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  3. Though one may question the degree to which the Civil War represents a milestone in women’s pursuit of social, economic,

Though one may question the degree to which the Civil War represents a milestone in women’s pursuit of social, economic,

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问题             Though one may question the degree to which the Civil War represents a
       milestone in women’s pursuit of social, economic, and political equality,
       Leonard’s recent study has excelled that of her predecessor Ginzberg in
Line    debunking persistent myths about women’s primary relation to the war as
(5)     weeping widows, self-sacrificing wives, patriotic fiancées, and loyal daughters.
       Leonard asks if the wartime work of northern women influenced popular
       perceptions of women’s abilities, and if home front production were seen as
       contributing to the readiness of soldiers. Finding in the affirmative, she argues
       that home front activities generated respect for women’s organizational talents
(10)    and opened up new work opportunities for women, while participation
       reinforced their self-reliance and self-esteem.
           In contrast to her predecessors, who saw the war as transforming the
       ideology of benevolence, Leonard finds that women’s war work drew heavily
       upon the antebellum ideology of women’s nature and sphere. It was once
(15)    believed that wartime benevolence heightened changes emerging in the 1850s
       by replacing the antebellum ideology of gender difference and female moral
       superiority with a new ideology of gender similarity and a more masculine ethos
       of discipline and efficiency. Leonard asserts instead that white, middle-class,
       Yankee, charitable women appropriated the antebellum moral definition of
(20)    womanhood and, in particular, woman’s unique moral responsibility for
       maintaining community and her natural selflessness and caretaking abilities, to
       expand the boundaries of woman’s proper place.  With determination and
       courage, women brought forth positive changes in popular characterizations of
       middle-class womanhood that opened new doors for women in the professions
(25)    and in public life.
           A weak point of Leonard’s theory is her assessment of the themes of
       postwar histories of women’s wartime service. Leonard views these works as
       extolling women’s self-sacrifice and ability to cooperate with men while
       downplaying women’s demands for status and pay and ignoring the scope of
(30)    women’s administrative genius. But other theorists, most notably Ginzberg,
       have argued that these same works may also be viewed as praising the efficiency
       of the new centralized and national charitable organizations, women’s wage-
       earning capacity, and their subordination of feminine feeling and enthusiasm to
(40)    business-like and war-like routinization and order. Two sets of values-older
       notions of benevolence and new demands of public service-were at war in the
       North, a war that can be plotted through tensions about paying wages,
       centralizing corporate functions of benevolence,  relating benevolence to
       government, and using funds for administrative-as opposed to strictly
(45)    charitable-purposes. It may well be that wartime masculinization of the
       ideology of benevolence pushed women further from both the symbolic and the
       real centers of power for social change and hastened instead a class-based
       alliance for social welfare. But we can agree with Leonard that the war forced
       men to yield ground, sharing and sometimes even surrendering territory,
       power, and status in the public realm.
With which of the following criticisms of Leonard’s theory would the author of the passage be most likely to agree?
选项 A、It lays too much importance upon the antebellum ideology of women’s nature and sphere.
B、It fails to acknowledge that masculinization of women’s war-time efforts may have been detrimental to the feminist cause.
C、It tends to overemphasize the role of women in shifting their status over the course of the war.
D、It basis its thesis too exclusively on white, Yankee, middle-class women, ignoring every other social and racial class.
E、It omits to articulate the precise antebellum moral definition of womanhood that is its theme.
答案B
解析
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