托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Class Structures in Postwar Europe

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：Class Structures in Postwar Europe

Rapid economic growth went a long way toward creating a new society in Europe after the Second World War. European society became more mobile and more democratic. Old class barriers relaxed, and class distinctions became fuzzier.

1.The word "distinction" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A functions

B relationships

C differences

D indicators

Changes in the structure of the middle class were particularly influential in the general drift toward a less rigid class structure. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the model for the middle class had been the independent, self-employed individual who owned a business or practiced a liberal profession such as law or medicine. Ownership of property- -very often inherited property- -and strong family ties had often been the keys to wealth and standing within the middle class. After 1945 this pattern declined drastically in Western Europe. A new breed of managers and experts replaced traditional property owners as the leaders of the middle class. Ability to serve the needs of a big organization largely replaced inherited property and family connections in determining an individual's social position in the middle and upper-middle classes. At the same time, the middle class grew massively and became harder to define.

2.According to paragraph 2, membership in the middle class in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was largely determined by which of the following?

A Employment in a large organization

B Expertise in managing landed property

C Support from the legal or medical community

D Established family connections

There were several reasons for these developments. Rapid industrial and technological expansion created a powerful demand for technologists and managers in large corporations and government agencies. Moreover, the old propertied middle class lost control of many family-owned businesses, and many small businesses simply went out of existence as their former owners joined the ranks of salaried employees. Top managers and ranking civil servants therefore represented the model for a new middle class of salaried specialists. Well paid and highly trained, often with backgrounds in engineering or accounting, these experts increasingly came from all social classes, even the working class. Pragmatic and realistic, they were primarily concerned with efficiency and practical solutions to concrete problems. Managers and technocrats, of whom a small but growing number were women, could pass on the opportunity for all-important advanced education to their children, but only in rare instances could they pass on the positions they had attained. Thus the new middle class, which was based largely on specialized skills and high levels of education, was more open, democratic, and insecure than the old propertied middle class.

3.Paragraph 3 suggests that members of the new middle class were more likely than members of the old middle class to

A accept new ways of doing things

B be employed in family-owned businesses

C grow up in wealthy families

D own their own property

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