Passage Four (Women’s Positions in the 17th Century)
Social circumstances in Early Modern England mostly served to repress women’s voices. Patriarchal culture and institutions constructed them as chaste, silent, obedient, and subordinate. At the beginning of the 17th century, the ideology of patriarchy, political absolutism, and gender hierarchy were reaffirmed powerfully by King James in The Trew Law of Free Monarchie and the Basilikon Doron; by that ideology the absolute power of God the supreme patriarch was seen to be imaged in the absolute monarch of the state and in the husband and father of a family. Accordingly, a woman’s subjection, first to her father and then to her husband, imaged the subjection of English people to their monarch, and of all Christians to God. Also, the period saw an outpouring of repressive or overtly misogynist sermons, tracts, and plays, detailing women’s physical and mental defects, spiritual evils, rebelliousness, shrewish ness, and natural inferiority to men.
Yet some social and cultural conditions served to empower women. During the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) the culture was dominated by a powerful Queen, who provided an impressive female example though she left scant cultural space for other women. Elizabethan women writers began to produce original texts but were occupied chiefly with translation. In the 17th century, however, various circumstances enabled women to write original texts in some numbers. For one thing, some counterweight to patriarchy was provided by female communities-mothers and daughters, extended kinship networks, close female friends, the separate court of Queen Anne (King James’ consort) and her often oppositional masques and political activities. For another, most of these women had a reasonably good education (modern languages, history, literature, religion, music, occasionally Latin) and some apparently found in romances and histories more expansive terms for imagining women’s lives. Also, representation of vigorous and rebellious female characters in literature and especially on the stage no doubt helped to undermine any monolithic social construct of women’s mature and role.
Most important, perhaps, was the radical potential inherent in the Protestant insistence on every Christian’s immediate relationship with God and primary responsibility to follow his or her individual conscience. There is plenty of support in St Paul’s epistles and elsewhere in the Bible for patriarchy and a wife’s subjection to her husband, but some texts (notably Galatians 3:28) inscribe a very different politics, promoting women’s spiritual equality: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ.” Such texts encouraged some women to claim the support of God the supreme patriarch against the various earthly patriarchs who claimed to stand toward them in his stead.
There is also the gap or slippage between ideology and common experience. English women throughout the 17th century exercised a good deal of accrual power: as managers of estates in their husbands’ absences at court or on military and diplomatic missions; as members of guilds; as wives and mothers who apex during the English Civil War and Interregnum (1640-60) as the execution of the King and the attendant disruption of social hierarchies led many women to seize new roles-as preachers, as prophetesses, as deputies for exiled royalist husbands, as writers of religious and political tracts.
1. What is the best title for this passage?
[A]. Women’s Position in the 17th Century.
[B]. Women’s Subjection to Patriarchy.
[C]. Social Circumstances in the 17th Century.
[D]. Women’s objection in the 17th Century.
2. What did the Queen Elizabeth do for the women in culture?
[A]. She set an impressive female example to follow.
[B]. She dominated the culture.
[C]. She did little.
[D]. She allowed women to translate something.
3. Which of the following is Not mention as a reason to enable women to original texts?
[A].Female communities provided some counterweight to patriarchy.
[B]. Queen Anne’s political activities.
[C]. Most women had a good education.
[D]. Queen Elizabeth’s political activities.
4. What did the religion so for the women?
[A]. It did nothing.
[B]. It too asked women to be obedient except some texts.
[C]. It supported women.
[D]. It appealed to the God.
Vocabulary
1. repress 压制，2. 镇压，3. 约束
4. patriarchy 族长制，5. 家长制
6. chaste 贞洁的，7. 高雅的
8. hierarchy 等级制
9. monarch 君主，10. 最高统治
11. image 象征，12. 反映
13. overtly 公开的，14. 明显的
15. outpour 倾泻
16. sermon 布道，17. 说教
18. tract zz宗教，19. 小册子传单
20. misogynist 反对妇女
21. shrewish 泼妇似的，22. 爱骂街的
23. counterweight 抗衡
24. consort 配偶
25. masque 化装舞会
26. monolithic 铁板一样的，27. 磐石般的
28. epistle 圣经·新约中的使徒书
29. Galatians 新约圣经中加拉太书
30. inscribe 写，31. 题写，32. 铭记
难句译注
1. Also, the period saw an outpouring of repressive or overtly misogynist sermons, tracts, and plays, detailing women’s physical and mental defects, spiritual evils, rebelliousness, shrewish ness, and natural inferiority to men.
