Zaineb and Faizal Zekeria don’t look like the living evidence of a potentially nation-altering trend. They look like two newlyweds in love. But their year-old union is hand-holding proof of how a massive influx of immigrants is changing who marries whom, and why, and challenging the idealized notion of America as a multicultural melting pot. Increasingly, a new study shows, U. S. -born Asians and Hispanics are choosing to wed foreign-born members of their own ethnicity. At the same time, greater numbers of new immigrants are marrying among themselves. Some sociologists believe the shift could have significant implications: It could signal a widening gap between the races. Or, in another view, it could reflect growing pride among minority peoples. There’s no question what has fueled the trend. The 11 million immigrants who arrived in the 1990s dramatically increased the same- ethnicity pool of potential mates. Hispanics are the country’s fastest- growing minority group, Asians the second-fastest. The rationales for choosing a husband or wife of the same background, say couples interviewed for this story, are practical and emotional. Having a foreign-born mate offers an American a deeper connection to his or her ancestry. The opposite also occurs, with American partners helping to ease their spouses’ transition to a new world. The former Zaineb Ainuddin, 29, and Faizal Zekeria, 30, found both to be true. She was born in Chicago, he in Bombay, India. The Philadelphia couple met in 1997 as undergraduates at Temple University. "I’d consider myself brought up in an American household," said Zaineb, whose father arrived in the States in 1965, when he was 37. "I was the unusual one who broke away and married an Indian." The number of interracial marriages in the United States has been growing since the 1970s. Now two researchers, Zhenchao Qian, a sociologist at Ohio State University, and Daniel Lichter, a policy analyst at Cornell University, have documented an important change. Using census data from 1990 and 2000, Qian and Lichter identified "unprecedented declines in intermarriage with whites, and big increases in marriages between native-and foreign-born members of Asian and Hispanic ethnicities." Their study findings were recently published in the American Sociological Review. In 10 years, the percentage of Hispanics who married outside their ethnicity fell to 19.9 from 26.9. The decline among Asians was even greater, 33.2 percent compared with 41.7 percent. Meanwhile, among marriages between people of the same ethnicity, pairings between native-and foreign-born rose 50 percent for Asians and 9 percent for Hispanics. Scholars wonder how the trend could affect race relations. For decades, Lichter and Qian note, people have tended to view rising rates of intermarriage as a sign of growing acceptance between peoples of different color and culture. Others say the decline in intermarriage is a non-issue. "Most people prefer to marry someone with whom they have a lot in common--heritage, culture, values, customs, habits, language and appearance," said B. J. Gallagher, an L. A. sociologist who specializes in diversity issues. "It’s... a natural thing. " Marc Lamont Hill, who teaches urban education at Temple University, sees the increase in same-culture marriages as "absolutely a good thing." "We’ve been taught that white people, and particularly white women, are the standard for beauty and attractiveness," Hill said. Marrying within ethnicity is a way of moving beyond that, he said. According to Qian and Lichter’s study, which of the following is FALSE
A. There’s a 8.5% drop in Asian’s intermarriage.
B. Compared to Hispanics, a larger percentage of Asians marry outside their ethnicity.
C. There is a larger increase in the same-ethnicity marriage in Asian than in Hispanics.
D. 50% Asians now marry people of their own ethnicity.
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What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art, or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible. How could such extremely complex influences pass from the mother to the child There is no connection between their nervous systems. Even the blood vessels of mother and child do not join directly. An emotional shock to the mother will affect her child, because it changes the activity of her glands and so the chemistry of her blood. Any chemical change in the mother’s blood will affect the child for better or worse. But we can not see how a looking for mathematics or poetic genius can be dissolved in blood and produce a similar liking or genius in the child. In our discussion of instincts we saw that there was reason to believe that whatever we inherit must be of some very simple sort rather than any complicated or very definite kind of behavior. It is certain that no one inherits a knowledge of mathematics. It may be, however, that children inherit more or less of a rather general ability that we may call intelligence. If very intelligent children become deeply interested in mathematics, they will probably make a success of that study. As for musical ability, it may be that what is inherited is an especially sensitive ear, a peculiar structure of the hands or the vocal organs connections between nerves and muscles that make it comparatively easy to learn the movements a musician must execute, and particularly vigorous emotions. If these factors are all organized around music, the child may become a musician. The same factors, in other circumstance might be organized about some other center of interest. The rich emotional equipment might find expression in poetry. The capable fingers might develop skill in surgery. It is not the knowledge of music that is inherited, then nor even the love of it, but a certain bodily structure that makes it comparatively easy to acquire musical knowledge and skill. Whether that ability shall be directed toward music or some other undertaking may be decided entirely by forces in the environment in which a child grows up. Which of the following is the best title for the passage
