雅思阅读第107套P1:India’s Modern Women

Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20minutes on Questions 1 -13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

India’s Modern Women

The country’s youngergeneration is shedding submissive attitudes, wants careers, and longs forwealth. And marketers are paying attention. When the first American musicvideos and popular TV shows began appearing in Indian homes in the early 1990sthanks to satellite and cable, many pundits predicted Indian society wouldnever be the same. For the first time, female viewers saw independent,successful women and fun, sensitive guys. Sex and divorce were openly discussedin these TV imports and couples kissed passionately - then still a taboo inIndian TV shows and movies.

Indeed, the impact on youngergenerations of Indian women has been profound. Whereas Indian womentraditionally have been submissive to parents and husbands and valued frugalityand modesty, a number of sociological studies show that young Indian femalesnow prize financial independence, freedom to decide when to marry and havechildren, and glamorous careers. A generation back, women would sacrificethemselves and believed in saving. Today, it is spend, spend, spend. It is OKfor a woman to want something for herself, and people will accept it if shegoes out into a man’s world making a statement.

Because today’s young women arethe key consumer group of tomorrow, these shifts have big implications formarketing companies. And the trends come out clearly in two recent studies. Onestudy examined 3,400 unmarried women aged 19-22 of different income and sociallevels. Altogether, the project involved 40 focus groups in five large urbanareas and five smaller cities. In some cases, the researchers lived with thewomen for a while to study them more closely. The researchers supplemented thisdata with interviews of journalists, teachers, and psychologists.

Among the findings:

- Guilt-free materialism. 51%of young single women in major urban areas say it is necessary to have a bighouse and big car to be happy. In smaller cities, 86% agreed with thisstatement. This shows that the less women have, the greater are theiraspirations. One woman interviewed was making just $200 a year but said shewants to own a jet plane. A typical comment in recent interviews was, 'I wantmoney, fame, and success.'

- Parental ties. Traditionally,parents regarded girls as somebody else’s future property. They arrangedmarriages for their daughters, and then the daughters would go away and takecare of their in-laws, so parents needed and doted on sons. However, today’syoung women are rebelling against that. 67% say they plan to take care of theirparents into their old age - and that means they need money. The companyUnilever played on that sentiment with a recent controversial - but successful- ad for its Fair and Lovely line of beauty products. A daughter came home andfound that her parents had no sugar for coffee because they couldn’t afford it.She became an airline hostess after using the Fair and Lovely products to makeher beautiful. She then visited her parents and took them to a first-classrestaurant.

- Marital freedom. Now, manywomen say they will marry when ready - not when their parents decide to marrythem off. 65% say dating is essential, and they also want to become financiallyindependent before they marry. 76% say they want to maintain that independenceafterwards. 60% say they will decide how to spend their own salaries. What ismore, 76% say they will decide when to have children. They now regard this asthe woman’s decision completely. In big metro areas, 24% say they never wantchildren, and that number reaches 40% in smaller cities.

- Individualism. Female rolemodels in Indian culture used to personify perfection. Now, 62% of girls say itis OK if they have faults and that people see them. They do not want to be seenas Mrs. Perfect. Popular TV role models are like Phoebe in 'Friends’ - womenwho commit blunders.

- Careerism. A decade ago, mostyoung women saw themselves as housewives. After that, most said they wanted tobe teachers or doctors. If they had a profession at all, it had to be a noblecause. Now, it is about glamour, money, and fame. A surprising 45% of youngsingle females say they would like to be journalists. This may be becauseprominent female Indian journalists, especially TV reporters, are seen as veryglamorous. Another 39% say they would like to be managers, 38% are interestedin design, and 20% think they want to be teachers. Interestingly, 13% say theywould like to be in the military. The percentage of those saying they want tobe a full-time housewife is minuscule.

- Modern husbands. Therelationship with the husband used to be one of awe. Now, women want a partnerand a relationship of equals. A recent Whirlpool ad shows a man washing thefamily clothes before his wife comes home from work, while a Samsung homeappliance ad shows a husband and wife cooking together.

SECTION 1: QUESTIONS 1-13

Questions 1-4

The text refers to 6 mainfindings when young Indian women were surveyed.

Which finding contains each ofthe following pieces of information?

Young Indian women who wantmore tend to be poorer.

1 _________________

Few young Indian women want tobe housewives.

2 _________________

Most young Indian women want totake care of their retired parents.

3 _________________

Most young Indian women want tobe financially independent.

4 _________________

Questions 5-8

Complete the followingsentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each gap.

5 _________________ are freely talked about on American TV shows.

Young women are considered tobe the future’s most important 6 _________________ by many companies.

Most young Indian womensurveyed agree that 7_________________ before marriage is necessary.

In the past, young Indian womenwho wanted careers were most likely to consider teaching or becoming doctorsbecause each of these is considered to be 8 _________________

Questions 9-13

Do the following statementsagree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 9 - 13 on youranswer sheet, write

TRUE

if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE

if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN

If there is no information on this

9 _________________ The effect of American culture on young Indian women was notforecast when satellite and cable TV arrived in India.

10 _________________ Researchers used three methods to get their data.

11 _________________ Most young Indian women are aiming for perfection.

12 _________________ Most of the best journalists on TV in India arc women.

13 _________________ Modern men and women in India cook together.