GRE阅读真题 ：“Wollstonecraft的女权主义”

　　阅读

　　GRE

　　真题

　　今天给大家分析一篇长文章。对于目标分在325以上的同学来说，攻克长阅读还是非常重要的。在阅读长文章时一定要按照课上讲过的方法去提取句子主干，关注句子目的，识别出信息之间的关系。 Modern feminism has brought the reputation of the English writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) to something approaching the luster it deserves. While she enjoyed a certain celebrity among political radicals in the years just after her death, beginning in the nineteenth century her fame as a writer was hidden by disproportionate attention to her unconventional and, at the time, shocking personal life. (这两句话都在叙述大家对于Wollstonecraft的评价：曾经有名，后来被忽视，到现在又被关注。) When, therefore, Virginia Woolf wrote in 1925 of Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that they felt like books so true that they seem now to contain nothing new in them, it was more a wishful than an accurate statement of the case. (提及Woolf对Wollstonecraft的正面评价，但同时也表现出作者认为Wollstonecraft的想法有些一厢情愿，不切实际。)Wollstonecraft’s advances in moral thinking still have the power to shock position-takers of every party. The importance of gender even today is said to cut across other criteria for judging the conduct of men and women in society; Wollstonecraft, by contrast, believed that the shared morality of men and women should cut across all specifications of gender. (Wollstonecraft认为对男女道德行为的评判标准应该是一致的。而即使是在今天的社会，以性别做为基本标准来评判行为的情况还是很多。) 段主要描述了评论者对于Wollstonecraft的评价。同时体现出Wollstonecraft思想的超前性：她在18世纪就提出的女权思想在今日依旧没有被实现。后文应该会继续围绕Wollstonecraft的思想展开。 Wollstonecraft considered gender-based morality a relic of a barbarous age: part of that specialization of virtues by which every sexual feeling was expected to express itself as libertinism (in men) or false modesty (in women). In her view, there ought to be one criterion of morals for men and women alike, with both sexes cultivating the same virtues. Wollstonecraft rebelled against the copious sentimental literature of her own time, which she felt patronized women by insisting that it was to their advantage to affect chastity and modesty and that such virtues were their own reward. (Wollstonecraft认为以性别来评论道德行为，比如男性就应该自由不羁，女性就应该惺惺作态，是原始时代的糟粕.她认为无论男女，都应该去培养一样的美德。Wollstonecraft也反对同期的伤感文学) 本段的主旨其实是上一段已经提到过的：不应该以性别作为评判行为的标准。本段只是更细化了Wollstonecraft的思想和行为。不需要在次读文章时纠结这个部分，考到再回来定位。

　　In The Rights of Men, Wollstonecraft explores this double Bulosan standard from an unexpected angle. (依然是在继续讨论Wollstonecraft的观点。不过这次Wollstonecraft要去和双标党battle了。)It was the first major response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), appearing less than a month after the impassioned defense of the deposed French monarchy. A defender of Burke called Wollstonecraft’s book an incoherent mass of treacherous candour, interested generosity, and, if not false, at least unnecessary accusation. But Wollstonecraft nonetheless managed to show how the traditionally feminine virtues of sentimental morality had been transferred by Burke to the aristocracy. (Wollstonecraft认为女性的多愁善感的美德被Burke转移到了贵族阶层。) Burke’s rhapsody on the queen of France (glittering like the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy) was, for Wollstonecraft, an example of the argument that beauty and instinct must often prevail over reason, the argument on which Burke took his stand as a defender of the old order. Like women, Burke thought, and from a similar greatness and delicacy in their nature, the aristocracy were understood at once to require deference and to solicit compassion. (Burke认为贵族自带光环，美就行了，不需要有理性，他们本来就高贵又精致，需要保护和同情。) To Wollstonecraft, Burke’s argument linked sympathy and power in a dangerous alliance; she insisted that aristocrats do not deserve to be treated in the way that women have traditionally been treated any more than women themselves do. (Wollstonecraft认为贵族不值得受到比对待传统女性更高的待遇。) 最后一段比较绕。虽然一上来就说了Wollstonecraft回应双标，但具体的双标的点在文章末尾才隐晦地表现出来： “感性柔弱”放到贵族身上，就成了贵族应该被同情的理由，而“感性柔弱”放到女性身上却成了不如男性的证据。 1. By quoting Burke’s defender in the highlighted phrase, the author of the passage most clearly succeeds in

