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  3. Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially Ame

Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially Ame

游客2023-11-03  36
问题     Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially American as to be included in the official "America’s Time Capsule" buried at the celebration of the Bicentennial in 1976: the Barbie doll.
    In the early 1950s, Handler saw that her young daughter, Barbara, and her girlfriends enjoyed playing with adult female dolls as much or more than with baby dolls. Handler sensed that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become as it was for them to focus on what caring for children might be like.
    Inspired by her daughter’s fascination with adult paper dolls, Ruth Handler suggested making a three-dimensional doll through which little girls could act out their dreams. In 1959, Mattel introduced the Barbie doll(named after the Handlers’ daughter), a pint-sized model of the "girl next door. " Soon enough Barbie sprouted a coterie of friends and family. Ken(named for the Handlers’ son), Barbie’s boyfriend, appeared in 1961.
    Meanwhile, the longtime Southern California resident defied prevailing trends in the toy industry of the late 1950s when she proposed an alternative to the flat-chest baby dolls then marketed to girls. " I believed it was important to a little girl’s self-esteem," Handler has said, "to play with a doll that has breasts. " Barbie, a teenage doll with a tiny waist, slender hips and impressive bust, became not only a best-selling toy with more than 1 billion sold in 150 countries, but a cultural icon analyzed by scholars, attacked by feminists and showcased in the Smithsonian Institution.
    "My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be," Handler wrote in her 1994 autobiography. "Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices. " Ruth Handler undeniably invented an American icon that functions as both a steady cynosure for girls’ dreams and an ever-changing reflection of American society.
    By 1966, Handler was 50 and Mattel ruled the highly competitive toy world; It controlled 12% of the $2-billion toy market in the United States. By 1970, however, her world began to unravel. Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. New corporate managers began to diversify Mattel away from toys, and their machinations ultimately resulted in the Handlers’ ouster from the company they had founded.
    Although best known for her pivotal role as Barbie’s inventor, Handler devoted her later years to a second, trailblazing career: manufacturing and marketing artificial breasts for women who had undergone mastectomies.
    Herself a breast cancer survivor, she personally sold and fitted the prosthesis and crisscrossed the country as a spokeswoman for early detection of the disease in the 1970s, when it was still a taboo subject. The Nearly Me prosthetic breast was made of liquid silicone enclosed in polyurethane and had a rigid foam backing. Her goal was to make an artificial breast so real that "a woman could wear a regular brassiere(= bra)and blouse, stick her chest out and be proud." she said of the prosthetics business. "It sure rebuilt my self-esteem, and I think I rebuilt the self-esteem of others. " By 1980, sales of the Nearly Me artificial breast had surpassed $1 million. In 1991, Handler sold the company to a division of Kimberly-Clark. She died on April 27th, 2002. The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the Stop Cancer Organization.  [br] What is the main reason for Ruth Handler’s leaving the company?
选项 A、She was diagnosed with breast cancer.
B、She wanted to establish another company to sell prosthesis.
C、She was marginalized by her business partners for their diversion of the company.
D、She was determined to help the women having undergone mastectomies.
答案 C
解析 推理题。首先，通过略读全文可以排除[B]和[D]，因为它们都是Handler夫妇离开之后所进行的活动，并无直接因果关系。其次，可以看出[A]是导致[B]、[D]活动的有力动机。另外，通过扫读定位于第六段最后一句New corporate managers began to diversify Mattel away from toys，and theirmachinations ultimately resulted in the Handlers’ouster from the company they had founded．意思为：公司新任的经理们通过各样化经营使马特尔公司偏离了玩具制造业，并使用伎俩使汉德勒夫妇最终离开了他们一手创建的公司，可推断出答案为[C]。
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