[结构简析] 这是一种句型，年代，时间 see, find 等动词 宾语。
[参考译文] 这一时期出来许多约束或明显反对妇女的布道(教义)，小册子和戏剧，详细地描述了妇女精神上和肉体上的缺陷，精神罪恶，叛逆，凶狠，天生低于男人的品性。
2. Such texts encouraged some women to claim the support of God the supreme patriarch against the various earthly patriarchs who claimed to stand toward them in his stead.
[结构简析] in one’s stead 代替某人。
[参考译文] 这样的版本鼓励有些妇女去寻求最高家长，上帝的支持，以对抗各种各样凡间家长，他们声称替代上帝对付她们。
写作方法与文章大意
文章论述了17世纪英国妇女的地位，采用对比写作手法。一方面(第一段)英皇詹姆士重新以法律形式确定：家长制的思想体系，zz上集权主义，性别等级制。而思想意识是上帝的绝对权威;最高等级制体现在绝对君主政权上，体现在家庭的父亲和丈夫身上。所以妇女先对父亲，后对丈夫的服从体现了英国臣民对君权，全体基督徒对上帝的服从。那时代造就的妇女都是贞洁，沉默，服从，低下。
另方面，某些社会和文化因素赋予妇女以力量，首先是女皇伊丽莎白统治的时期，她本身就是一个强有力的榜样。其次一些妇女亲情关系，以及安娜女皇的分庭抗礼统治活动和舞会。再则是大多数活动妇女都受过良好教育。最重要的是有些圣经文本鼓吹妇女精神平等。
最后一段论述了英国妇女实际上有的已经掌握实权，如丈夫公务，他们管理庄园田产。
答案祥解
1. A. 17世纪英国妇女地位。见上面文章大意。
B. 妇女服从于家族制。 D. 17世纪妇女的反抗，都是A.内容中的一部分，不能作为最佳标题。 C. 17世纪英国社会形式，只能作为背景出现。
2. C. 她没有做什么。英女皇伊丽莎白在位时期间在文化上并没有妇女做过什么。这在第二段讲得很清楚。“伊丽莎白统治时期(1558--1603)，3. 文化领域为强有里女皇所控制，4. 她本人确实树立了令人难忘的妇女形象，5. 可是她并没有为其它妇女能够创作一些东西。”见前面列出之原因和下一道题的A. B. C.
6. D. 伊丽莎白女皇的zz活动。这文内没有提及。
A. 妇女亲情网对家长制进行抗衡。 B. 安娜女皇的zz活动。 C. 大多数妇女都受过良好教育。这三项在第二段中都提到。“首先，妇女亲情关系，如母亲，女儿，他们的亲戚网，好友;安娜女皇单独的宫殿，她那对立的化装舞会和zz活动都和族长制予以抗衡。”
7. B. 除了某些文本外，8. 它也要求妇女服9. 从。第一段，10. 见上述内容。第三段集中论述这一点。“也许，11. 最重要的是基督教固有潜在激进性。它坚持主张每个基督徒和上帝的直接关系，12. 坚持人首先责任是服13. 从她或他的良知。在圣·保罗使徒书以及在别的圣经中有许多对家长制，14. 妻子对丈夫的服15. 从支持。可是有些文本镌刻着一种完全不同16. 的zz观点， 17. 鼓吹妇女精神平等：”人没有犹太和希18. 腊之分，19. 没有束缚或自由之分，20. 没有男女之分， 21. 因为在耶酥基督面前，22. 你们都是一样。“
A. 它什么也没有做。不对。 C. 它支持妇女。也不对，只有某些版本支持。 D. 它求助于上帝。它借上帝之名压制妇女。第一段：“因此，妇女首先服从父亲，然后服从丈夫，体现了(象征)英国人民服从他们的君主，所有基督徒服从上帝。”
2010年公共英语五级英语100篇精读荟萃(六)
Passage Six (The Present Is the Most Important)
Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be , music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure. I have read in a Hindoo book, that “there was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which be lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.” We think that that is which appears to be. If a man should give us an account of the realities he beheld, we should not recognize the place in his description. Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop. Or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them. Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man. In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then. The poet or the artist never yet had as fair and noble a design but some of his posterity at least could accomplish it.
1. The writer’s attitude toward the arts is one of
[A]. admiration. [B]. indifference. [C]. suspicion. [D]. repulsion
2. The author believes that a child.
[A]. should practice what the Hindoos preach.
[B]. frequently faces vital problems better than grownups do.
[C]. hardly ever knows his true origin.
[D]. is incapable of appreciating the arts.
3. The author is primarily concerned with urging the reader to
[A]. look to the future for enlightenment. [B]. appraise the present for its true value.
