Day 25

英文重現(xiàn)

More importantly, she shows that the debate (as to whether women gained or lost status in the nineteenth century as compared with the eighteenth century) itself depends on frame of reference: in many respects, women lost power in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs (delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken over by men. Yet women also gained power in comparison with their previous status, owning a higher proportion of real estate, for example.

——GMAT OG 2015, Reading Comprehension, Passage 16

解析

1.“frame of reference”（參照系）是物理學(xué)名詞，指研究物體運(yùn)動時所選定的參照物體或彼此不做相對運(yùn)動的物體系。在冒號后面的解釋中，“women lost power in relation to men”就是用男性作為女性的參照對象，說明女性失去了一些權(quán)利，之后“in comparison with their previous status”則是用過去作為現(xiàn)在的參照對象，說明女性現(xiàn)在獲得了一些權(quán)利。

2.括號里面的內(nèi)容是對“debate”的補(bǔ)充解釋；“as to”表示涉及到某個點(diǎn)或者某個方面，常放于句中，表示列舉某一個方面，但為了突出要提及的人或事之時，也可將“as to”置于句首，以示強(qiáng)調(diào)，但要注意該短語中的“to”是個介詞。

3. “as certain jobs were taken over by men”中的“as”為連詞，引導(dǎo)時間狀語從句，意思是“隨著”，表示從句的動作隨著主句發(fā)生，此處指一些工作被男性接管的同時，女性失去了一些權(quán)利。

4.最后一句中的“Yet”作連詞，連接一個句子，表示轉(zhuǎn)折，即女性失去了一些權(quán)利，但是也獲得了一些權(quán)利；“owning a higher proportion of real estate”是現(xiàn)在分詞作伴隨狀語。

詞義辨析

參考翻譯

更重要的是，她指出，（關(guān)于19世紀(jì)的女性相對于18世紀(jì)的女性來說是獲得還是失去了地位的）爭論本身是取決于參照系的：比如，在很多方面，隨著一些工作（送孩子、監(jiān)督學(xué)校）被男性所接管，女性相對男性而言就失去了權(quán)利。但是，相對于她們之前的地位而言，女性也獲得了一些權(quán)利，比如，擁有不動產(chǎn)的比例提高了。

實(shí)戰(zhàn)演練

…Although both books offer the reader the opportunity to assess this controversy regarding women's status, only Lebsock's deals with it directly. She examines several different aspects of women's status, helping to refine and resolve the issues. She concludes that while women gained autonomy in some areas, especially in the private sphere, they lost it in many aspects of the economic sphere. More importantly, she shows that the debate (as to whether women gained or lost status in the nineteenth century as compared with the eighteenth century) itself depends on frame of reference: in many respects, women lost power in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs (delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken over by men. Yet women also gained power in comparison with their previous status, owning a higher proportion of real estate, for example.

The author of the passage mentions the supervision of schools primarily in order to

(A) remind readers of the role education played in the cultural changes of the nineteenth century in the United States.

(B) suggest an area in which nineteenth-century American women were relatively free to exercise power.

(C) provide an example of an occupation for which accurate data about women's participation are difficult to obtain.

(D) speculate about which occupations were considered suitable for United States women of the nineteenth century.

(E) illustrate how the answers to questions about women's status depend on particular contexts.

答案：E

答案解析

由題目中“supervision of schools”定位到原文冒號后的內(nèi)容“in many respects, women lost power in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs (delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken over by men”，從“for example”可知，冒號后的那句話是用來舉例說明冒號前的內(nèi)容，因此作者提到“supervising schools”主要是為了說明“the debate (as to whether women gained or lost status in the nineteenth century as compared with the eighteenth century) itself depends on frame of reference”（關(guān)于19世紀(jì)的女性相對于18世紀(jì)的女性來說，是獲得還是失去了地位的爭論本身是取決于參照系的），由此可以選出選項(xiàng)E“說明有關(guān)女性地位的答案如何取決于具體的環(huán)境”。

選項(xiàng)B“指出一個領(lǐng)域，在這個領(lǐng)域，19世紀(jì)的美國女性能比較自由地行使權(quán)利”和原文“women lost power in relation to men as certain jobs were taken over by men”意思相反，故錯誤。其他選項(xiàng)均和原文內(nèi)容無關(guān)，意思分別為：

A.提醒讀者教育在美國19世紀(jì)的文化轉(zhuǎn)變中所起的作用。

C.給出一個職業(yè)的例子，這個職業(yè)中女性參與度的準(zhǔn)確數(shù)據(jù)很難獲得。

D.思考哪種職業(yè)被認(rèn)為是適合19世紀(jì)的美國女性的。