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  3. It is hard to get any agreement on the accurate meaning of the term "social class". In everyday life, people tend to have a diff

It is hard to get any agreement on the accurate meaning of the term "social class". In everyday life, people tend to have a diff

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问题     It is hard to get any agreement on the accurate meaning of the term "social class". In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to those they consider their equals from that which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use to "place" a new acquaintance (熟人) , however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a part.
    In Greece, after the sixth-century B.C., there was a growing conflict between the peasants and the landed aristocrats(贵族), and a gradual decrease in the power of the aristocracy when a kind of "middle class" of traders and skilled workers grew up. The population of Athens, for example, was divided into three main classes which were politically and legally distinct. About one-third of the total were slaves, who did not count politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise Athens as the nursery of democracy. The next main group consisted of resident foreigners, the "metics", who were freemen, though they two were allowed no share in political life. The third group was the powerful body of "citizens", who were themselves divided into sub-classes.
    In the later Middle Ages, however, the development of monetary economy and the growth of cities and trade led to the rise of another class, the "burghers" or city merchants and mayors. These were the predecessors of the modern middle classes. Gradually high office and occupation assumed importance in determining social position, as it became more and more possible for a person born to one station in life to move to another. This change ’affected the towns more than the country areas, where remnants of feudalism lasted much longer.
    With the break-up of the feudal economy, the increasing division of labour, and the growing power of the town burghers(公民), the commercial and professional middle class became more and more important in Europe, and the older privileged class, the landed aristocracy, began to lose some of its power.
The decline of the Greek aristocracy’s power in the sixth century" B. C. was the result of ______.
选项 A、the conflicts between the peasants and the landed aristocrats
B、the foreign residents
C、slaves
D、the newly emerging middle class in the sixth century
答案D
解析 首先找到出现了公元前6世纪的那一段即笫二段，其中捉到当中层阶级的商人和技工成长起来时，贵族们的权力逐渐被削弱了。从这一细节我们不难看出，D项的“新出现的中层阶级”是最合适的答案。而A项的“农民与地主贵族间的冲突”并不是主要原因，只是描述了当时的社会背景，而B项和C项中的“外来居民”和“奴隶”在政治上都没有权力，自然也无法与贵族们抗争。
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