Day 25

英文重现

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”（参照系）是物理学名词，指研究物体运动时所选定的参照物体或彼此不做相对运动的物体系。在冒号后面的解释中，“women lost power in relation to men”就是用男性作为女性的参照对象，说明女性失去了一些权利，之后“in comparison with their previous status”则是用过去作为现在的参照对象，说明女性现在获得了一些权利。

2.括号里面的内容是对“debate”的补充解释；“as to”表示涉及到某个点或者某个方面，常放于句中，表示列举某一个方面，但为了突出要提及的人或事之时，也可将“as to”置于句首，以示强调，但要注意该短语中的“to”是个介词。

3. “as certain jobs were taken over by men”中的“as”为连词，引导时间状语从句，意思是“随着”，表示从句的动作随着主句发生，此处指一些工作被男性接管的同时，女性失去了一些权利。

4.最后一句中的“Yet”作连词，连接一个句子，表示转折，即女性失去了一些权利，但是也获得了一些权利；“owning a higher proportion of real estate”是现在分词作伴随状语。

词义辨析

参考翻译

更重要的是，她指出，（关于19世纪的女性相对于18世纪的女性来说是获得还是失去了地位的）争论本身是取决于参照系的：比如，在很多方面，随着一些工作（送孩子、监督学校）被男性所接管，女性相对男性而言就失去了权利。但是，相对于她们之前的地位而言，女性也获得了一些权利，比如，拥有不动产的比例提高了。

实战演练

…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

由题目中“supervision of schools”定位到原文冒号后的内容“in many respects, women lost power in relation to men, for example, as certain jobs (delivering babies, supervising schools) were taken over by men”，从“for example”可知，冒号后的那句话是用来举例说明冒号前的内容，因此作者提到“supervising schools”主要是为了说明“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”（关于19世纪的女性相对于18世纪的女性来说，是获得还是失去了地位的争论本身是取决于参照系的），由此可以选出选项E“说明有关女性地位的答案如何取决于具体的环境”。

选项B“指出一个领域，在这个领域，19世纪的美国女性能比较自由地行使权利”和原文“women lost power in relation to men as certain jobs were taken over by men”意思相反，故错误。其他选项均和原文内容无关，意思分别为：

A.提醒读者教育在美国19世纪的文化转变中所起的作用。

C.给出一个职业的例子，这个职业中女性参与度的准确数据很难获得。

D.思考哪种职业被认为是适合19世纪的美国女性的。