Reading 1999/08

[mishum2000]

By the turn of the century, the middle-class home in North American had been transformed. "The flow of industry has passed and left idle the loom in the attic, the soap kettle in the shed," Ellen Richards wrote in 1908. The urban middle class was now able to buy a wide array of food products and clothing-baked goods, canned goods, suits, shirts, shoes, and dresses. Not only had household production waned, but technological improvements were rapidly changing the rest of domestic work. Middle-class homes had indoor running water and furnaces, run on oil, coal, or gas, that produced hot water. Stoves were fueled by gas, and delivery services provided ice for refrigerators. Electric power was available for lamps, sewing machines, irons, and even vacuum cleaners. No domestic task was unaffected. Commercial laundries, for instance, had been doing the wash for urban families for decades; by the early 1900's the first electric washing machines were on the market.

 

 

On impact of the new household technology was to raw sharp dividing lines between women of different classes and regions. Technological advances always affected the homes of the wealthy first, filtering downward into the urban middle class. But women who lived on farms were not yet affected by household improvements. Throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, rural homes lacked running water and electric power. Farm women had to haul large quantities of water into the house from wells or pumps for every purpose. Doing the family laundry, in large vats heated over stoves, continued to be a full day's work, just as canning and preserving continued to be seasonal necessities. Heat was provided by wood or coal stoves. In addition, rural women continued to produce most of their families' clothing. The urban poor, similarly, reaped few benefits from household improvements. Urban slums such as Chicago's nineteenth ward often had no sewers, garbage collection, or gas or electric lines; and tenements lacked both running water and central heating. At the turn of the century, variations in the nature of women's domestic work were probably more marked than at any time before.

 

44. What is the main topic of the passage?

 

(A) The creation of the urban middle class

(B) Domestic work at the turn of the century

© The spread of electrical power in the United States

(D) Overcrowding in American cities.

 

 

If you can explain your choice will be just fine.

 

Thank you,

 

Michael.

 

 

 

[sanjana_1024]

 

Not only had household production waned, but technological improvements were rapidly changing the rest of domestic work.

 

At the turn of the century, variations in the nature of women's domestic work were probably more marked than at any time before.

 

 

Looking at these lines, I think it's B.

 

The 2nd para pretty much talks about domestic work.

 

What does the answer key say?

[mishum2000]

That's right...the key answer is B. Anyway I selected C.... :rolleyes:

[manasi4gre]

The passage on the whole, mainly speaks of technological advances improving domestic work and making it all the more easier.Hence, B.

 

Michael,

The passage mentions about electrical power but along with other technological improvements like running water, gas and delivery services. So, it cant be taken as the main idea of the passage.

[avcabanban]

The answer is B. Main ideas can be found in the first sentence of the first paragraph or the last sentence of the final paragraph.