单选题 .  Nowadays, with women playing an ever-increasing role in all kinds of careers and professions, it is difficult to understand that there was a time when no medical school would accept a woman. They all said that only a man could be a doctor. An American, Elizabeth Blackwell, was determined to become the first woman doctor in the world. After a great deal of delay and opposition, she received, to her great surprise, a letter from the Dean of Geneva College informing her that she had been accepted.
    Much later, Elizabeth discovered what had actually happened when her application had been received by the College authorities. None of them wanted to have a woman student, but they did not wish to offend the influential Philadelphia doctor who had recommended her, so they hit on the expedient of turning the decision over to the students general meeting. They were quite certain that this would result in this alarming idea being turned down. But when the student body met, many of them thought it would be amusing to be the only medical college in the country which could boast that it was training some sort of Amazon as a woman doctor. Some genuinely believed that women should be treated equally. While others thought of the whole thing as a joke. So the vote in favor was carried unanimously, and the college authorities found, with dismay, that they would now have to admit Elizabeth.
    A few days after receiving the notification of her acceptance, Elizabeth was on the train for the two-day journey to Geneva College.1.  It is unbelievable that in the past ______.