TN-GWD1疑问

zijing4546

GWD1-Q4 to Q6:

       The fields of antebellum (pre-Civil War) political history and
women’s history use separate sources and focus on separate issues. 
Political historians, examining sources such as voting records,
newspapers, and politicians’ writings, focus on the emergence in the
1840’s of a new “American political nation,” and since women were
neither voters nor politicians, they receive little discussion. 
Women’s historians, meanwhile, have shown little interest in the
subject of party politics, instead drawing on personal papers, legal
records such as wills, and records of female associations to illuminate
women’s domestic lives, their moral reform activities, and the
emergence of the woman’s rights movement.

      However, most historians have underestimated the extent and
significance of women’s political allegiance in the antebellum period. 
For example, in the presidential election campaigns of the 1840’s, the
Virginia Whig party strove to win the allegiance of Virginia’s women by
inviting them to rallies and speeches.  According
to Whig propaganda, women who turned out at the party’s rallies
gathered information that enabled them to mold party-loyal families,
reminded men of moral values that transcended party loyalty, and
conferred moral standing on the party. Virginia Democrats, in
response, began to make similar appeals to women as well.  By the
mid-1850’s the inclusion of women in the rituals of party politics had
become commonplace and the ideology that justified such inclusion had
been assimilated by the Democrats.

    
GWD1-Q5:
According to the second paragraph of the passage, Whig propaganda included the assertion that
A.    women should enjoy more political rights than they did
B.    women  were the most important influences on political attitudes within a family
C.    women’s reform activities reminded men of important moral values
D.    women’s demonstrations at rallies would influence men’s voting behavior
E.    women’s presence at rallies would enhance the moral standing of the party

答案是e，红线是我定位的地方，我不知道为什么conferred moral standing 会 enhance the moral standing of the party,谢谢大家帮忙！

[此贴子已经被作者于2009-2-2 6:18:44编辑过]

freely

According to OXFORD DICTIONARY, 'confer' means give or grant to sb, in that case, confer moral standing on the party in some degree means enhance the moral standing of the party.