A few common misconceptions. Beauty is only skin-deep. One’’s physical assets and liabilities don’’t count all that much in a managerial career. A woman should always try to look her best. Over the last 30 years, social scientists have conducted more than 1,000 studies of how we react to beautiful and not-so-beautiful people. The virtually unanimous conclusion: Looks do matter, more than most of us realize. The data suggest, for example, that physically attractive individuals are more likely to be treated well by their parents, sought out as friends, and pursued romantically. With the possible exception of women seeking managerial jobs, they are also more likely to be hired, paid well, and promoted. Un-American, you say, unfair and extremely unbelievable Once again, the scientists have caught us mouthing pieties (虔诚) while acting just the contrary. Their typical experiment works something like this. They give each member of a group-college students, perhaps, or teachers or corporate personnel managers a piece of paper relating an individual’’s accomplishments. Attached to the paper is a photograph. While the papers all say exactly the same thing the pictures are different. Some show a strikingly attractive person, some an average-looking character, and some an unusually unattractive human being. Group members are asked to rate the individual on certain attributes, anything from personal warmth to the likelihood that he or she will be promoted. Almost invariably, the better looking the person in the picture, the higher the person is rated. In the phrase, borrowed from Salppho, that the social scientists use to sum up the common perception, what is beautiful is good. In business, however, good looks cut both ways for women, and deeper than for men. A Utah State University professor, who is an authority on the subject, explains: In terms of their careers, the impact of physical attractiveness on males is only modest. But its potential impact on females can be tremendous, making its easier, for example, for the more attractive to get jobs where they are in the public eye. On another note, though, there is enough literature now for us to conclude that attractive women who aspire to managerial positions do not get on as well as women who may be less attractive. According to the passage, people often wrongly believe that in pursuing a career as manager ______.
A. a person’s property or debts do not matter much
B. a person’s outward appearance is not a critical qualification
C. women should always dress fashionably
D. women should not only be attractive but also high-minded
Today is the anniversary of that afternoon in April a year ago that I first saw the strange and appealing doll (玩具娃娃) in the window of Abe Sheftel’’s toy shop on Third Avenue near Fifteenth Street, just around the corner from my office, where the plate on the door reads: Dr. Samuel Amory. I remember just how it was that day: the first hint of spring floated across the East River, mixing with the soft-coal: smoke from the factories and the street smells of the poor neighborhood. As I turned the corner on my way to work and came to Sheftel’’s, I was made once more aware of the poor collection of toys in the dusty window, and I remembered the approaching birthday of a small niece of mine in Cleveland, to whom I was in the habit of sending modest gifts. Therefore, I stopped and examined the window to see if there might be anything suitable, and looked at the confusing collection of unappealing objects—a red toy fire engine, some lead soldiers, cheap baseballs, bottles of ink, pens, yellowed envelopes, and advertisements for soft-drinks; And thus it was that my eyes eventually came to rest upon the doll stored away in one corner, a doll with the strangest, most charming expression on her face. I could not wholly make her out, due to the shadows and the film of dust through which I was looking, but I was aware that a tremendous impression had been made upon me as though I had run into a person, as one does sometimes with a stranger, with whose personality one is deeply impressed. What made an impression on the author
A. The doll’s unusual face.
B. The collection of toys.
C. A stranger he met at the store.
D. The resemblance of the doll to his niece.