考研英语阅读理解B型题

　　directions：in the following article，some sentences have been removed. for questions 1-5，choose the most suitable one from the list a―g to fit into each of the numbered blank. there are two extra choices，which do not fit in any of the gaps.

　　it seems to me there are two aspects to women. there is the demure and the dauntless. men have loved to dwell，in fiction at least，on the demure maiden whose inevitable reply is：oh，yes，if you please，kind sir！the demure maiden，the demure spounse，the demure mother―this is still the ideal. a few maidens，mistresses and mothers are demure. a few pretend to be. but the vast majority are not. and they don‘t pretend to be. we don’t expect a girl skilfully driving her car to be demure，we expect her to be dauntless. what good would demure and maidenly members of parliament be，inevitably responding：oh，yes，if you please，kind sir！―though of course there are masculine members of that kidney.―and a demure telephone girl？or even a demure stenographer？demureness，to be sure，is outwardly becoming，it is an outward mark of femininity，like bobbed hair. but it goes with inward dauntlessness.

　　1）with the two kinds of femininity go two kinds of confidence：there are the women who are cocksure，and the women who are hensure. a really up-to-date woman is a cocksure woman. she doesn‘t have a doubt nor a qualm. she is the modern type. whereas the old-fashioned demure woman was sure as a hen is sure，that is，without knowing anything about it. she went quietly and busily cluciking around，laying the eggs and mothering the chickens in a kind of anxious dream that still was full of sureness. but not mental sureness. her sureness was a physical condition，very soothing，but a condition out of which she could easily be startled or frightened.

　　it is quite amusing to see the two kinds of sureness in chickens. the cockerel is，naturally，cocksure. he crows because he is certain it is day.，then the hen peeps out from under her wing. he marches to the door of the henhouse and pokes out his lead assertively：ah ha！daylight，of course，just as i said！―and he majestically steps down the chicken ladder towards terra firma，knowing that the hens will step cautiously after him，drawn by his confidence. so after him，cautiously，step the hens. he crows again：ha-ha！here we are！―it is indisputable，and the hens accept it entirely. he marches towards the house. from the house a person ought to appear，scattering corn. why does the person not appear？the cock will see to it. he is cocksure. he gives a loud crow in the doorway，and the person appears. the hens are suitably impressed but immediately devote all their henny consciousness to the scattered corn，pecking absorbedly，while the cock runs and fusses，cocksure that he is responsible for it all.

　　so the day goes on. the cock finds a tit-bit，and loudly calls the hens. they scuffle up in henny surety，and gobble the tit-bit. but when they find a juicy morsel for themselves，they devour it in silence，hensure. unless，of course，there are little chicks，when they most anxiously call the brood. but in her own dim surety，the hen is really much surer than the cock，in a differenty way. she marches off to lay her egg，she secures obstinately the nest she wants，she lays her egg at last，then steps forth again with prancing confidence，and gives that most assured of all sounds，the hensure cackle of a bird who has laid her egg. the cock，who is never so sure about anything as the hen is about the egg she has laid，immediately starts to cackle like the female of his species. he is pining to be hensure，for hensure is so much surer than cocksure. nevertheless，cocksure is boss. when the chickenhawk appears in the sky，loud are the cockerel‘s calls of alarm. then the hens scuffle under the verandah，the cock ruffles his feathers on guard. the hens are numb with fear，they say：alas，there is no health in us！how wonderful to be a cock so bold！―and they huddle，numbed. but their very numbness is hensurety.

　　just as the cock can cackle，however，as if he had laid the egg，so can the hen bird crow. she can more or less assume his cocksurensess.

　　2）it seems to me just the same in the vast human farmyard. only nowadays all the cocks are cackling and pretending to lay eggs，and all the hens are crowing and pretending to call the sun out of bed.