A. Importance of Prenatal Development.
B. Abilities that Children Can Inherit.
C. Inheritance and Talents.
D. The Making of a Musician.
No one knows exactly how many disabled (残废的) people there are in the world, but estimates suggest the figure is over 450 million. The number of disabled people in India alone is probably more than double the total population of Canada. In the United Kingdom, about one in ten people have some disability. Disability is not just something that happens to other people. As we get older, many of us will become less mobile (可动的), hard of hearing or have failing eyesight. Disablement can take many forms and occur at any time of life. Some people are born with disabilities. Many others become disabled as they get older. There are many progressive disabling diseases. The longer time goes on, the worse they become. Some people are disabled in accidents. Many others may have a period of disability in the form of a mental illness. All are affected by people’s attitude towards them. Disabled people face many physical barriers. Friends, imagine how you would manage if you could not get up steps, or onto buses and trains. How would you cope if you could not see where you were going or could not hear the traffic But there are other barriers prejudice can be even harder to break down and ignorance inevitably represents by far the greatest barrier of all. It is almost impossible for the able-bodied to fully appreciate, what the severely disabled go through, so it is important to draw attention to these barriers and show that it is the individual person and their ability, not their disability, which counts. The first paragraph tells us that ______.
A. the exact number of disabled people in the world is 450 million
B. the number of disabled people in Canada is more than the population of India
C. there are so many disabled people in the world
D. the disabled in India is the greatest on earth
Passage OneQuestions 26 to 28 are based on the passage you have just heard.
A. She has the ability to afford only one tree’s removal.
B. She doesn’t want her trees to be removed.
C. She will apply for the state and federal loans.
D. She thinks that the planners are inconsiderate.
Energy analysts spent the first half of the year debating how expensive oil could get. Now they are asking the opposite question. On December 2nd the price of a barrel slipped below $ 47, the lowest level since May 2005 and legs than a third of the peak reached in July. The main reason for the slump is the darkening outlook for the world economy. America’s appetite for oil, for example, had been more or less stagnant(停滞的) for the past few years, but has recently dropped dramatically. Many now expect global oil demand to fall next year, and perhaps even this year -- which would be the first decline since 1993. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) does not seem able to cut its production fast enough to keep pace with all this grim news. In October the cartel agreed to pump 1.5 million fewer barrels each (lay from November 1st, reducing global supply by about 2%. But that cut is only just beginning to take effect, since it can lake more than a month for tankers to reach their destinations. Moreover, OPEC’s members do not yet seem to be complying fully with their diminished quotas. The king of Saudi Arabia recently "said that $75 a barrel would be a fair price --- an idea that other members of the cartel have echoed with enthusiasm. Oil’s plunge has left many of them in dire fiscal straits. This suggests that when the group meets again on December 17th, it will resolve to cut its production further. But Saudi Arabia will not want to bear all the cost, so it will insist that other big producers, such as Iran and Venezuela, should not only agree to further cuts of their own but also implement them. Michael Lewis of Deutsche Bank argues that OPEC’s past efforts to prop up prices have succeeded more often than not. Since 1993, cuts in production have led to higher prices on three-quarters of occasions. The exceptions, however, have occurred when the world economy has slowed unexpectedly -- most notably in 1998, after the Asian crisis, and in 2001, after the dotcom bubble burst. On those occasions, the price kept falling for more than six months after OPEC first began reducing its output. In 2001, for example, the cartel had to resort to a series of cuts, totaling 5 million barrels, before the price finally began to recover. If events take a similar turn this time, Mr. Lewis reckons, OPEC will have to keep cutting its output for another year. The price may not hit rock bottom until early 2010. But the world economy looks less healthy now than it did in 2001, so OPEC may face even more of a struggle this time, he thinks. What does the author tell us about the general condition of oil price this year
A. The oil price underwent decline in the first haft year and rise in the second haft.
B. The oil price in July is higher than $141 per barrel.
C. The stagnant situation of America’s appetite caused oil price decline.
D. Oil price decline may. account for the world economy’s darkening outlook.