单选题 Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive circle, beauty can become a liability.
While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman.
Handsome male executives were perceived as having more integrity than plainer men, effort and ability were thought to account for their success.
Attractive female executives were considered to have less integrity than unattractive ones, their success was attributed not to ability but to factors, such as— luck.
All unattractive women executives were thought to have more integrity and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight success was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of attractive overnight success.
Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman is perceived to be more feminine (女性的) and an attractive man more masculine (男性的) than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally masculine position appears to lack the "masculine" qualities required.
This is true even in politics. "When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently," says, Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.
The results showed that attractive males utterly defeated unattractive men, but the women who had been ranked most attractive invariably received the fewest votes.
单选题 The word "liability" (Line 4, Para. 1) most probably, means, "______".
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 此词出现在第一段最后一句。在此句之前,作者叙述了beauty为人们带来的种种益处。此句句首的but表示转折关系,因此,此句表示beauty成为一种劣势。
单选题 In traditionally female jobs, attractiveness ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第六段中说人们觉得有魅力的女人比不那么有魅力的女人要更有女人特质。因此,在传统上是女人所从事的工作中,有魅力的女人具有一定的优势,但在传统上男人多从事的工作中,有魅力的女人看起来缺乏所需的男性特质。由此可推断出,在传统上是女人所从事的工作中,魅力加强了所需的女人特质。
单选题 Bowman"s experiment reveals that when it comes to politics, attractiveness ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 文章最后一段说“实验结果显示,有魅力的男性彻底击败了缺乏魅力的男性,而那些被认为最有魅力的女人都毫无例外地得到最少的选票。”由此可推断出,在政界,对于女性来说魅力是一个障碍,而不是益处。
单选题 It can be inferred from the passage that people"s views on beauty are often ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 文章第一段中说几乎每个人都认为有魅力的人比别人要更幸福,更健康,他们的婚姻更美满,并且拥有更令人尊敬的职业。在找工作方面,私人顾问给他们更好的建议。甚至法官对于有魅力的被告都手下留情。由此可以推断人们对于美的看法往往是带有偏见的,而没有事实依据。
单选题 The author writes this passage to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 文章主要叙述了魅力给行政部门和政界中的女性所造成的不利,由此可见,作者写这篇文章是要讨论魅力的消极方面。