A) Those who see job stability as part of their living standard.
B) People full of utopian ideas resulting from affluence.
C) People who have little say in American politics.
D) Workers who no longer have secure jobs.
56. What has affluence brought to American society?
A) Renewed economic security.
B) A sense of self-fulfillment.
C) New conflicts and complaints.
D) Misery and anti-social behavior.
Passage Two
Questions 57 to 61 are based on the following passage.
The use of deferential (敬重的) language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the
woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Japan. This ideal presents a
woman who withdraws quietly to the background, subordinating her life and needs to
those of her family and its male head. She is a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, master
of the domestic arts. The typical refined Japanese woman excels in modesty and delicacy;
she ―treads softly (谨言慎行)in the world,‖ elevating feminine beauty and grace to an art
form.
Nowadays, it is commonly observed that young women are not conforming to the
feminine linguistic (语言的) ideal. They are using fewer of the very deferential
―women’s‖ forms, and even using the few strong forms that are know as ―men’s.‖ This,
of course, attracts considerable attention and has led to an outcry in the Japanese media
against the defeminization of women’s language. Indeed, we didn’t hear about ―men’s
language‖ until people began to respond to girls’ appropriation of forms normally
reserved for boys and men. There is considerable sentiment about the ―corruption‖ of
women’s language—which of course is viewed as part of the loss of feminine ideals and
morality—and this sentiment is crystallized by nationwide opinion polls that are
regularly carried out by the media.
Yoshiko Matsumoto has argued that young women probably never used as many of
the highly deferential forms as older women. This highly polite style is no doubt
something that young women have been expected to ―grow into‖—after all, it is assign
not simply of femininity, but of maturity and refinement, and its use could be taken to
indicate a change in the nature of one’s social relations as well. One might well imagine
little girls using exceedingly polite forms when playing house or imitating older
women—in a fashion analogous to little girls’ use of a high-pitched voice to do ―teacher
talk‖ or ―mother talk‖ in role play.
The fact that young Japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure
sign of change—of social change and of linguistic change. But it is most certainly not a
sign of the ―masculization‖ of girls. In some instances, it may be a sign that girls are