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2012考研英语二 · 阅读理解 Text 2
本页为 2012考研英语二 阅读理解 Text 2的完整原文、正确答案与逐题解析（原文约 409 词，共 5 题）。建议先自己作答，再逐题核对解析里的原文定位与干扰项说明。
2012考研英语二阅读理解 Text 2 原文
Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls' lives. It is not that pink is intrinsically bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls' identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among two-year-olds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, I despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls' lives and interests.
Girls' attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletti, an associate professor of American Studies, it is not. Children were not colour-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What's more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as gender-neutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated with strength. Blue, with its intimations of the Virgin Mary, constancy and faithfulness, symbolised femininity. It was not until the mid-1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children's marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem inherently attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years.
I had not realised how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children's behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularised as a marketing trick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s.
Trade publications counselled department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a “third stepping stone” between infant wear and older kids' clothes. It was only after “toddler” became a common shoppers' term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences – or invent them where they did not previously exist.
答案与逐题解析
答案速查
26C
27B
28B
29A
30C
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26By saying “it is…the rainbow” (Line 3, Para. 1), the author means pink _____.
答案C
解析原文写粉色“such a tiny slice of the rainbow”，并说它虽可“celebrate girlhood in one way”，却把女孩身份反复绑定于外表。可见作者认为粉色只是女孩生活极窄的一角，不应成为女孩身份的唯一表征，故C正确。A把“lack of imagination”错安到粉色解释力上；B针对的是后文“innocence”，并非该短语含义；D与粉色“pervasive in our young girls' lives”相悖。
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27According to Paragraph 2, which of the following is true of colours?
答案B
解析第二段指出儿童并非天生按颜色编码，早期粉红被视为更偏男性的颜色（red的粉彩版），而“Blue…symbolised femininity”。故B正确：蓝色曾被当作女孩色。A与“not encoded in their DNA”相反；C只说从前婴儿因洗涤 pragmatic 穿白，并非宝宝偏好白色；D把粉红说成中性，原文是当时偏男性。
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28The author suggests that our perception of children’s psychological development was much influenced by _____.
答案B
解析作者明言“how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development”，并以toddler阶段被服装商当作营销招数为例。故B正确。A、C是作者原先误以为的专家研究路径，已被“wrong”否定；D中Daniel Cook是史学家，用来说明营销如何塑造认知，并非发展观来自消费史研究本身。
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29We may learn from Paragraph 4 that department stores were advised to _ ______.
答案A
解析行业刊物建议百货“create a ‘third stepping stone’”以增加销售，后文又说“Splitting kids…into ever-tinier categories”能稳赚。故商店被建议把消费群体切得更细，A正确。B与“magnify gender differences”相反；C是被插入中间档的两端，并非建议只盯这两类；D“toddler”成为购物用语是结果，不是被建议去发明术语。
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30It can be concluded that girls’ attraction to pink seems to be ___.
答案C
解析全文论证粉色热并非DNA注定，而是20世纪中后期儿童营销放大乃至发明性别差异的结果，第四段点明细分市场、放大性别是“sure-fire way to boost profits”。故女孩爱粉主要被逐利商家施加，C正确。A制造商利用而非“充分理解”该吸引；B与Paoletti观点相反；D心理专家并未给出先天解释，toddler例子还揭穿了所谓发展阶段的营销起源。
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