The use of deferential ( 敬重的) language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norm

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问题     The use of deferential ( 敬重的) language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Japan. This ideal presents a woman who withdraws quietly to the background, subordinating her life and needs to those of her family and its male head. She is a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, master of the domestic arts. The typical refined Japanese woman excels in modesty and delicacy; she "treads softly(谨言慎行)in the world", elevating feminine beauty and grace to an art form.
    Nowadays, it is commonly observed that young women are not conforming to the feminine linguistic (语 言的)ideal. They are using fewer of the very deferential "women’s" forms, and even using the few strong forms that are known as "men’s". This, of course, attracts considerable attention and has Led to an outcry in the Japanese media against the defeminization of women’s language. Indeed, we didn’t hear about "men’s language" until people began to respond to girls’ appropriation of forms normally reserved for boys and men. There is considerable sentiment about the "corruption" of women’s language-which of course is viewed as part of the loss of feminine ideals and morality — and this sentiment is crystallized by nationwide opinion polls that are regularly carried out by the media.
    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 a sign simply of femininity, but of maturity and refit, 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 rote 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 "masculinization" 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 mole 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 file 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.
The author believes that the use of assertive language by young Japanese women is______.

选项 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

答案C

解析 本题问“作者对日本年轻女性使用强硬语言的看法”。相关部分在短文第四段。作者说日本年轻女性不热衷用敬语,在某些情况下,可能体现了女孩要求和男性享有平等权力的意愿,接着又引用Katsue Reynolds的话进行说明,说道:“girls nowadays are using more assertive language strategies in order to be able to compete with boys in schools and out.”意思是如今的女孩使用更强硬的语言是为了能够与校内外的男生竞争。也就是说这是她们应对男性主导社会中的策略。因此C“在男性主导社会中的她们所采取的一种竞争策略”正确。
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