In an era when many parents make efforts to ensure that boys and girls have equal opportunities, a recent study found that boys are paid twice as much allowance (零花钱) as girls for doing weekly chores.

An analysis of 10,000 families across the US showed that boys earned an average of $13.80 (92 yuan) each week compared with $6.71 earned by girls, according to BusyKid, a web platform that allows kids to receive, spend, or invest their allowance.

“I think this is a wake-up call for parents to realize what they are paying, to make sure they are being as fair as possible,” said Gregg Murset, CEO of BusyKid.

According to the analysis, boys averaged more allowance than girls because they were more often assigned chores considered more physically difficult, including cutting the grass. Girls, meanwhile, were more often paid for jobs such as loading the dishwasher. Boys also earned more money because they were paid for things girls were not paid for at all, including showering and brushing their teeth.

In Illinois, Vaishali Patel tries hard to teach her two children that gender shouldn’t determine what chores they are assigned or what activities they choose. The parents don’t pay their children an allowance, and instead expect them to help with all jobs around the house.

But Patel said the children still pick up on old-fashioned gender stereotypes (刻板印象) from elsewhere, like when they tell their son to try dance classes in addition to the sports he plays.   

“He’s like, ‘No way am I doing that’,” said Patel. “Some of that is really hard to influence.”

Barbara Risman, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that while Americans have come a long way in terms of offering more equal opportunities for men and women, changing mindsets (心态) forever takes even more time.

【小题1】According to the analysis, how much do girls earn on average every day in the US?

A．＄6.71.

B．＄0.96.

C．＄13.80.

D．＄1.97.

【小题2】What is one of the reasons boys earn more allowance than girls?

A．They do less work.

B．They have no gender stereotypes.

C．Most people think their task takes little effort.

D．They can do more physically difficult chores.

【小题3】From Barbara Risman’s idea, how can women and men be offered equal opportunities?

A．Changing mindsets all the time.

B．Updating attitudes over a short time.

C．Breaking old-fashioned gender stereotypes.

D．Providing different chances for different genders.

【小题4】What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Paying equally.

B．The ways to get more allowance.

C．Differences between two different genders.

D．Boys should have more allowance than girls.