2001年P(guān)assage 5

　　When I decided to quit my full time employment it never occurred to me that I might become a part of a new international trend. A lateral move that hurt my pride and blocked my professional progress prompted me to abandon my relatively high profile career although, in the manner of a disgraced government minister, I covered my exit by claiming "I wanted to spend more time with my family".

　　Curiously, some two-and-a-half years and two novels later, my experiment in what the Americans term "downshifting" has turned my tired excuse into an absolute reality. I have been transformed from a passionate advocate of the philosophy of "having it all", preached by Linda Kelsey for the past seven years in the page of She magazine, into a woman who is happy to settle for a bit of everything.

　　I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status. Nothing could persuade me to return to the kind of life Kelsey used to advocate and I once enjoyed: 12 hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on "quality time".

　　In America, the move away from juggling to a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle is a well-established trend. Downshifting-also known in America as "voluntary simplicity"-has, ironically, even bred a new area of what might be termed anti-consumerism. There are a number of best-selling downshifting self-help books for people who want to simplify their lives; there are newsletters, such as The Tightwad Gazette, that give hundreds of thousands of Americans useful tips on anything from recycling their cling-film to making their own soap; there are even support groups for those who want to achieve the mid-'90s equivalent of dropping out.

　　While in America the trend started as a reaction to the economy decline-after the mass redundancies caused by downsizing in the late'80s-and is still linked to the politics of thrift, in Britain, at least among the middle-class down-shifters of my acquaintance, we have different reasons for seeking to simplify our lives.��

　　For the women of my generation who were urged to keep juggling through the'80s,downshifting in the mid-'90s is not so much a search for the mythical good life-growing your own organic vegetables, and risking turning into one-as a personal recognition of your limitations.

69．"Juggling one's life" probably means living a life characterized by _________.
[A] non-materialistic lifestyle  
[B] a bit of everything
[C] extreme stress
[D] anti-consumerism

[答案] C

[解題思路]

　　本題所引用的詞組來自第三段得第一句話"I have discovered, as perhaps Kelsey will after her much-publicized resignation from the editorship of She after a build up of stress, that abandoning the doctrine of "juggling your life", and making the alternative move into "downshifting" brings with it far greater rewards than financial success and social status"（我發(fā)現(xiàn)，放棄"忙忙碌碌"的生活哲學(xué)，而選擇一種"放慢生活節(jié)奏"的生活所帶來的回報，比經(jīng)濟(jì)成功和社會地位更有價值。由于壓力過大，凱茜已多次公開宣稱要辭去《她》雜志編輯的職務(wù)，也許在辭職之后她會有同樣的發(fā)現(xiàn)），同時對比這個詞組的最好釋義出現(xiàn)在該段得最后一句話冒號后面的內(nèi)容"12 hour working days, pressured deadlines, the fearful strain of office politics and the limitations of being a parent on "quality time""（每天工作12小時，壓得人喘不過氣來的最后期限，辦公室里的爾虞我詐、提心吊膽、緊張不安，為人母也受到了很大的限制而必須高效，無法與孩子共渡"優(yōu)質(zhì)時間"）。可見這種生活的典型特征就是給人過大的壓力，因此正確答案為C。

[題目譯文]

"Juggling one's life"可能意味著生活的特點(diǎn)是          。
[A] 不追求物質(zhì)享受的生活方式
[B] 什么都有一點(diǎn)
[C] 過度的壓力
[D] 反消費(fèi)主義