2005下半年PETS四级模拟(阅读理解)
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Medieval noblewomen swallowed arsenic and dabbed on bats blood to improve their complexions; 18th century Americans prized the warm urine of young boys to erase their freckles; Victorian ladies removed their ribs to give themselves a wasp waist. The desire to be beautiful is as old as civilization, as is the pain that it can cause. The pain has not stopped the passion from creating a $160 billion?a?year global industry, encompassing make?up, skin and hair care, fragrance, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills. Americans spend more each year on beauty than they do on education. Such spending is not mere vanity. Being pretty — or just not ugly — confers enormous genetic and social advantages. Attractive people (both men and women) are judged to be more intelligent and sexy; they earn more, and they are more likely to marry. Beauty matters most, though, for reproductive success. A study by an American scientist, logged the mating preferences of more than 10,000 people across 37 cultures. It found that a psychologist and author of “Survival of the Prettiest”, argues that “good looks are a woman?s most fungible asset, exchangeable for social position, money, even love”. Beauty is something that we recognize instinctively. A baby of three months will smile longer at a face judged by adults to be “attractive”. Such beauty signals health and fertility. Long lustrous hair has always been a sign of good health; mascara makes eyes look bigger and younger; blusher and red lipstick mimic signs of sexual arousal. Whatever the culture, relatively light and flawless skin is seen as a testament to both youth and health. Then again, a curvy body, with big breasts and a waist?to?hip ratio of less than 0.8 — Barbie?s is 0.54?shows an ideal stage of readiness for conception. Plastic surgery to pad breasts or lift buttocks serves to make a woman look as though she was in her late teens or early 20s. Basic instinct keeps the beauty industry powerful. In medieval times, recipes for homemade cosmetics were kept in the kitchen right beside those used to feed the family. But it was not until the start of the 20th century, when mass production coincided with mass exposure to an idealized standard of beauty (through photography, magazines and movies) that the industry first took off. In 1909, Eugene Schuler founded the French Harmless Hair Coloring Co., which later became L?Oreal?today?s industry leader. Two years later, Paul Beiersdorf, a Hamburg pharmacist, developed the first cream to bind oil and water. Today, it sells in 150 countries as Novae, the biggest personal?care brand in the world. But it was the great rivalry between two women in America that made the industry what it is today. Elizabeth Arden opened the first modern beauty salon in 1910, followed a few years later by Helena Rubinstein, a Polish immigrant. The two took cosmetics out of household pots and pans and into the modern era. Both thought beauty and health were interlinked. They combined facials with diets and exercise classes in a holistic approach that the industry is now returning to. The emerging beauty industry played on the fear of looking ugly as much as on the pleasure of looking beautiful, drawing on the new science of psychology to convince women that an inferiority complex could be cured by a dab of lipstick. On launching her famous eight?hour cream, developed for her horses, Arden quipped: “I judge a woman and a horse by the same criteria: legs, head and rear end”. 1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage to improve women?s beauty? 2. What can be inferred from the instance of baby?s longer smile at beautiful face? 3. According to the passage, women get plastic surgery to pad breasts or lift buttocks in order to 4. What resulted in the first beauty industry prosperity? 5. With which tone did Arden remark on women? 一、主要内容 |
