单选题
Many of the aids which are advertised as liberating the modern woman tend to have the opposite effect, because they simply change the nature of work instead of eliminating it. Machines have a certain novelty value, like toys for adults. It is 27 less tiring to put clothes in a washing machine, but the time saved does not really 28 too much: the machine has to be watched, the clothes have to be carefully sorted first, stains 29 by hand, buttons pushed and water changed, clothes taken out, aired and ironed. It would be more liberating to pack it all off to a 30 and not necessarily more expensive, since no capital investment is required. Similarly, if you really want to save time you do not make cakes with an electric mixer, you buy one in a shop. If one compares the image of domesticated woman fostered by the women's magazines with the goods advertised by those periodicals, advertising which finances them, one realizes how useful a projected image can be in commerce. A careful 31 has to be struck: if you show a labor-saving gadget, follow it up with a 32 recipe on the next page; on no account hint at the notion that a woman could get herself a job, but instead foster her sense of her own usefulness, 33 the creative aspect of her function as a housewife. So we get cake mixes where the cook simply adds an egg herself, to produce 'that lovely home-baked 34 the family love', and knitting patterns that can be made by hand, or worse still, on knitting machines, which became a tremendous vogue when they were first 35 (difficult to know who would wear all those rapidly produced sweaters, which lacked the advantages of hand-made woolens). Automatic cookers are advertised by pictures of pretty young mothers taking their children to the park, not by 36 women presetting the dinner before catching a bus to the office. A. laundry B. exaggerate C. emphasize D. certainly E. indignant F. removed G. amount H. excessively I. complicated J. handled K. flavor L. professional M. introduced N. calculation O. balance
【答案解析】语法判断：分析句子主干可知，to a前是一个完整的句子，通过分析空格处所在短语to a ______ 可知，这里缺少一个单数名词。 语义判断：备选的名词有laundry(洗衣房)、flavor(风味)、calculation(计算)和balance(平衡)四项。由此处的to可知，空格处填入的词应表示地点，故选laundry。
问答题
【正确答案】O
【答案解析】语法判断：分析句子主干可知，本句缺少一个名词，作句子的主语，且该名词是单数形式，因为前面有不定冠词a来限制。 语义判断：结合第4小题的“语义判断”，符合语法条件的选项剩下flavor、calculation和balance三项。分别代入原文后可知，只有balance符合文意。strike a balance为固定搭配，意为“取得平衡”。