Y9-12 Reading Passage 20

History 7
Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage.

This passage is adapted from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Home: Its Work and Influence (1910).

Para. 1 The advance of women, during the last hundred years or so, is a phenomenon unparalleled in history. Never before
has so large a class made as much progress in so small a time. From the harem to the forum is a long step, but she has taken
it. From the ignorant housewife to the president of a college is a long step, but she has taken it. From the penniless dependent
to the wholly self-supporting and often other-supporting business woman, is a long step, but she has taken it. She who knew
so little is now the teacher; she who could do so little is now the efficient and varied producer; she who cared only for her
own flesh and blood is now active in all wide good works around the world. She who was confined to the house now travels
freely, the foolish has become wise, and the timid brave. Even full political equality is won in more than one country and state.
It is a revolution of incredible extent and importance, and its results are already splendidly apparent.

Para. 2 This vast number of human beings, formerly as separate as sand grains and as antagonistic as the nature of their
position compelled, are now organising, from house to club, from local to general, in federations of city, state, nation, and
world. The amount of social energy accumulated by half of us is no longer possible of confinement to that half; the woman
has inherited her share, and has grown so large and strong that her previous surroundings can no longer contain or content her.

Para. 3 The socialising of this hitherto subsocial, wholly domestic class, is a marked and marvellous event, now taking place
with astonishing rapidity. That most people have not observed it proves nothing. Mankind has never yet properly perceived
historic events until time gave him the perspective his narrow present horizon denied.

Para. 4 Where most of our minds are home-enclosed, like the visual range of one sitting in a hogshead, general events make
no impression save as they impinge directly on that personal area. The change in the position of woman, largely taking place
in the home, is lost to the general view; and so far as it takes place in public, is only perceived in fractions by most of us.

Para. 5 To man it was of course an unnatural and undesired change; he did not want it, did not see the need or good of it, and
has done all he could to prevent it. To the still inert majority of women, content in their position, or attributing their growing
discontent to other causes, it is also an unnatural and undesired change. Ideas do not change as fast as facts, with most of us.
Mankind in general, men and women, still believe in the old established order, in woman’s ordination to the service of bodily
needs of all sorts; in the full sufficiency of maternal instinct as compared with any trivial propositions of knowledge and
experience; in the noble devotion of the man who spends all his labours to furnish a useless woman with luxuries, and all the
allied throng of ancient myths and falsehoods.

Para. 6 Thus, we have not been commonly alive to the full proportions of the woman’s movement, or its value. The facts are
there, however. Patient Griselda has gone out, or is going, faster and faster. The girls of today, in any grade of society, are
pushing out to do things instead of being content to merely eat things, wear things, and dust things. The honourable instinct
of self-support is taking the place of the puerile acceptance of gifts, and beyond self-support comes the still nobler impulse to
give to others; not corrupting charity, but the one all-good service of a life’s best work. Measuring the position of woman as
it has been for all the years behind us up to a century or so ago with what it is today, the distance covered and the ratio of
progress is incredible. It rolls up continually, accumulatively; and another fifty years will show more advance than the past
five hundred.

1
1. In the first paragraph of the passage, Gilman repeats the phrase “she has taken it” in order to ___.
A) urge women to continue to improve their position in society despite apparent obstacles
B) cast doubt on the permanence of recent gains made by women in pursuit of their natural rights
C) underscore the fact that women have made dramatic progress in different realms of activity
D) criticize women’s expected familial duties

2. As used in Para. 1, “incredible” most nearly means ___.

A) undefined
B) excessive
C) remarkable
D) illogical

3. Which choice provides the best evidence that women were NOT always unified in the pursuit of social change?
A) “Never . . . time” in Para. 1
B) “She . . . brave” in Para. 1
C) “This vast . . . general” in Para. 2
D) “Mankind . . . denied” in Para. 3

4. As used in Para. 4, “lost to” most nearly means ___.

A) too unusual for
B) misplaced by
C) stigmatized by
D) not discerned by

5. In the passage, Gilman primarily depicts men as ___.

A) supportive only of those women with whom they have direct contact
B) resistant to changes involving the roles and status of women
C) convinced that the advancement of women will remove men from positions of power
D) aware that improvements in the status of women will benefit society as a whole

6. What is one of the techniques that Gilman uses when presenting her argument in this passage?
A) Depicting outdated customs in a group of scenes that helps to clarify her position.
B) Acknowledging and analyzing the persistence of attitudes that oppose her own.
C) Presenting an extended parallel between women’s progress and other forms of social change.
D) Characterizing her opponents by comparing them to figures from literature.

7. Which of the following choices best summarizes the main idea of the final paragraph of the passage?
A) Women have embraced a spirit of constructive independence and will continue to do so as time moves forward.
B) Women were at one point prompted to pursue wealth and culture but have now abandoned these objectives for the sake of
civic engagement.
C) Women have begun to exhibit virtues that were mistakenly thought to be exclusive to men.
D) Women’s new position is a cause of both exhilaration and worry for women themselves.

8. According to Gilman, the advancement of women involves a shift in priorities from ___.
A) a spirit of community to an embrace of antagonistic and disruptive tactics
B) a loosely-structured model of activism to a systematic agenda
C) material comfort to initiative and accomplishment
D) passive spectatorship to activity in politics and government

2
9. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
A) “To the . . . change” in Para. 5
B) “Mankind . . . sorts” in Para. 5
C) “Thus . . . value” in Para. 6
D) “The girls . . . things” in Para. 6

10. The main purpose of this passage as a whole is to ___.

A) call attention to the rapid and worthwhile expansion of women’s responsibilities
B) specify which careers and social movements would benefit most from women’s participation
C) outline a set of objectives that women should pursue if they wish to attain full equality with men
D) draw a connection between women’s roles and the imperfections of the institutions that have educated women