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  3. In sixteenth-century Italy and eighteenth-century France, waning prosperity and increasing social unrest led the ruling families

In sixteenth-century Italy and eighteenth-century France, waning prosperity and increasing social unrest led the ruling families

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问题    In sixteenth-century Italy and eighteenth-century France, waning prosperity and increasing social unrest led the ruling families to try to preserve their superiority by withdrawing from the lower and middle classes behind barriers of etiquette.  In a prosperous community, on the other hand, polite society soon absorbs the newly rich, and in England there has never been any shortage of books on etiquette for teaching them the manners appropriate to their new way of life.
   Every code of etiquette has contained three elements, basic moral duties, practical rules which promote efficiency,  and artificial,  optional graces such as formal compliments to, say, women on their beauty or superiors on their generosity and importance.
   In the first category are considerations for the weak and respect for age. Among the ancient Egyptians the young always stood in the presence of older people. Among the Mponguwe of Tanzania, the young men bow as they pass the huts of the elders. In England, until about a century ago, young children did not sit in their parents’ presence without asking permission.
   Practical rules are helpful in such ordinary occurrences of social life as making proper introductions at parties or other functions so that people can be brought to know each other. Before the invention of the fork, etiquette directed that the fingers should be kept as clean as possible; before the handkerchief came into common use, etiquette suggested that after spitting, a person should rub the spit inconspicuously underfoot.
   Extremely refined behaviour, however, cultivated as an art of gracious living, has been characteristic only of societies with wealth and leisure, which admitted women as the social equals of men. After the fall of Rome, the first European society to regulate behaviour in private life in accordance with a complicated code of etiquette was twelfth century Provence, in France.
   Provence had become wealthy. The lords had returned to their castle from the crusades, and there the ideals of chivalry grew up, which emphasized the virtue and gentleness of women and demanded that a knight should profess a pure and dedicated love to a lady who would be his inspiration, and to whom he would dedicate his valiant deeds, though he would never come physically close to her. This was the introduction of the concept of romantic love, which was to influence literature for many hundreds of years and which still lives on in a debased form in simple popular songs and cheap novels today.
   In Renaissance Italy too, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, a wealthy and leisured society developed an extremely complex code of manners, but the rules of behaviour of fashionable society had little influence on the daily life of the lower classes. Indeed many of the rules, such as how to enter a banquet room, or how to use a sword or handkerchief for ceremonial purposes, were irrelevant to the way of life of the average working man, who spent most of his life outdoors or in his own poor hut and most probably did not have a handkerchief, certainly not a sword, to his name.
   Yet the essential basis of all good manners does not vary. Consideration for the old and weak and the avoidance of harming or giving unnecessary offence to others is a feature of all societies everywhere and at all levels from the highest to the lowest.
Etiquette as an art of gracious living is quoted as a feature of which country?
选项 A、Egypt.
B、18th century France.
C、Renaissance Italy.
D、England.
答案C
解析 该题询问把礼仪作为高尚生活的艺术是哪个国家的特色。A是埃及。关于埃及，文中只提到了年轻人如何尊重老年人。B是18世纪的法国。从第一段我们得知，18世纪的法国经济衰退，社会动荡，根本没有礼仪可言。D是英国。文中提到英国时，只说在英国一直有许多书籍，教人们礼仪，使他们尽快适应新的生活。C是文艺复兴时期的意大利。具体内容在文章的第七段有详细介绍。
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