单选题 The male minority A) When Meg Delong was in high school in the northern Georgia town of Gainesville, she was a serious student with her eye on college. Many of her girlfriends worked toward the same goal. But her younger brother and most of her friends seemed more inclined to act like Falstaff than to study Shakespeare. "A lot of guys thought studying was for girls," says Delong, now a junior French major at the University of Georgia in Athens. "They were really intelligent, but they would goof off (偷懒), and it seemed to be accepted by the teachers." B) In a freshman English tutorial, small cluster of men sit quietly as women dominate class discussions. But outside class, the mood on campus is distinctly male-friendly. Tyler Willingham, social chair of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, observes that at parties, even guys without dates can choose from "many beautiful women". C) This sort of gender gap is glaring and growing at campuses across America. Until 1979, men made up the majority of college students. As women won increasing equality elsewhere in society, it was natural and expected that they would reach equality elsewhere in society, it was natural and expected that they would reach equality in college, which they did by the early 1980s. But the surprise has been that men's enrollment in higher education has declined since 1992. Makes now make up just 44 percent or undergraduate students nationwide. And federal projections show their share shrinking to as little as 42 percent by 2010. This trend is among the hottest topics of debate among college admissions officers. D) Why the shortage? There are few hard facts, but lots of theories. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more men than women respond to the temptation of high-tech jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree. Some call this the Bill Gates syndrome (综合症), after the college-dropout chairman of Microsoft. But high-tech industries employ only about nine percent of the US workforce. Amid the hot economy of recent years, a larger group of men—especially those from lower-income families—might be heading straight from high school into fields like aircraft mechanics and telephone and power-line repair that pay an average of $850 a week rather than taking on a load of college debt. Some social critics blame a culture that promotes anti-intellectualism among boys. And especially in inner cities, crime and gangs tempt more boys than girls away from learning. E) How pervasive is the gender gap? According to Thomas Mortenson, an education analyst in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the share of college degrees earned by makes has been declining for decades. US government figures how that from 1970 to 1966, as the number of bachelor's degrees earned by women increased 77 percent, the number earned by men rose 19 percent. Not all schools are feeling the imbalance; many elite colleges and universities have seen applications soar from both sexes. But the overall numbers, says Mortenson, should make us "wake up and see that boys are in trouble". F) Jacqueline King, author of a recent study on the gender gap in college, emphasize that it is widest among blacks (63 percent women to 37 percent men in the latest figures), Hispanics (57 percent to 43 percent) and, in her analysis, lower-income whites (54 percent to 46 percent). "It's not middle-class white young men who aren't going to college," she says. G) Christina Hoff Sommers, a conservative education analyst cites studies showing that boys come to school less prepared than girls, do less homework and get suspended more often. "For males, there's no social expectation in being a straight-A student," says Clifford Thornton, associate dean of admissions at Wesleyan University. Although the latest figures show that college graduates earn, in average, almost double the wages of those with no college degree, "there's a sense among many boys that they can get a job without it," says socilolgist Michael Kimmel. Consider Justin Spagnoli. After high school he took classes at a community college before quitting to work in his father's cabinet shop in Royston, Georgia. Today Spagnoli, 25, earns $50,000 a year, while his buddies are just finishing college, taking jobs for lower pay. "You don't need a degree," he says, if you have a talent. H) Some private liberal arts colleges are making it easier for men to get in. at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, this year's freshman class is 43 percent male—up from 36 percent last year—in part because the school gave preference to "qualified male candidates on the margin," says Robert Massa, vice president for enrollment and student life. The idea gets mixed reviews among Dickson's students. But Massa emphasizes that "the men we admitted were as qualified as the women". At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, recruiters aggressively boast math and science programs—traditionally popular among male applicants. Chicago's DePaul University (59 percent female) sends out extra mailings to boys. I) Public universities, though, could face legal challenges if they were to try recruiting more males. In Texas and Florida—both of which have largely abolished preferences in admissions policies—state officials say there are no special plans to tempt more men. Many schools still try to balance programs historically dominated by one gender (like engineering and social work) by offering positions to underrepresented students. At San Francisco State University, Roberto Haro, a professor of ethnic studies, routinely recruits minority males at Boys Clubs and middle schools in inner-city areas. As a result, he ways, "in the past year, we've seen a slight increase in the number of minority males who have applied." J) Michael Kimmel believes that once we begin to change the anti-intellectual current in our culture, market forces will help address the gender gap. "Eventually," he says, "men will start going back to college to meet the demad for an educated labor force." And surely more men will also be lured onto campuses by the realization that they'll be surrounded by smart, attractive women with great earnings prospects小题:Though boys are quiet in class, they are very active and welcomed in social activities after class