A quarter of American households in 1900 had boarders or lodgers (compared to two per cent today). Half of American households in 1900 had fewer rooms than persons (compared to five per cent today). A quarter of American households in 1900 had running water (compared to 99 per cent today). An eighth of American households in 1900 had flush toilets (compared to ninety-eight per cent today).The diets of workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania at the turn of the century were composed primarily of meat of widely variable quality, bread, butter, potatoes, oatmeal, and tea and milk — with luxuries such as sweets added in more or less regularly. We would find the diet somewhat monotonous (however, a lot of time and effort went into finding different ways to make potatoes). Almost always the first luxury that a working-class family moving up would purchase would be the services of a laundress: since laundry was expensive and difficult, few working-class families could maintain upper-middle-class standards of cleanliness. How often would you take baths if the water had to be brought in from an outside pump, and then heated on the stove? How often would you wash your clothes if everything had to be washed out in the sink, if the fabrics were three times as heavy and the detergents one-third as powerful as the ones available today, and if as a result the laundry was a full day’s chore? Hand laundry was not a two hour a week task. Those who could afford the resources to maintain bourgeois styles of cleanliness flaunted it. White shirts, white dresses, white gloves are all powerful indications of wealth in turn of the century America. They said “I don’t have to do my own laundry,” and they said it loudly.As a rule married women did not work outside the home — unless they were African-American, in which case they might well do their own family’s housework and be paid for doing a share of some white family’s housework as well. Meal preparation was not a one-hour-a-day but a four-hour-a-day task. If there was no a shift toward larger-scale communal or cooperative living — a shift which simply did not happen even though anticipated, hoped for, and worked for by many feminists — within-the-household production and maintenance soaked up one-third the potential adult work hours. It made it next to impossible for married women (unless they were quite rich, or quite poor) to have independent careers and still fulfill the social expectations of household maintenance.31. It can be learnt from the first paragraph that ________.A. people in 1900 lived a happier lifeB. the present life is more convenientC. half of American households had larger housesD. running water first came into use
A quarter of American households in 1900 had boarders or lodgers (compared to two per cent today). Half of American households in 1900 had fewer rooms than persons (compared to five per cent today). A quarter of American households in 1900 had running water (compared to 99 per cent today). An eighth of American households in 1900 had flush toilets (compared to ninety-eight per cent today).
The diets of workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania at the turn of the century were composed primarily of meat of widely variable quality, bread, butter, potatoes, oatmeal, and tea and milk — with luxuries such as sweets added in more or less regularly. We would find the diet somewhat monotonous (however, a lot of time and effort went into finding different ways to make potatoes). Almost always the first luxury that a working-class family moving up would purchase would be the services of a laundress: since laundry was expensive and difficult, few working-class families could maintain upper-middle-class standards of cleanliness. How often would you take baths if the water had to be brought in from an outside pump, and then heated on the stove? How often would you wash your clothes if everything had to be washed out in the sink, if the fabrics were three times as heavy and the detergents one-third as powerful as the ones available today, and if as a result the laundry was a full day’s chore? Hand laundry was not a two hour a week task. Those who could afford the resources to maintain bourgeois styles of cleanliness flaunted it. White shirts, white dresses, white gloves are all powerful indications of wealth in turn of the century America. They said “I don’t have to do my own laundry,” and they said it loudly.
As a rule married women did not work outside the home — unless they were African-American, in which case they might well do their own family’s housework and be paid for doing a share of some white family’s housework as well. Meal preparation was not a one-hour-a-day but a four-hour-a-day task. If there was no a shift toward larger-scale communal or cooperative living — a shift which simply did not happen even though anticipated, hoped for, and worked for by many feminists — within-the-household production and maintenance soaked up one-third the potential adult work hours. It made it next to impossible for married women (unless they were quite rich, or quite poor) to have independent careers and still fulfill the social expectations of household maintenance.
31. It can be learnt from the first paragraph that ________.
A. people in 1900 lived a happier life
B. the present life is more convenient
C. half of American households had larger houses
D. running water first came into use
题目解答
答案
解析
本题考查对文章段落内容的理解和推理能力。解题思路是仔细分析第一段中1900年和现在美国家庭在住房、用水等方面的各项数据对比，然后根据这些信息对每个选项进行判断。
- 分析选项A：
- 第一段中并没有任何关于1900年人们生活是否更幸福的描述。
- 所以无法得出人们在1900年生活更幸福的结论，A选项错误。
- 分析选项B：
- 文中提到1900年仅有四分之一的美国家庭有自来水，八分之一的家庭有冲水马桶，而现在分别达到了99%和98%。
- 同时，1900年一半的家庭人均房间少，而现在只有5%。
- 这些数据对比明显表明现在的生活在住房和用水等方面更加便利，B选项正确。
- 分析选项C：
- 文中明确指出1900年一半的美国家庭人均房间比人数少，这意味着房间相对较小，而不是有更大的房子。
- 所以C选项与原文不符，错误。
- 分析选项D：
- 第一段只是说明了1900年有四分之一的家庭有自来水，但并没有提及自来水是首次投入使用。
- 所以D选项缺乏依据，错误。