In the rarefied world of the corporate board, a good network matters. (1) often involves word-of- mouth recommendations: getting on a (2) is easier if you have the right connections. New research suggests men use (3) better than women.
Marie Lalanne and Paul Seabright of the Toulouse School of Economics (4) the effect of a network on (5) using a database of board members in Europe and America. They find that if you were to compare two executive directors, (6) in every way except that one had 200 ex-colleagues now (7) boards and the other 400, the latter, (8) , would be paid 6% more. For non-executives the gap is 14%.
The really (9) finding concerns the difference between the sexes. Among executive-board members, women earn 17% less than their male (10) . There are plenty of plausible explanations for this (11) , from interruptions to women’s careers to old-fashioned (12) . But the authors find that this pay gap can be fully (13) by the effect of executives’ networks. Men can leverage a large network into more senior positions or a seat on a more (14) board; women don’t seem to be able to.
Women could just have (15) connections with members of their networks. "Women seem more inclined to build and rely on only a few p relationships," says Mr. Seabright. Men are better at developing (16) acquaintances into a network, and better at maintaining a high personal (17) through these contacts. Women may, of course, also be hurt by the existing (18) of men on boards and a male (19) for filling executive positions with other men. But a tendency to think of other men first will be (20) if talented women don’t stay on the radar. (289 words)
6（）
A．identical
B．similar
C．differential
D．distinctive
参考答案：A
解析：
[答案精析] 本题考查形容词词义辨析。空格处位于第二段第二句。本题的解题关键是理解句中的“in every way except that(在各个方面，除了……)”，就是说除了that后所指的不同方面，其他方面都是相同的，将选项[A]identical代入空格处，句子意为“他们发现……，在各个方面都担圃的条件下……”，符合正常逻辑，故该选项为正确答案。
[错项排除] 选项[B]similar意为“类似的”，表示仍含有细微的差异，在逻辑上不够严谨；选项[C]differential意为“差异的”，与文意相反；选项[D]distinctive表示“有特色的”，既然每个方面都各有特点，那就无需比较了，故也应排除。