公共英语四级辅导：PETS4阅读精讲（19）

　　Women’s Liberation
　　one of the good things for men in women’s liberation is that men no longer have to pay women the old-fashioned courtesies.
　　In an article on the new manners, Ms. Holmes says that a perfectly able to woman no longer has to act helplessly in public as if she were a model. For example, she doesn’t need getting in and out of cars. “Women get in and out of cars twenty times a day with babies and dogs. Surely they can get out by themselves at night just as easily.”
　　She also says there is no reason why a man should walk on the outside of a woman on the sidewalk. “Historically, the man walked on the inside so he caught the garbage thrown out of a window. Today the man walked is supposed to walk on the outside. A man should walk where he wants to. So should a woman. If, out of love and respect, he actually wants to take the blows, he should walk on the inside- because that’s where attacks are all hiding these days.
　　As far as manners are concerned, I suppose I have always been a supporter of women’s liberation. over the years, out of a sense of respect I imagine, I have refused to trouble women with outdated courtesies.
　　It is usually easier to follow rules of social behavior than to depend on one’s own taste. But rules may be safely broken, of course, by those of us with the gift of natural grace. For example, when a man and woman are led to their table in a restaurant and the waiter pulls out a chair the woman is always expected to sit in the chair. That is according to Ms. Clark. I have always done it the other way according to my wife.
　　It came up only the other night. I followed the hostess to the table, and when she pulled the chair out I sat on it quite naturally since it happened to be the chair I wanted to sit in.
　　“Well”, said my wife when the hostess had gone. “You did it again.”
　　“Did what?” I asked, utterly confused.
　　“Took the chair.”
　　Actually, since I’d walked through the restaurant ahead of my wife, it would have been awkward, I should think, not to have taken the chair. I had got there first after all.
　　Also it has always been my custom to get in a car first and let the women get in by herself. This is a courtesy. I insist on as the stronger sex, out of love and respect. In times like these, there might be attacks hidden about. It would be unsuitable to put a woman in a car and then shut the door on her, leaving her at the mercy of some bad fellow who might be hiding in the back seat.
　　1. It can be concluded from the passage that____.
　　A. men should walk on the inside of sidewalk.
　　B. women are becoming more capable than before.
　　C. in women’s liberation men are also liberated.
　　D. it’s safe to break rules of social behavior
　　2. The author was “utterly confused” because he ___.
　　A. took the chair out of habit.
　　B. was trying to be polite.
　　C. was slow in understanding.
　　D. had forgotten what he did.+
　　3. He took the chair for all the following reasons EXCEpT that ____.
　　A. he got to the chair first.
　　B. he happened to like the seat.
　　C. his wife ordered him to do so.
　　D. he’d walked ahead of his wife.
　　4. The author always gets in a car before a woman because he ____.
　　A. wants to protect her.
　　B. doesn’t need to help her.
　　C. chooses to be impolite to her.
　　D. fears attacks on him.
　　5. Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage?
　　A. Manners ought to be thrown away altogether.
　　B. In manners one should follow his own judgment.
　　C. Women no longer need to be helped in public.
　　D. Men are not expected to be courteous to women.