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  3. We all have expectations of what a "normal" society looks like, but society c

We all have expectations of what a "normal" society looks like, but society c

游客2024-08-10  15
问题    We all have expectations of what a "normal" society looks like, but society can take an infinite number of different forms, as these unusual examples demonstrate.

   For almost fifty years, a group of adults and their children—now about 100 in number—have lived together in Twin Oaks Community on two square kilometers of land in rural Virginia, USA, equally sharing their resources. Apart from bedrooms, all the rooms in their seven residential buildings are communal. Seventeen shared cars are at everyone’s disposal, although they mostly rely on the communal bikes at Twin Oaks for local journeys. Even the clothes on their backs are borrowed from the community’s well-stocked clothing library.
   There’s no room for freeloaders, however. All adults work forty-two hours per week for the community who are encouraged to choose a variety of tasks to keep boredom at bay, and persistent failure to do so would lead to expulsion. In return for their labour, everyone is provided with housing, food, healthcare and a little personal spending money so that they can splash out on treats. With such an egalitarian distribution of wealth, there have never been any problems with crime, and decisions about the community are made democratically, for the common good.
   This way of life is not Utopia. Complaints range from other people’s taste in loud music to the fact that unpopular jobs like cleaning tend to be neglected, and majority rule means that people with views few residents share can feel powerless and isolated. But despite its problems, there is a long waiting list of potential new residents, and Twin Oaks members have helped to set up several similar communities elsewhere in the USA. They hope that the Twin Oaks society can serve as a model for the wider world, promoting greater social responsibility and pointing the way to a fairer, more cooperative and more sustainable future for all.
   In the Indian state of Meghalaya, it’s the women who wear the trousers. India is a country of extreme ethnic diversity, and minority rights and traditions are strongly defended by the constitution. This allows Meghalaya to maintain a custom unheard of elsewhere in India: property and family names are matrilineal and so pass, not from father to son, but from mother to daughter. The youngest daughter inherits the family wealth, accepting in return a duty to look after her parents in their old age.
   Although civic engagement is mostly a male pursuit—only men are eligible for the role of village elder and they make up 93% of state assembly politicians—they have little say in domestic matters. When they marry, they move into the home of their mother-in-law and submit to her rule. Because of the relative importance of women in society, families tend to prioritize the education of girls over boys, to the extent that female university graduates commonly have brothers who never finished high school.
   A men’s rights movement emerged about fifty years ago, but lost momentum after hundreds of women turned up at one of their meetings brandishing knives. Recently, activists have renewed the struggle for equal rights and equal opportunities. Sixty-year-old Keith Pariat, leader of the movement , explains that he and his colleagues " do not want to bring women down. We just want to bring the men up to where the women are. " So far, however, the movement has gained little support, despite the superior numbers of men in the political arena. " In most of Meghalaya, people only know the old ways," says Patricia Mukhim, editor of the local paper, " and they like the old ways just fine. " It appears that, in this hilly corner of India, the woman will be wearing the trousers for some time to come.
Questions 66 to 70
Answer the following questions with the information given in the passage. [br] Why are people at Twin Oaks encouraged to choose a variety of jobs?
选项
答案 By doing so，they can keep boredom at bay／will not feel bored．
解析 (根据文章第三段第二句“…who are encouraged to choose a variety of tasks to keep boredom at bay”可知，他们被鼓励选择多种工作的原因是为了防止无聊。因此答案为By doing so，they can keep boredom at bay／will not feel bored。)
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