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  3. Marianne Montgomery was timid and unadventurous, her vitality consumed by physical activity and longing, her intelligence by ind

Marianne Montgomery was timid and unadventurous, her vitality consumed by physical activity and longing, her intelligence by ind

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问题     Marianne Montgomery was timid and unadventurous, her vitality consumed by physical activity and longing, her intelligence by indecisiveness, but this had less to do with the innate characteristics of her weaker sex (as her father, Creighton Montgomery, called it) than with the enfeebling circumstances of her upbringing. Creighion Montgomery had enough money to mould his daughters according to his misconceptions: girls were not meant to fend for themselves so he protected them from life. Which is to say that Marianne Montgomery grew up without making any vital choices for herself. Prevented from acquiring the habits of freedom and strength of character which grow from decision-making, very rich girls, whose parents have the means to protect them in such a crippling fashion, are the last representatives of Victorian womanhood. Though they may have the boldest manners and most up-to-date ideas, they share their great-grandmothers’ humble dependence.
    Most parents these days have to rely on their force of personality and whatever love and respect they can inspire to exert any influence over their children at all, but there is still an awful lot of parental authority that big money can buy. Multimillionaires have more of everything than ordinary mortals, including more parent power, and their sons and daughters have about as much opportunity to develop according to their own inclinations as they would have had in the age of absolute monarchy.
    The rich still have families.
    The great divide between the generations, which is so much taken for granted that no one remarks on it any longer, is the plight of the lower and middle classes, whose children begin to drift away as soon as they are old enough to go to school. The parents cannot control the school, and have even less say as to what company and ideas the child will be exposed to; nor can they isolate him from the public mood, the spirit of the age. It is an often-heard complaint of the middle-class mother, for instance, that she must let her children watch television for hours on end every day if she is to steal any time for herself. The rich have no such problems; they can keep their offspring busy from morning to night without being near them for a minute more than they choose to be, and can exercise almost total control over their environment. As for schooling, they can hand-pick tutors with sound views to come to the children, who may never leave the grounds their parents own, in town, in the country, by the sea, unless for an exceptionally secure boarding school or a well-chaperoned trip abroad. It would have been easier for little Marianne Montgomery to go to Cairo than to the nearest newsstand.
What does the phrase "to fend for themselves" (Line 5-6, Para. 1) most probably mean?
选项 A、to present themselves.
B、to isolate themselves.
C、to be proud of themselves.
D、to look after themselves.
答案D
解析 文章第一段第二句谈到Creighion Montgomery按照他自己的错误观念来塑造他的女儿，接着冒号后的内容解释了这种错误的观念，即女孩们不能照顾自己，所以他从女儿们出生起就为她们提供保护，因此应选[D]。[A]“表现自己”、[B]“孤立自己”、[C]“为自己感到骄傲”都不符合题意。
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