2002年专四考试阅读理解A TEXT A
TEXT A
Many of the home electric goods which are advertised as liberating the modern woman tend to have the opposite effect, because they simple change the nature of work instead of eliminating it. Machines have a certain novelty value, like toys for adults. It is certainly less tiring to put clothes in a washing machine, but the time saved does not really amount to much: the machine has to be watched, the clothes have to be carefully sorted out first, stains removed 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 laundry 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. Ifone compares the image of the woman in the women’s magazine with the goods advertised by those periodicals, one realizes how useful a projected image can be commercially. A careful balance has to be struck: if you show a labour-saving device, follow it up with a complicated’ 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, emphasizing 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 homo-baked flavour the family love", and knitting patterns that can be made by hand, or worse still, on knitting machines, which became tremendously fashionable when they were first introduced. Automatic cookers are advertised by pictures of pretty young mothers taking their children to the park, not by professional women presetting the dinner before leaving home for work.?
66. According to the passage, many of the home electric goods which are supposed to liberate woman___.?
A. remove unpleasant aspects of housework?
B. save the housewife very little time?
C. save the housewife’s time but not her money?
D. have absolutely no value for the housewife ?
67. According to the context, "capital investment" refers to money___.?
A. spent on a washing machine?
B. borrowed from the bank?
C. saved in the bank?
D. lent to other people ?
68. The goods advertised in women’s magazines are really meant to ___.?
A. free housewives from housework?
B. encourage housewives to go out to work?
C. make housewives into excellent cooks?
D. give them a false sense of fulfillment
答案与详解
TEXT A
短文大意：这篇文章讲的是现代的日用家电产品的缺陷，它们只是改变了家务劳动的方式，而不能真正节省时间，且其商业广告具有很强的误导性和迷惑性。
66．答案：B
【参考译文】根据短文，许多被认为可以解放妇女的家电产品如何？
【试题分析】本题为细节题。
【详细解答】本题可从文中第二、三句找到答案“Machines have a certain novelty value… but the time saved does not really amount to much… ”即家用电器具有一定的新颖的价值，但是并不能节省多少时间。故选项B为正确答案。?
67．答案：A
【参考译文】根据上下文，capital investment指的是什么钱？
【试题分析】本题为细节题。
【详细解答】短文第四句话说“It would be more liberating to pack it all off to a laundry… since no capital investment is required．”即与其在家使用洗衣机这么麻烦，还不如直接把衣服送到洗衣店。那样也不需要基本投资。由此可知，capital investment指购买洗衣机所需的花费。故选项A为正确答案。?
68. 答案：D
【参考译文】在女性杂志上做广告的产品的真正目的什么？
【试题分析】本题为细节题。
【详细解答】文中在提到女性杂志上的广告时讲到“on no account hint at the notion that a woman could get herself a job，but instead foster her sense of her own usefulness，emphasizing the creative aspect of her function as a housewife．”即决不要使家庭主妇意识到那将会多一份劳动，反而要使她感觉自己很能干，强调她作为家庭主妇的创造才能。这说明这些广告都利用了家庭主妇的心理弱点，给她们造成了一种虚假的满足感。故选项D为正确答案。