2. 外语
  3. Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially American as to be included in the official "America’s T

Ruth Handler invented something in 1959 which became so quintessentially American as to be included in the official "America’s T

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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.  
Why is Barbie doll so attractive to girls?
选项 A、It is a three-dimensional doll.
B、It looks like the female adult with breasts and a good shape.
C、It’s a teenage doll.
D、It looks like the girl next door.
答案C
解析 推理题。文章中并没有明确指出女孩子喜爱芭比娃娃的原因。但从文章第四段Handler对玩具的观点是通过改变玩具形象建立女孩子的自尊，以及芭比娃娃进行改良之后的形象：Barbie，ateenage doll with a tiny waist，slender hips and impressive bust…中可以推断出芭比娃娃之所以受女孩子喜爱的原因并不仅仅是其外在的形式，而在于其准确的定位，即面向青少年的玩具，因此选择[C]，而不是[A]、[B]、[D]三种具体外部的形象。
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