TEXT A American culture is defined by rather gradual movements from one stage of socialization to the next. The lifelong socialization process involves many different social forces which influence our lives and alter our self-images. Family The family is the institution most closely associated with the process of socialization. Obviously, one of its primary functions is the care and rearing of children. We experience socialization first as babies and infants living in families; it is here that we develop an initial sense of self. Most parents seek to help their children become competent adolescents and self-sufficient adults, which means socializing them into the norms and values of both the family and the larger society. The development of the self is a critical aspect of the early years of one’s life. In the United States, such social development includes exposure to cultural assumptions regarding sex differences. The term "gender roles" refers to expectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females. As the primary agents of childhood socialization, parents play a critical role in guiding children into those gender roles deemed appropriate in a society. Other adults, older siblings, the mass media, and religious and educational institutions also have noticeable impact on a child’s socialization into feminine and masculine norms. Differential treatment of children by adults is an influential aspect of gender-role socialization. Let us consider a hypothetical example of differential treatment of children which begins in the family. Ron and Louise are twins who both show an unusual interest in science at an early age. For his birthdays, Ron is given chemistry sets, telescopes, microscopes, and the likes however, despite asking for similar gifts, Louise is given miniature dollhouses, beautiful dresses, and dancing lessons. When the twins are in junior high school, teachers take note of Ron’s love for science. They encourage him to do special projects, to help with their laboratory work, and to join the science club. Louise is given no such encouragements in fact, one teacher considers her fascination with astronomy "strange" for a girl. By the twins’ high school years, Ron is well known as a "science whiz". The guidance counselor suggests that he attend a college with a strong science program in order to achieve his goal of becoming a biologist. Louise has realized that she would like to become an astronomer, but the counselor and her parents pressure her into preparing for a career as an early childhood teacher —a career which they see as more suitable for a woman. During their college years, Ron and Louise might develop self- images as "scientist" and "teacher", respectively. On the other hand, Louise might get to college, switch her major, and become an astronomer despite everyone’s opposition. Neither of these young people is a passive actor who will inevitably follow the traditional gender roles of American society. Yet it can be extremely difficult to pursue a career, or any other type of life choice, if one’s parents, teachers, and the society as a whole seem to be telling you that you are unmasculine or feminine for doing so. Without question, differential socialization has a powerful impact on the development of American females and males. Like other elements of culture, socialization patterns are not fixed. There has, for example, been a sustained challenge to traditional American gender-role socialization in the last 15 years, owing in good part to the efforts of the feminist movement. Nevertheless, despite such changes, children growing up in the 1980s are hardly free of traditional gender roles. As can be inferred from the passage, gender-role socialization patterns ______ in the United States.
A. have changed dramatically
B. have remained unchanged
C. have been largely overlooked
D. have been affected by the feminist movement
TEXT D Discussion of the assimilation of Puerto Ricans in the United States has focused on two factors: social standing and the loss of national culture. In general, excessive stress is placed on one factor or the other, depending on whether the commentator is North American or Puerto Rican. Many North American social scientists, such as Oscar Handlin, Joseph Fitzpatrick, and Oscar Lewis, consider Puerto Ricans as the most recent in a long line of ethnic entrants to occupy the lowest rung on the social ladder. Such a "sociodemographic" approach tends to regard assimilation as a benign process, taking for granted increased economic advantages and inevitable cultural integration, in a supposedly egalitarian context. However, this approach fails to take into account the colonial nature of the Puerto Rican case, with this group, unlike their European predecessors, coming from a nation politically subordinated to the United States. Even the "radical" critiques of this mainstream research model, such as the critique developed in Divided Society, attach the issue of ethnic assimilation too mechanically to factors of economic and social mobility and are thus unable to illuminate the cultural subordination of Puerto Ricans as a colonial minority. In contrast, the "colonialist" approach of island-based writers such as Eduardo Seda-Bonilla, Manuel Maldonao-Denis, and Luis Nieves-Falcon tends to view assimilation as the forced loss of national culture in an unequal context with imposed foreign values. There is, of course, a strong tradition of cultural accommodation among other Puerto Rican thinkers. The writings of Eugenio Fernandez Mendez clearly exemplify this tradition, and many supporters of Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status share the same universalizing orientation. But the Puerto Rican intellectuals who have written most about the assimilation process in the United States all advance cultural nationalist views, advocating the preservation of minority cultural distinctions and rejecting what they see as the subjugation of colonial nationalities. This cultural and political emphasis is appropriate, but the colonialist thinkers misdirect it, overlooking the class relations at work in both Puerto Rican and North American history. They pose the clash of national cultures as an absolute polarity, with each culture understood as static and undifferentiated. Yet both the Puerto Rican and North American traditions have been subject to constant challenge from cultural forces within their own societies, forces that may move toward each other in ways that cannot be written off as mere "assimilation". Consider, for example, the indigenous and Afro-Caribbean traditions in Puerto Rican culture and how they influence and are influenced by other Caribbean cultures and Black cultures in the United States. The elements of coercion and inequality, so central to cultural contact according to the colonialist framework play no role in this kind of convergence of racially and ethnically different elements of the same social class. The social scientists who adopt the social standing approach ______.
A. believe that Puerto Ricans will increasingly gain economic advantages
B. think that Puerto Ricans will lose their national cultures
C. regard the political relation of Puerto Rico to the United States as a significant factor
D. point Out that coercion and inequality will inevitably occur in the process