2010年中国人民大学考博英语真题

Passage Five

Perhaps there are far more wives than I imagine who take it forgranted that housework ii neither satisfying nor even important once the basicdemands of hygiene and feeding have been met. But home and family is the onerealm in which it is really difficult to shale free: of one's upbringing andcreate new values. My parents' house was impeccably kept; cleanliness was amoral and social virtue, and personal untidiness, visibly old clothes, or longmale hair provoked biting jocularity. If that had been all, maybe I could haveadapted myself to housework on an easy-going, utilitarian basis, refusing themoral overtones but shill believing in it as something constructive because itis part of creating a home. But at the same time my mother used

to recant doing it, called it drudgery, andconvinced me that it wasn't a fit activity for an intelligent being. I was anonly child, and once I was at school there was no reason why she should havecontinued against her will to remain housebound, unless, as I

suspect, my father would not hear of herhaving a job of her own.

I can now begin to understand why a woman in a small suburban house,with no infants to look after, who does not enjoy reading because she has nothad much of an education, and who is intelligent enough to find neighbourly chit-chatboring, should carry the pursuit of microscopic specks of dust to the point offanaticism in an attempt to fill hours and salvage her self-respect. My parentshad not even the status-seeking impetus to send me to university that Joe'shad; my mother wanted me to be `a nice quiet person who wouldn't be noticed ina crowd', and it was feared that university education results in ingratitude(independence)..

It is constantly niggling not only to be doing jobs that require solittle; valuable effort, but also jobs which are mainly concerned with simply keepinglevel with natural processes--cleaningjobs, whether of objects or people. which once done are not done for good, andwill have to be done all over again, just as if I have not alreadv made the effort;the next day, or even within a few hours. There is something so negative about thisrole that society heaps entirely un to the shoulders of women. flat of making surethat things do not get dirty, and people do not get unhealthy. I want tobelieve in health as something basic, neutral, to assume that all theessentials are cared for, or at least will not magnify themselves into afull-time occupation.

Can you imagine what would happen to a man who was suddenly uprootedfrom a job in which he placed the meaning of his life, and delegated to amindless task, in performing which he was also cut off fairly completely fromthe people who shared his interests'? I think more of the men I know woulddisintegrate completely.

9l . 'The writer attributes her attitude towards housework to

A) her rejection of her parents'old-fashioned standards B) herdetermination to avoid her mother's mistakes

C) her inherited feelings of duty and resentment D) her spoil upbringing as an only child

92. The writer's parents reacted to aslovenly appearance by .._.._._.

A) criticising the offender bitterly B) stressing the social importance ofcleanliness

C) making sarcastic comments about thematter D) expressing a sense: ofmoral indignation

93. It scems to the wrik r that somesuburban houscwivcs may

A) engage in tedious gossip merely to passfile time B) allow routine tasks to become cut obsession

C) come to regret their lack of a propereducation D) come to find housework a fulfillingoccupation

94. Her parents didn't encourage her to goto unnrisity because they thought

A) she wouldn't appreciate the sacrifice itwould invohr B) she might feel intellectually superior tothem

C) higher education wasn't suitable for ahousewife D) it might change her relationship with them

95. She objects to her role because it isso

A) undemanding B)unimportant

C) unpleasant D)unproductive

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