A、Salaries are quite low in middle-class families. B、Manual labor is highly respected in the US. C、Exercise is very important fo

A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect(9)the self-made man—the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as a farmer or laborer of some sort.
    This attitude toward manual labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children: yet the hostess will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward. Furthermore, the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily assembled from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery.(10)On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.
Questions 9 to 11 are based on the passage you have just heard.
9. Who is called the self-made man?
10. Why does the hostess cook dinner herself?
11. What does the example of the professional’s family serve to show?