Women’s Positions in the 17th Century

　　Social circumstances in Early Modern England mostly served to repress women’s voices. Patriarchal culture and institutions constructed them as chaste, silent, obedient, and subordinate. At the beginning of the 17th century, the ideology of patriarchy, political absolutism, and gender hierarchy were reaffirmed powerfully by King James in The Trew Law of Free Monarchie and the Basilikon Doron; by that ideology the absolute power of God the supreme patriarch was seen to be imaged in the absolute monarch of the state and in the husband and father of a family. Accordingly, a woman’s subjection, first to her father and then to her husband, imaged the subjection of English people to their monarch, and of all Christians to God. Also, the period saw an outpouring of repressive or overtly misogynist sermons, tracts, and plays, detailing women’s physical and mental defects, spiritual evils, rebelliousness, shrewish ness, and natural inferiority to men.

　　Yet some social and cultural conditions served to empower women. During the Elizabethan era (1558—1603) the culture was dominated by a powerful Queen, who provided an impressive female example though she left scant cultural space for other women. Elizabethan women writers began to produce original texts but were occupied chiefly with translation. In the 17th century, however, various circumstances enabled women to write original texts in some numbers. For one thing, some counterweight to patriarchy was provided by female communities—mothers and daughters, extended kinship networks, close female friends, the separate court of Queen Anne (King James’ consort) and her often oppositional masques and political activities. For another, most of these women had a reasonably good education (modern languages, history, literature, religion, music, occasionally Latin) and some apparently found in romances and histories more expansive terms for imagining women’s lives. Also, representation of vigorous and rebellious female characters in literature and especially on the stage no doubt helped to undermine any monolithic social construct of women’s mature and role.

　　Most important, perhaps, was the radical potential inherent in the Protestant insistence on every Christian’s immediate relationship with God and primary responsibility to follow his or her individual conscience. There is plenty of support in St Paul’s epistles and elsewhere in the Bible for patriarchy and a wife’s subjection to her husband, but some texts (notably Galatians 3:28) inscribe a very different politics, promoting women’s spiritual equality: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ.” Such texts encouraged some women to claim the support of God the supreme patriarch against the various earthly patriarchs who claimed to stand toward them in his stead.

　　There is also the gap or slippage between ideology and common experience. English women throughout the 17th century exercised a good deal of accrual power: as managers of estates in their husbands’ absences at court or on military and diplomatic missions; as members of guilds; as wives and mothers who apex during the English Civil War and Interregnum (1640-60) as the execution of the King and the attendant disruption of social hierarchies led many women to seize new roles—as preachers, as prophetesses, as deputies for exiled royalist husbands, as writers of religious and political tracts.

　　1. What is the best title for this passage?

　　[A]. Women’s Position in the 17th Century.

　　[B]. Women’s Subjection to Patriarchy.

　　[C]. Social Circumstances in the 17th Century.

　　[D]. Women’s objection in the 17th Century.

　　2. What did the Queen Elizabeth do for the women in culture?

　　[A]. She set an impressive female example to follow.

　　[B]. She dominated the culture.

　　[C]. She did little.

　　[D]. She allowed women to translate something.

　　3. Which of the following is Not mention as a reason to enable women to originaltexts?

　　[A].Female communities provided some counterweight to patriarchy.

　　[B]. Queen Anne’s political activities.

　　[C]. Most women had a good education.

　　[D]. Queen Elizabeth’s political activities.

　　4. What did the religion so for the women?

　　[A]. It did nothing.

　　[B]. It too asked women to be obedient except some texts.

　　[C]. It supported women.

　　[page]

　　詞匯解析

　　1. repress 壓制，鎮壓，約束

　　2. patriarchy 族長制，家長制

　　3. chaste 貞潔的，高雅的

　　4. hierarchy 等級制

　　5. monarch 君主，最高統治

　　6. image 象征，反映

　　7. overtly 公開的，明顯的

　　8. outpour 傾瀉

　　9. sermon 布道，說教

　　10. tract 政治宗教，小冊子傳單

　　11. misogynist 反對婦女

　　12. shrewish 潑婦似的，愛罵街的

　　13. counterweight 抗衡

　　14. consort 配偶

　　15. masque 化裝舞會

　　16. monolithic 鐵板一樣的，磐石般的

　　17. epistle 圣經•新約中的使徒書

　　18. Galatians 新約圣經中加拉太書

　　19. inscribe 寫，題寫，銘記

　　難句解析

　　1. Also, the period saw an outpouring ofrepressive or overtly misogynist sermons,tracts, and plays, detailing women’s physicaland mental defects, spiritual evils,rebelliousness, shrewish ness, and naturalinferiority to men.

　　[結構簡析] 這是一種句型，年代，時間+see, find 等動詞+賓語。

　　[參考譯文] 這一時期出來許多約束或明顯反對婦女的布道(教義)，小冊子和戲劇，詳細地描述了婦女精神上和肉體上的缺陷，精神罪惡，叛逆，兇狠，天生低于男人的品性。

　　2. Such texts encouraged some women to claim the support of God the supremepatriarch against the various earthly patriarchs who claimed to stand toward them inhis stead.

　　[結構簡析] in one’s stead 代替某人。

　　[參考譯文] 這樣的版本鼓勵有些婦女去尋求最高家長，上帝的支持，以對抗各種各樣凡間家長，他們聲稱替代上帝對付她們。

　　答案詳解

　　1. A. 17世紀英國婦女地位。見上面文章大意。

　　B. 婦女服從于家族制。 D. 17世紀婦女的反抗，都是A.內容中的一部分，不能作為最佳標題。 C. 17世紀英國社會形式，只能作為背景出現。

　　2. C. 她沒有做什么。英女皇伊麗莎白在位時期間在文化上并沒有婦女做過什么。這在第二段講得很清楚。“伊麗莎白統治時期(1558——1603)，文化領域為強有里女皇所控制，她本人確實樹立了令人難忘的婦女形象，可是她并沒有為其它婦女能夠創作一些東西�！币娗懊媪谐鲋�原因和下一道題的A. B. C.

　　3. D. 伊麗莎白女皇的政治活動。這文內沒有提及。

　　A. 婦女親情網對家長制進行抗衡。 B. 安娜女皇的政治活動。 C. 大多數婦女都受過良好教育。這三項在第二段中都提到�！笆紫�，婦女親情關系，如母親，女兒，他們的親戚網，好友;安娜女皇單獨的宮殿，她那對立的化裝舞會和政治活動都和族長制予以抗衡�！�

　　4. B. 除了某些文本外，它也要求婦女服從。第一段，見上述內容。第三段集中論述這一點�！耙苍S，最重要的是基督教固有潛在激進性。它堅持主張每個基督徒和上帝的直接關系，堅持人首先責任是服從她或他的良知。在圣•保羅使徒書以及在別的圣經中有許多對家長制，妻子對丈夫的服從支持�？墒怯行┪谋剧澘讨�一種完全不同的政治觀點，鼓吹婦女精神平等：”人沒有猶太和希臘之分，沒有束縛或自由之分，沒有男女之分，因為在耶酥基督面前，你們都是一樣�！�

　　A. 它什么也沒有做。不對。 C. 它支持婦女。也不對，只有某些版本支持。 D. 它求助于上帝。它借上帝之名壓制婦女。第一段：“因此，婦女首先服從父親，然后服從丈夫，體現了(象征)英國人民服從他們的君主，所有基督徒服從上帝�！�

　　相關推薦：

　　英語四六級考試時間 | 英語四級作文 | 六級作文

　　大學英語四級考試真題 | 英語六級考試真題答案