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  3. Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societie

Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societie

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问题     Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societies, the nuclear family is the unit that regularly eats together. The anthropologist (人类学家) Mary Douglas has pointed out that, for the English, the kind of meal and the kind of food that is served relate to the kinds of social links between people who are eating together. She distinguishes between regular meals, Sunday meals when relatives may come, and cocktail parties for acquaintances. The food served symbolizes the occasion and reflects who is present. For example, only snacks are served at a cocktail party. It would be inappropriate to serve a steak or hamburgers. The distinctions among cocktails, regular meals, and special dinners mark the social boundaries between those guests who are invited for drinks, those who are invited to dinner, and those who come to a family meal. In this example, the type of food symbolizes the category of guest and with whom it is eaten.
    In some New Guinea societies, the nuclear family is not the unit that eats together. The men take their meals in a men’s house, separately from their wives and children. Women prepare and eat their food in their own houses and take the husband’s portion to the men’s house. The women eat with their children in their own houses. This pattern is also widespread among Near Eastern societies.
    Eating is a metaphor that is sometimes used to signify marriage. In many New Guinea societies, like that of the Lesu on the island of New Ireland in the Pacific and that of the Trobriand Islanders, marriage is symbolized by the couple’s eating together for the first time. Eating symbolizes their new status as a married couple. In U.S. society, it is just the reverse. A couple may go out to dinner on a first date.
    Other cultural rules have to do with taboos (禁忌) against eating certain things. In some societies, members of a clan, a type of kin (family) group, are not allowed to eat the animal or bird that is their totemic (图腾的) ancestor. Since they believe themselves to be descended from that ancestor, it would be like eating that ancestor or eating themselves.
    There is also an association between food prohibitions and rank, which is found in its most extreme form in the caste system of India. A caste system consists of ranked groups, each with a different economic specialization. In India, there is an association between caste and the idea of pollution. Members of highly ranked groups can be polluted by coming into contact with the bodily secretions (分泌物), particularly spit, of individuals of lower-ranked castes. Because of the fear of pollution, Brahmans and other high-ranked individuals will not share food with, not eat from the same plate as, not even accept food from an individual from a low-ranking caste.
According to the passage, the English make clear distinctions between______.
选项 A、people who eat together
B、the kinds of food served
C、snacks and hamburgers
D、family members and guests
答案D
解析 根据题干中的the English将本题出处定位到首段第四、五句。这两句提到，人类学家玛丽·道格拉斯指出，对于英国人来说，提供的膳食和食物的种类与共餐人之间的社会关系的种类相关。她对常规餐、招待亲戚的周日餐和为熟人办的鸡尾酒会做出了区分。对于亲戚和客人，英国人会提供不同的食物，由此可知，英国人对家庭成员和客人有明确的区分，故答案为[D]。区分和谁在一起就餐的是新几内亚人，故排除[A]。食物的种类能反映出席人员的身份，只是这一区分导致的结果，故排除[B]。文中举例提到在为客人准备的鸡尾酒宴会上提供零食不提供牛排和汉堡只是说明食物因人而异，故排除[C]。
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