　　3）so the women step forth with a good loud cock-a-doodle-do！

　　the tragedy about cocksure women is that they are more cocky，in their assurance，than the cock himself. they never realize that when the cock gives his loud crow in he morning，he listens acutely afterwards，to hear if some other wretch of a cock dare crow defiance，challenge. to the cock，there is always defiance，challenge，danger and death on the clear air；or the possibility thereof.

　　but alas，when the hen crows，she listens for no defiance or challenge. when she says cock-a-doodle-do！then it is unanswerable. the cock listens for an answer，alert. but the hen knows she is unanswerable. cock-a-dooodle-do！and there it is，take it or leave it！

　　4）it is the tragedy of the modern woman. she becomes cocksurem，she puts all her passion and energy and years of her life into some effort or assertion，without ever listening for the denial which she ought to take into count. she is cocksure，but she is a new all the time. frightened of her own henny self，she rushes to mad lengths about votes，or welfare，or sports，or business：she is marvellous，out-manning the man. but alas，it is all fundamentally disconnected. it is all an attitude，and one day the attitude will become a weird cramp，a pain，and then it will collapse. and when it has collapsed，and she looks at the eggs she has laid，votes，or miles of typewriting，years of business efficiency―suddenly，because she is a hen and not a cock，all she has done will turn into pure nothingness to her.

　　5）[a]if women today are cocksure，men are hensure. men are timid，tremulous，rather soft and submissive，easy in their very henlike tremulousness. they only want to be spoken to gently.

　　[b]the girl who has got to make her way in life has got to be dauntless，and if she has a pretty，demure manner with it，then luck girl. she kills two birds with two stones.

　　[c]conventional ideas about women seems pretty much cut and dried in the modern society.

　　[d]and yet she is never so easy，cocksure，as she used to be when she was hensure. cocksure，she is cocksure，but uneasy. hensure，she trembles，but is easy.

　　[e]and it is this that makes the cocksureness of women so dangerous，so devastating. it is really out of scheme，it is not in relation to the rest of things. so we have the tragedy of cocksure women. they find，so often，that instead of having laid an egg，they have laid a vote，or an emply ink-bootle，or some other absolutely unhatchable object，means nothing to them.

　　[f]but the women pointed out the men had not produced anything，and the human race was pretty much starving.

　　[g]suddenly it all falls out of relation to her basic henny self，and she realizes she has lost her life. the lovely henny surety，the hensureness which is the real bliss of every female，has been denied her：she had never had it. having lived her life with such utmost strenuousness and cocksureness，she has missed her life altogether. nothingness！

　　答案及解析

　　1）b.为生计所打拼的女孩子不得不勇敢无畏，如果她举止又温驯娴淑，那么她就是个幸运的女孩子。她两方面都很成功。此处，作者隐藏了自己的观点，提出大多数人接受的观点，在现代社会中，女性要勇敢无畏。

　　2）d.从上一句assume his cocksureness（装出公鸡般自信）可知，母鸡此时虽然自信，却不自在（uneasy），且从上一段最后一句and they huddle，numbed. but their very numbness is hensurety（本性）看出它们温驯谦卑时，却感觉舒服

　　3）a.此处指出在人类社会中，却与鸡的世界相反，公鸡假装下蛋，母鸡假装叫太阳起床，因此女人是自信外露，男人是温柔顺从的，故选择a.

　　4）e.作者文笔一转，指出女人的自信危险甚至具有毁灭性的原因，从上一段it is the tragedy of the modern woman看，作者旨在表明她们产下的不是蛋而是选举权，空墨水瓶或其他完全不出东西的玩意儿，所有这些对她们都毫无价值。

　　5）g.全文总结。作者观点明了，现代社会女人感受不到幸福，因为她们逆自然规律而行事，it falls out of relation to her basic henny self她的业绩与母鸡一样的本性毫无关系，所以nothingness（一切毫无价值）

　　中心思想

　　作者阐述了这样的观点：现代女性并不幸福，因为她们一般要在社会中扮演和男人一样的角色。但作者并不是直接表达自己的观点，相反，他先把自己的观点隐藏起来，开篇区分两类女性：矜持端庄型的（demure）和勇敢无畏型的（dauntless），进而指出现代女性多属后者，这是为缓和读者开始的对抗情绪，接下来的几段中作者把人类生活与鸡的生活类比。最后，作者笔锋一转，从农家鸡院转到广阔的人类舞台。女人与生俱来温驯谦卑，受人保护，但现代社会却迫使她们必须和男人一样勇敢无畏，为此她们必须拼命努力，到头来却感觉不到真正的幸福，因为她们逆自然规律而行事。