　　A. providing a context for the political turbulence that unseated the French monarchyB. emphasizing the way in which Wollstonecraft’s philosophy divided men and womenC. explaining why Wollstonecraft’s work has won more acceptance in the twentieth century than in the nineteenthD. illustrating the nature of the appeal of Burkes argumentE. demonstrating the degree of hostility aroused by Wollstonecraft’s work

　　正确答案：E定位到最后一段。Burke的支持者认为Wollstonecraft的作品是危险的、奸诈的、没有用的。所以应该选一个直接对Wollstonecraft有负面情绪的选项。只有E说到了这一点。 2. The author of the passage quotes Burke’s description of the queen of France most probably in order to

　　A. provide a specific illustration of a position with which Wollstonecraft took issueB. provide a specific example of Burke’s already archaic prose styleC. balance the quotation from Burkes anonymous defenderD. provide evidence of why Burkes position was more widely accepted than Wollstonecraft’sE. provide an example of what Wollstonecraft perceived as Burke’s lack of political astuteness

　　正确答案：A定位到最后一段。全文是为了介绍Wollstonecraft的思想，最后一段提及Burke也是为了让读者更能理解到Wollstonecraft思想的精妙之处。选项还是应该围绕Wollstonecraft展开，排除BC。DE均出现了原文没有的信息。 3. The passage suggests that which of the following is true concerning Virginia Woolf’s appraisal of A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?

　　A. Woolf was defending Wollstonecraft’s theories against attacks by nineteenth—century critics who concentrated only on Wollstonecraft’s notoriety.B. Woolf favored the advances proposed by Wollstonecraft and mistakenly assumed that they had become self-evident in the twentieth century.C. Woolf miscalculated the practical effects that the advances proposed by Wollstonecraft would have on society.D. Woolf decried the loss in the twentieth-century of social progress made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.E. Woolf was reacting against what she considered a lack of originality on Wollstonecraft’s part while calling for more sweeping changes than Wollstonecraft had proposed.

　　正确答案：B本题很难。定位到段。二十世纪的Woolf对十八世纪的Wollstonecraft作品的评价是so true that they seem now to contain nothing new in them.虽然有否定词nothing，但这其实是一个正面评价。想象一下如果我们去看200年前的作品，如果里面写的东西就跟今天我们的生活一样，这其实就体现了老作品的超前性。另外还要注意，这个句子还没有完，后半句it was more a wishful than an accurate statement of the case.是作者对于Woolf评价的评价。作者认为Woolf高估了那时女性的地位。从后文我们可以知道Wollstonecraft追求的平等到现在也没有实现，所以Woolf认为二十世纪就已经完全反映了Wollstonecraft的愿景，是有些一厢情愿了。 4. The author of the passage suggests that modern feminism has treated the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft in which of the following ways?

　　A. Modern feminism has emphasized the progressive aspects of Wollstonecraft’s writings, while separating her work from her personal reputation.B. Modern feminism has emphasized Wollstonecraft’s importance as a theorist, while deemphasizing her effect on the daily life of her times.C. Modern feminism has worked toward a synthesis of Wollstonecraft’s philosophical advances with those of her contemporaries.D. Modern feminism has embraced Wollstonecraft’s relative importance as a theorist, while rejecting certain elements of her theories of gender-based morality.E. Modern feminism has equated Wollstonecraft’s ideas about the popular sentimentalization of women with her view of monarchist systems of government.

　　正确答案：A对应开头句子，我们可以知道Wollstonecraft曾经是出名的，但后来人们过分在乎她“出格的”私生活而忽略了她的作品，但现代女权主义者又重新关注Wollstonecraft。说明现代学者更多的关注了作品，而不在乎她的生活方式。 本文属于较难的一篇长文章，需要大家对信息之间的关系有深刻的了解才能做好题目。希望大家能再仔细拆解一下这篇文章，也更多地去练习结构性阅读，提升自己的阅读能力。

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