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  3. When I decided to quit my full-time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend.

When I decided to quit my full-time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend.

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问题     When I decided to quit my full-time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming "I wanted to spend more time with my family".
    Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term "downshifting" has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of "having it all", preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.
    I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build-up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12-hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on "quality time".
    In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting—also known in America as "voluntary simplicity"—has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. There are a number of best-selling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-’90s equivalent of dropping out.
    While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic decline—after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late ’80s—and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class downshifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.
    For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the ’80s, downshifting in the mid-’90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life—growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one—as a personal recognition of your limitations.
"Juggling one’s life" probably means living a life characterized by________.
选项 A、non-materialistic lifestyle
B、a bit of everything
C、extreme stress
D、anti-consumerism
答案C
解析 本题关键词是Juggling one’s life，可以定位在第三、四段。第三段第一句为：I have discovered，…，that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into "downshifting"…作者发现放弃“juggling your life”的生活哲学，转而过一种downshifting的生活所带来的回报比经济成功和社会地位更有价值，即juggling your life是downshifting的反面；从文章第二段可知downshifting是一种轻松的、 “什么都有一点”的生活状态，所以juggling your life应该是一种忙碌的、有压力的生活状态；并且根据第三段第二句话的描述也可知，juggling your life就是“每天长时间工作，让人喘不过气来的最后期限，办公室政治斗争的可怕压力，以及不能陪伴家人的种种局限……”，选项C是对该状态的全面概括，是正确选项。选项A属于正反混淆，第四段第一句为：In America，the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well—established trend，由此可知，simpler, less materialistic lifestyle(简单、不太物质化的生活)与juggling含义相反。选项B来自第二段第二句：…into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything，文中明确指出a bit of everything(什么都有一点)是downshifting(放慢生活节奏)的典型特点，并不是Juggling one’s life的生活特点，所以，选项B属于偷换概念。选项D来自第四段第二句：Downshifting—also known in America as "voluntary simplicity"—has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism，由此可知，anti-onsumerism(反消费主义)是downshifting的特点，并不是Juggling one’s life的生活特点，所以，选项D属于偷换概念。第三段：辞职后的生活给作者带来的回报和感悟使她再也不想回到过去。第四段： “放慢生活节奏”的做法成为美国人的趋势，导致“反消费主义”。
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