单选题 Clothes play a critical part in the conclusions we reach by providing clues to who people are, who they are not, and who they would like to be. They tell us a good deal about the wearer's background, personality, status, mood, and social outlook.
Since clothes are such an important source of social information, we can use them to manipulate people's impression to us. Our appearance assumes particular significance in the initial phases of interaction that is likely to occur. An elderly middle-class man or woman may be alienated by a young adult who is dressed in an unconventional manner, regardless of the person's education, background, or interests.
People tend to agree on what certain types of clothes mean. Adolescent girls can easily agree on the life- styles of girls who wear certain outfits, including the number of boyfriends they likely have had and whether they smoke or drink. Newscasters, or the announcers who read the news on TV, are considered to be more convincing, honest, and competent when they are dressed conservatively. And college students who view themselves as taking an active role in their interpersonal relationships say they are concerned about the costumes they must wear to play these roles successfully. Moreover, many of us can relate instances in which the clothing we wore changed the way we felt about ourselves and how we acted. Perhaps you have used clothing to gain confidence when you anticipated a stressful situation, such as a job interview, or a court appearance.
In the workplace, men have long had well-defined precedents and role models for achieving success. It has been otherwise for women. A good many women in the business world are uncertain about the appropriate mixture of "masculine" and "feminine" attributes they should convey by their professional clothing. The variety of clothing alternative to women has also been greater than that available for men. Male administrators tend to judge women more favorable for managerial positions when the women display less "feminine" grooming — shorter hair, moderate use of make-up, and plain tailored clothing. As one male administrator confessed, "An attractive woman is definitely going to get a longer interview, but she won't get a job. /

单选题 According to the passage, the way we dress ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】分析推理题。文章第一段指出,衣着对判断一个人的职业起着至关重要的作用,因为衣着能告诉我们关于这个人的背景、个性等许多信息。然后第二段第一句指出,我们可以用衣着来操控人们对我们的看法。由此可以推知,衣着直接影响人们看待我们的方式,选[C]。其余三项都与文意不符。
单选题 From the third paragraph of the passage, we can conclude that young adults tend to believe that certain types of clothing can ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。答案是第三段第四句,题中的young adults就是该句中的college students,选[D]。
单选题 The word "precedents" (Line 1,Para. 4) probably refers to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】词义推测题。precedent是大纲词,意为“先例”。此处可根据上下文来判断:and 表示并列关系,因此precedents应与role models属于相同范畴,对比四个选项可知只有[A]恰当。
单选题 According to the passage, many career women find themselves in difficult situation because ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。见于第四段第三句:A good many women…professional clothing(许多生意场上的女性不知道如何通过职业着装表现出结合了恰当的阳刚和阴柔的气质)。
单选题 What is the passage mainly about?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】主旨题。参见第46题分析。文章首先指出衣着能提供一个人职业、背景、个性等信息,可以用衣着操控人们的看法,然后分析了在职场上衣着的作用和重要性。综合起来,全文谈论的都是衣着对人们的影响,因此主旨是[A]。