GWD29-Q6 前人争论不休，到底是A还是E呢？

             In a 1984 book, Claire C.

             Robertson argued that,

            before colonialism, age was

Line     a more important indicator

  (5)      of status and authority than

gender in Ghana and in

Africa generally.  British

colonialism imposed

European-style male-

 (10)       dominant notions upon

more egalitarian local

situations to the detriment

of women generally, and

gender became a defining

 (15)       characteristic that weak-

ened women’s power and

authority.

      Subsequent research in

Kenya convinced Robertson

 (20)      that she had overgeneralized

       about Africa.  Before colo-

       nialism, gender was more

salient in central Kenya than

it was in Ghana, although age

 (25)      was still crucial in determin-

ing authority.  In contrast with

Ghana, where women had

traded for hundreds of years

and achieved legal majority

 (30)      (not unrelated phenomena),

the evidence regarding

central Kenya indicated that

       women were legal minors

and were sometimes treated

 (35)
                        as male property, as were

European women at that

time.  Factors like strong

patrilinearity and patrilocality,

      as well as women’s inferior

 (40)     land rights and lesser

involvement in trade, made

women more dependent on

men than was generally the

case in Ghana.  However,

 (45)      since age apparently

remained the overriding

principle of social organiza-

tion in central Kenya, some

senior women had much

 (50)       authority.  Thus, Robertson

revised her hypothesis

somewhat, arguing that

in determining authority in

precolonial Africa age was a

 (55)       primary principle that super-

seded gender to varying

degrees depending on the

situation.

The author of the passage mentions the status of age as a principle of social organization in precolonial central Kenya in lines 24-26 most likely in order to

A.      indicate that women’s dependence on men in precolonial Kenya was not absolute

B.      contrast the situation of senior women to that of less senior women in precolonial Kenyan society

C.      differentiate between the status and authority of precolonial Kenyan women and that of precolonial Ghanaian women

D.      explain why age superseded gender to a greater extent in precolonial Kenya than it did elsewhere in Africa

E.       identify a factor that led Robertson to revise her hypothesis about precolonial Africa

答案：E。

我反对E：作者说，“在K国，殖民前，gender因素在影响妇女地位权利上比G国更明显，虽然年龄仍然是决定妇女权利的关键”

              问题：  说“虽然年龄仍然是决定妇女权利的关键”的目的是什么？

 E ：明确了导致作者修正她的假设的一个因素。我认为导致她修正假设的是前半句：”在K国，殖民前，gender因素在影响妇女地位权利上比G国更明显“，而不是后半句”虽然年龄仍然是决定妇女权利的关键”。后半句的观点，在原假设中也存在。因此，不是修正假设的一个原因。

A：表明殖民前的K国，妇女对男性的依赖是不绝对的。如果作者真的是这个目的，那这句话对全文起什么作用？这个目的跟全文有关系吗？所以，对于A我也有点不赞同。

我认为这句话的目的是，部分的肯定之前的假设（年龄在殖民前的一些国家是比性别重要的影响因素）从而他才能得到修正后的假设：“殖民前，age是权力的主要决定原则（如果没有前面24-26行的这句话，就不一定得到这个结论），但它在决定妇女权力地位方面取代gender的程度视不同情况而定（新发现导致的修改）”。

请大家一起来讨论讨论，碰撞点思想火花~~~