Passage Reading 段落朗读

In theory this should mean that women are becoming better-off, liberated, equal. But in practice it is a different story.

Most women now work far longer hours than men—in factory, shop or office as well as in the home as cook, cleaner, child rearer, shopper and home-maker. This double burden means that the average woman who goes out to work is now putting in an 80-hour working week—twice as long as most men.

So equality depends not only on women sharing in paid employment but also on men sharing in the tasks of the home. At the moment husbands in all industrialized countries contribute very little to domestic work and recent research shows that this contribution does not increase when the wife goes out to work. An American researcher found that the average father in the United States spends only 12 minutes a day with his children. Overall, women’s unpaid work in the U.S.A is estimated at about 40 percent of the GDP.

权威名师解析：

注意liberate, rearer, industrialized, estimate等难词的发音。

liberate   ['libəreit]  （v） 解放；使…获得自由

rearer    ['rirə]   （n） 养育者

industrialized   [in'dʌstriəlaizd]  （adj.） 工业化的

estimate   ['estimeit]  （v） 估计；估价

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How would mastering a computer benefit us?

权威名师解析：

1. to help you in school (example: to do homework on computer; search information on the Internet)

2. to help you at home (to store important data, such account numbers and passwords)

3. to help you at work（to work more efficiently）