The use of deferential (敬重的) language is symbolic of the Confucian ideal of the woman, which dominates conservative gender norms in Japan. This ideal presents a woman who withdraws quietly to the background, subordinating her life and needs to those of her family and its male head. She is a dutiful daughter, wife, and mother, master of the domestic arts. The typical refined Japanese woman excels in modesty and delicacy; she “treads softly (谨言慎行)in the world,” elevating feminine beauty and grace to an art form.
　　Nowadays, it is commonly observed that young women are not conforming to the feminine linguistic (语言的) ideal. They are using fewer of the very deferential “women’s” forms, and even using the few strong forms that are know as “men’s.” This, of course, attracts considerable attention and has led to an outcry in the Japanese media against the defeminization of women’s language. Indeed, we didn’t hear about “men’s language” until people began to respond to girls’ appropriation of forms normally reserved for boys and men. There is considerable sentiment about the “corruption” of women’s language—which of course is viewed as part of the loss of feminine ideals and morality—and this sentiment is crystallized by nationwide opinion polls that are regularly carried out by the media.
　　Yoshiko Matsumoto has argued that young women probably never used as many of the highly deferential forms as older women. This highly polite style is no doubt something that young women have been expected to “grow into”—after all, it is assign not simply of femininity, but of maturity and refinement, and its use could be taken to indicate a change in the nature of one’s social relations as well. One might well imagine little girls using exceedingly polite forms when playing house or imitating older women—in a fashion analogous to little girls’ use of a high-pitched voice to do “teacher talk” or “mother talk” in role play.
　　The fact that young Japanese women are using less deferential language is a sure sign of change—of social change and of linguistic change. But it is most certainly not a sign of the “masculization” of girls. In some instances, it may be a sign that girls are making the same claim to authority as boys and men, but that is very different from saying that they are trying to be “masculine.” Katsue Reynolds has argued that girls nowadays are using more assertive language strategies in order to be able to compete with boys in schools and out. Social change also brings not simply different positions for women and girls, but different relations to life stages, and adolescent girls are participating in new subcultural forms. Thus what may, to an older speaker, seem like “masculine” speech may seem to an adolescent like “liberated” or “hip” speech.

　　57.   The first paragraph describes in detail ________.
　　A) the standards set for contemporary Japanese women
　　B) the Confucian influence on gender norms in Japan
　　C) the stereotyped role of women in Japanese families
　　D) the norms for traditional Japanese women to follow

　　58.   What change has been observed in today’s young Japanese women?
　　A) They pay less attention to their linguistic behavior.
　　B) The use fewer of the deferential linguistic forms.
　　C) They confuse male and female forms of language.
　　D) They employ very strong linguistic expressions.

　　59.   How do some people react to women’s appropriation of men’s language forms as reported in the Japanese media?
　　A) They call for a campaign to stop the defeminization.
　　B) The see it as an expression of women’s sentiment.
　　C) They accept it as a modern trend.
　　D) They express strong disapproval.

　　60.   According to Yoshiko Matsumoto, the linguistic behavior observed in today’s young women ________.
　　A) may lead to changes in social relations
　　B) has been true of all past generations
　　C) is viewed as a sign of their maturity
　　D) is a result of rapid social progress

　　61.   The author believes that the use of assertive language by young Japanese women is ________.
　　A) a sure sign of their defeminization and maturation
　　B) an indication of their defiance against social change
　　C) one of their strategies to compete in a male-dominated society
　　D) an inevitable trend of linguistic development in Japan today