单选题 The other problem that arises from the employment of women is that of the working wife. It has two aspects: that of the wife who is more of a success than her husband and that of the wife who must rely heavily on her husband for help with domestic tasks. There are various ways in which the impact of the first difficulty can be reduced. Provided that husband and wife are not in the same or directly comparable lines of work, the harsh fact of her greater success can be obscured by a genial conspiracy to reject a purely monetary measure of achievement as intolerably crude. Where there are ranks, it is best if the couple work in different fields so that the husband can find some special reason for the superiority of the lowest figure in his to the most elevated in his wife"s.
A problem that affects a much larger number of working wives is the need to reallocate domestic tasks if there are children. In The Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell wrote of the unemployed of the Lancashire coalfields. "Practically never.., in a working- class home, will you see the man doing a stroke of the housework. Unemployment has not changed this convention, which on the face of it seems a little unfair. The man is idle from morning to night but the woman is as busy as ever—more so, indeed, because she has to manage with less money. Yet so far as my experience goes the women do not protest. They feel that a man would lose his manhood if, merely because he was out of work, he developed in a "Mary Ann". "
It is over the care of young children that this re-allocation of duties becomes really significant. For this, unlike the cooking of fish fingers or the making of beds, is an inescapably time-consuming occupation, and time is what the fully employed wife has no more to spare of than her husband.
The male initiative in courtship is a pretty indiscriminate affair, something that is tried on with any remotely plausible woman who comes within range and, of course, with all degrees of tentativeness. What decides the issue of whether a genuine courtship is going to get under way is the woman"s response. If she shows interest the engines of persuasion are set in movement. The truth is that in courtship society gives women the real power while pretending to give it to men.
What does seem clear is that the more men and women are together, at work and away from it, the more the comprehensive amorousness of men towards women will have to go, despite all its past evolutionary services. For it is this that makes inferiority at work abrasive and, more indirectly, makes domestic work seem unmanly, if there is to be an equalizing redistribution of economic and domestic tasks between men and women there must be a compensating redistribution of the erotic initiative. If women will no longer let us beat them, they must allow us to join them as the blushing recipients of flowers and chocolates.
单选题 The first paragraph advises the working wife who is more successful than her husband to ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 第一段劝告比丈夫更成功的职业女性淡化自己的成就,使之听起来无关紧要。根据第一段第四句,如果夫妻不在同一行业或者分属于没有可比性的行业,妻子更加成功的严酷事实可以稍加掩饰,并且将那种以金钱为衡量成功标准的行为视为不可理喻。
单选题 Orwell"s picture of relations between man and wife in Wigan Pier describes a relationship which the author of the passage ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 奥威尔在《去码头的路上》描绘了夫妻关系的画面,本文作者深信,夫妻的关系必须改变。文章第二段提到乔治·奥威尔在《去码头的路上》所写的男女关系是:家中的男主人从不分担家务,工人阶级的家庭更是如此。而且乔治·奥威尔认为女人们并不反对这种现状,因为她们认为男士如果仅仅因为没有了工作就逐步成为一个典型的像玛丽·安一样的妇女形象,男士会失去男子汉气概。作者在第三段说,在照料孩子期间,重行分配职责的确意义重大,有工作的妻子像丈夫一样抽不出时间。言外之意是;丈夫要像妻子一样分担家务。
单选题 The last paragraph stresses that if women are to hold important jobs, then they must ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 最后一段强调,如果女人拥有重要职位,那么她们在恋爱中有时应该主动一点。根据最后一段最后一句,如果女士不允许男士在事业上打败她们,她们必须允许男士加入到红着脸接受鲜花和巧克力的队伍。此处暗示女士在恋爱中也应主动一些。
单选题 Which of the following statements is INCORRECT about the present form of courtship?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 就目前的求爱而言,以下哪种陈述不正确?就求婚而言,男人同样认真。倒数第二段指出,男子会对任何一位步人他视野内的女士主动求爱,即使两人一点可能性都没有。这表明一位男士会对很多女士示爱,态度不是很认真,可以随时停止对女士的追求行动,故B和D均可排除。倒数第二段的最后一句指出:事实上,在求爱的过程中,社会将主动权交给了男性,但实际上女士才是真正的权力拥有者,故排除A。