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.
According to the author, downshifting emerged in the U.S. as a result of________.

选项 A、the quick pace of modern life
B、man’s adventurous spirit
C、man’s search for mythical experiences
D、the economic situation

答案D

解析 本题关键词是downshifting emerged in the U. S,问题是:downshifting在美国出现的原因是什么?可以定位于第五段。第五段第一句为:While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economic  decline…,其中the trend指上一段提到的downshifting生活方式,即在美国downshifting的开始是对经济衰退的一种反应,即美国经济衰退是downshifting的原因,选项D是本句话的同义替换,其中the trend对应downshifting,as a reaction to(作为……的反应)对应as a result of(作为……的结果),the economic decline(经济衰退)对应the economic situation(经济形势)。选项A属于无中生有,文中并没有提到“现代生活的快节奏”。选项B来自第六段第一句:…growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one…原文说的是downshifting可能会使人有冒“与大自然融为一体”的“风险”,并不是说“人们的冒险精神让生活节奏放慢”,所以选项B属于主观推导。选项C来自第六段第一句:…downshifting in the mid-’90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life…原文说的是在作者(英国人)这一代downshifting的错误原因(not so much…as…与其说……,不如说……),并不是downshifting在美国出现的原因,所以,选项C属于答非所问。第五段:简化生活的原因因人而异。
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