yoshiko matsumoto has argued that young women probably never used as many of the highly deferential forms as older women. this highly polite style is no doubt something that young women have been expected to “grow into”—after all, it is assign not simply of femininity, but of maturity and refinement, and its use could be taken to indicate a change in the nature of one’s social relations as well. one might well imagine little girls using exceedingly polite forms when playing house or imitating older women—in a fashion analogous to little girls’ use of a high-pitched voice to do “teacher talk” or “mother talk” in role play.
the fact that young japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure sign of change—of social change and of linguistic change. but it is most certainly not a sign of the “masculization” of girls. in some instances, it may be a sign that girls are making the same claim to authority as boys and men, but that is very different from saying that they are trying to be “masculine.” katsue reynolds has argued that girls nowadays are using more assertive language strategies in order to be able to compete with boys in schools and out. social change also brings not simply different positions for women and girls, but different relations to life stages, and adolescent girls are participating in new subcultural forms. thus what may, to an older speaker, seem like “masculine” speech may seem to an adolescent like “liberated” or “hip” speech.
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。
57.the first paragraph describes in detail ________.
a) the standards set for contemporary japanese women
b) the confucian influence on gender norms in japan
c) the stereotyped role of women in japanese families
d) the norms for traditional japanese women to follow（b）
58.what change has been observed in today’s young japanese women?
a) they pay less attention to their linguistic behavior.
b) the use fewer of the deferential linguistic forms.
c) they confuse male and female forms of language.
d) they employ very strong linguistic expressions.（b）
59.how do some people react to women’s appropriation of men’s language forms as reported in the japanese media?
a) they call for a campaign to stop the defeminization.
b) the see it as an expression of women’s sentiment.
c) they accept it as a modern trend.
d) they express strong disapproval.（d）
60.according to yoshiko matsumoto, the linguistic behavior observed in today’s young women ________.
a) may lead to changes in social relations
b) has been true of all past generations
c) is viewed as a sign of their maturity
d) is a result of rapid social progress（a）
61.the author believes that the use of assertive language by young japanese women is ________.
a) a sure sign of their defeminization and maturation
b) an indication of their defiance against social change
c) one of their strategies to compete in a male-dominated society
d) an inevitable trend of linguistic development in japan today（c）
part v cloze (15 minutes)
directions: there are 20 blanks in the following passage. for each blank there are four choices marked a), b), c) and d) on the right side of the paper. you should choose the one that best fits into the passage. then mark the corresponding letter on answer sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。
historically, humans get serious about avoiding disasters only after one has just struck them. __62__ that logic, 2006 should have been a breakthrough year for rational behavior. with the memory of 9/11 still __63__ in their minds, americans watched hurricane katrina, the most expensive disaster in u.s. history, on __64__ tv. anyone who didn’t know it before should have learned that bad things can happen. and they are made __65__ worse by our willful blindness to risk as much as our __66__ to work together before everything goes to hell.
granted, some amount of delusion (錯覺) is probably part of the __67__ condition. in a.d. 63, pompeii was seriously damaged by an earthquake, and the locals immediately went to work __68__, in the same spot—until they were buried altogether by a volcano eruption 16 years later. but a __69__ of the past year in disaster history suggests that modern americans are particularly bad at __70__ themselves from guaranteed threats. we know more than we __71__ did about the dangers we face. but it turns __72__ that in times of crisis, our greatest enemy is __73__ the storm, the quake or the __74__ itself. more often, it is ourselves.