Cloze Test Directions: In the following passage, there are 45 blanks representing the words that are missing from the contexts. You are to read the passage through before providing the missing word of each blank without looking at the Answer. Then, compare your Answers with the Answers provided and learn from the possible differences.Immorality in Afghanistan
Many aid organizations in Kabul have suspended their programmes after the arrest of two French aid workers by the Taliban, the Afghan capital's new rulers. Some are wondering whether to pull out altogether.
Most of the problems facing the aid workers 1 the Taliban's attitude to women. The two Frenchmen and five of their 2 staff were arrested at a lunch party on February 21st given by the 3 expatriate staff for their Afghan women workers. The fate of the local 4 is not known, but the Frenchmen are under investigation for 5 the Taliban consider immorality: being in the same compound as 6 women. The veils they insist upon have a small patch of gauze 7 the eyes; Saudi-style veils, which show the eyes, are unacceptable.
The Taliban are 8 that aid organizations buy mini-buses with curtains to transport 9 female staff. Local drivers are afraid of carrying women workers—whether 10 or local—in case they are stopped by armed patrol and accused of immoral 11 . Almost half of Kabul's mother-and-child health clinics run by aid workers have 12 their operations.
At first the Taliban, who occupied Kabul in September, turned a 13 eye to the fate that many Afghan woman were working for aid 14 . Since the arrest, the agencies have sought written guarantees 15 their work will not be impeded. The Taliban will not give them.
Even if they would, the 16 would not necessarily be honoured by street patrols. There is a big difference between what is 17 by those supposedly in authority and what happens in reality. The Taliban have said that 18 are allowed to work in medical services, subject to certain restrictions. Yet 19 carrying women to and from work have been stopped, the drivers harassed and the women 20 home.
A pull-out by aid agencies would be a serious blow to Kabul's citizens. International organizations provide more than 90% of medical supplies in Kabul, and almost half the city's population receives some kind of food aid. (The Economist)China's One-child-per-couple Policy Has Inflamed the Ancient Preference for Sons
The letter from a Chinese woman to her American friend reflected her torment and tears. "I told you I wish a baby girl, because nothing can compare with one's love of a baby, especially mother and daughter," she wrote in broken English. Instead of bringing joy, however, the birth of a daughter was destroying her family. "My husband wants to divorce me," she continued. "When he knew the baby was a girl, he left quickly." Reluctant to blame only her husband, she pointed to her in-laws. "He is the only boy, so his having a son is more important for his parents," she explained. "Although he had been hoping for a boy, I never thought he would act like this."
Old attitudes die hard in a society that has been a bastion of male 21 for 22 centuries. Until a few decades ago, the drowning of 22 girls was tolerated in poor rural areas as an economic necessity. A girl was just another 23 to feed, another dowry to pay, a temporary family member who would eventually 24 to serve her husband's kin. A boy, on the other hand, meant more muscle for the 25 work, someone to care for aged parents and bum offerings to ancestors.
The Communists 26 to change all that in 1949 by freeing women from the household, putting them to work in 27 and factories and giving them the right to inherit property. Suddenly a girl could have 28 economic value. Still, feudal tradition has resisted change in many 29 , and the government's draconian one-child-per-couple population policy, 30 in 1979, has inflamed age-old prejudices against females. Rural and minority families 31 lie, cheat or pay fines in order to try a second pregnancy in the 32 of having a son. And female infanticide—plus its modem variation, the 33 of amniocentesis to identify female fetuses in order to abort them—continues. The problem is so 34 that government campaigns urge parents to "Love your daughter" and allow girl 35 to live.
Even in enlightened circles, condolences are in order for a couple 36 newborn is a girl. Over dinner in the Beijing apartment of a liberal-party cadre, a young 37 proudly passes around color photos of her infant son, lying spread-eagled on a 38 , his genitals prominently displayed. Seated beside her, the new mother of a baby girl 39 on in wistful silence. She carries no pictures. Jiang Junsheng, a 40 engineer in a Beijing auto-parts factory, says he wasn't upset when his 41 child, a daughter, was born, but "my mother did not like it." That's an 42 , says his wife Chen Yiyun, 50, a well-known sociologist. "His 43 would not take care of our daughter," she says. "Yet when my husband's brother had a boy, she 44 him with attention."
Social observers believe a daughter's lot will 45 as women become more valuable to China's growing economy and as the one-child policy eventually makes every scion—male and female—precious to parents. Chen's own daughter Jiang Xu, 19, reflects changing attitudes when she expresses her preference for a daughter: "To have a boy means happiness for a moment. To have a girl means a lifetime of good fortune." 
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