[C]. honor the wisdom of the past ages. [D]. spend more time in leisure activities.
4. The passage is primarily concerned with problem of
[A]. history and economics. [B]. society and population.
[C]. biology and physics. [D]. theology and philosophy.
Vocabulary
1. sham 虚伪
2. delusion 欺骗
3. fabulous 荒诞无稽的，不存在的
4. exhilarating 令人高兴的
5. sublime 崇高的
6. slumber 睡眠
7. Hindoo 印度
8. Brahma 婆罗门(贵族)
9. come, fall, go to pieces 崩溃，垮台
10. culminate 达到顶点
11. lapse 时间的推移/消逝
12. apprehend 领悟，理解
13. instill (慢慢地)滴注，灌输
14. drench 浸泡，使湿透
15. posterity 子孙后代
16. look to 指望，注意
难句译注
1. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.
[结构简析] 虚拟条件句，主句中to compare it with… know是插入语，也有假设之意。
[参考译文] 如果人们坚持只观察现实，不让自己被蒙蔽，那么生活，把它和我们知道的事情相比较，就象神话，象一千零一夜中描述的一切。
2. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality.
[结构简析] 主句中两个that. 第一个是perceive 的宾语从句。破折号的第二个 that从句是说明，对比前一个that 句。
[参考译文] 在我们冷静和明智时，我们会感到只有伟大的和有价值的东西才能永恒绝对地存在，而那些微不足道的恐惧和欢乐仅仅是现实的阴影而已。
3. By closing the eyes and slumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation.
[参考译文] 闭上眼睛，昏昏欲睡，允许自己被表面现象所蒙蔽，人们通过这些手段来建立和确定他们的生活日程和各种习惯。这仍然是建立在幻(觉)想基础上的东西。
4. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.”
[结构简析] from the circumstances in which … ，介词短语 定从，实际上都是修饰mistake
[参考译文] 从它所处的环境中出发，灵魂把自己的身份搞错了。直到某个神圣的先生揭示的事实，那时它才知道自己是个贵族。
5. We think that that is which appears to be.
[结构简析] 第一个that 是引导think的宾语从句的连接词，第二个that 是代词，作宾从中的主语，指上述“灵魂”整个句子。
[参考译文] 我们想那就是看起来那个样子(情况似乎就是那样)。
写作方法与文章大意
这是一篇从哲学角度探讨人应重视现实的论说文。采用以对比，具体实例说明的写作手法。先用虚伪和欺骗被尊为至高无上的真理一事，跟正视现实，尊重必然的东西对比，引出后者是美好生活的来源。再以大人和孩子对比，孩子更能分辨生活的规律。最后从过去，未来和现在对比，人们对过去认为就是这么一回事，崇拜遥远的一切。作者提醒人们--此时此地的现实是最重要的。
答案祥解
1. A. 钦佩。本文第三句“如果我们只尊重必然的东西，尊重有权威为必然的东西，那么音乐和诗歌会重新在街上唱诵。”本文最后一句“虽然诗人或艺术从来没有如此美好和崇高的设想，但他们有些后代至少会达到这一步的。”还有难句译注1。这些都说明作者对艺术视为崇高和美好，不是被蒙蔽的东西。
B. 漠不关心。 C. 怀疑的。 D. 排斥。多不对。
2. B. 孩子们常常比成人更好地棉队各种问题。本文第七句“孩子们游戏生活(整天只知道玩儿)，却比难以很好的生活的成人们更清楚的分辨出显示生活的真正规律和种种关系。”
A. 孩子应当实践印度布道宣传的东西。 C. 几乎对其真实出身一无所知。这是讲王子的事情，不是一般孩子。 D. 难以欣赏艺术。并未提及。
3. B. 珍视目前的真正价值。这在文章倒数第五句“永恒中，确实有真实和崇高的东西存在。但是所有这一切时间，地点，机遇都是在此时此地。上帝本身在现时达到了顶峰。在今后流逝的岁月中，它绝不会更加神圣崇高。我们只有长期不断地灌输和浸润在周围现实之中，才能理解什么是崇高和神圣的东西。不论我们的步伐快还是慢，路线已为我铺定。那就让我们的生命在体会感受中度过。”作者强调现实才是人们应该抓住的。
A. 指望未来给予启迪。 C. 尊重过去的智慧。 D. 在悠闲的活动中花更多的时间。
4. D. 神学和哲学。整篇文章都传递了这两个内容，特别是哲学推理论说。
A. 历史和经济学。 B. 社会和人口。 C. 生物和物理。
