)教育學(xué)研究生院的馬賽羅和卡羅拉·蘇瑞茲·歐羅科剛剛完成的一項(xiàng)歷時(shí)五年的初步研究的結(jié)果——這項(xiàng)研究是同類研究中規(guī)模最大的，研究對象為移民子女，其中包括拉丁美洲人、中國人和海地人——移民女孩子的表現(xiàn)一貫比男孩子出色。雖然這種趨勢在美國出生的孩子中也存在，但是在移民中產(chǎn)生這種差異的原因卻是不相同的。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，移民女孩子比男孩子更善于包容不同的文化。馬賽羅·蘇瑞茲·歐羅科說，“女孩子能保留本民族文化里的一些保護(hù)性特點(diǎn)”，因?yàn)榕⒆痈彝サ年P(guān)系更加緊密，所以在幫助父母跨越這一新文化的過程中，“她們最大限度地獲取了新文化帶來的技能”。

關(guān)于孩子們在校的表現(xiàn)的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，與女孩子相比，男孩子在接受美國年輕人文化——衣著、俚語以及對教育的蔑視等方面——面臨更多的同齡人的壓力。他們會(huì)受到更多的懲戒，因此，他們跟老師以及外界社會(huì)更容易發(fā)展成一種敵對關(guān)系。他們還可能會(huì)面對更多偏見，削弱他們的意志。研究小組采訪的一位老師說，她在繼續(xù)教育中的“文化意識(shí)培訓(xùn)”課程把拉丁美洲男孩描述成“好斗的”、“真正大男子主義的”的人，而對女孩子的描述是“清純可人”。

性別差異對于移民孩子的課余生活經(jīng)歷也有影響。由于女孩子常常處在傳統(tǒng)文化的氛圍之中，她們要對家庭承擔(dān)更多的責(zé)任?？_拉·蘇瑞茲·歐羅科說，她們常常擔(dān)當(dāng)“文化大使”的角色，為她們的父母擔(dān)任翻譯，幫助他們與外部世界溝通。這產(chǎn)生了一種意想不到的結(jié)果：“與男孩子相比，女孩子不得不承擔(dān)起更多的責(zé)任。”我們以克里斯蒂娜伊·殷為例。她今年18歲，4年前從韓國來到這里，現(xiàn)在是費(fèi)爾法克斯中學(xué)三年級學(xué)生。在全班400名學(xué)生中，她排名第9位，但她還能抽出時(shí)間給她的家人做正餐，每周六還要在她媽媽的服裝店里幫忙。她弟弟干什么呢？殷說，“他在打游戲?！?

哈佛大學(xué)的研究帶著一種警示性口氣：如果大量的移民男孩子在學(xué)業(yè)上繼續(xù)荒廢下去——說得清楚些，有很多人荒廢得令人難以置信——他們將來在經(jīng)濟(jì)上可能會(huì)不可挽回地陷入底層社會(huì)。馬撒輟學(xué)的弟弟奧斯卡·赫雷拉可能已經(jīng)認(rèn)識(shí)到了這一點(diǎn)。他最近告訴他的母親說，“我在考慮重新回到學(xué)校去?！彼麘?yīng)該向他的姐姐們求教指導(dǎo)意見。