၃.၂ Task 1: Arts

The following extract is from The Open University course A103An introduction to the humanities. (The course material here refers to the 1960s.)

Please read the text and comments in the suggested answers 1 to 6, listed below. Select the answers you feel are most accurate in relation to the text.

Abstract

Affluence came to America during the Second World War, and (though there were still many pockets of severe poverty) continued thereafter; economic recovery began in Europe from 1948 onwards.

Slowly the economic basis was established for the production, consumption and international exchange of new consumer goods. Between the mid-fifties and the mid-sixties there was a great increase in the number of multinational companies. New purchasers appeared in the market place: particularly young married couples, the working class in general, racial and ethnic minorities, those in the regions and provinces asserting themselves for the first time against metropolitan dominance, and women and girls.

Economic change combined with demography, specifically the ‘baby boom’ at the end of the Second World War, producing by the beginning of the sixties an unprecedentedly large, and unprecedentedly well-off, teenage presence in the market place (and young people could operate as producers as well as consumers).

Major technological developments of importance are those in television (including Telstar), 45-rpm records and transistor radios, in electronic synthesizers, in advanced consumer products, refrigerators, washing machines, and so on, and in the development of the contraceptive pill. Ideologically conservative forces were strong, reinforced by the frigid influences of the Cold War and hysteria in the United States about ‘un-American’ activities.

Affluence and consumerism were taken as validating the perfections of existing society. However, new critiques of society were appearing in the fifties, and formed the basis for the much more rapid and extended circulation of critical ideas in the sixties: neo-Marxism (Marcuse), the beginnings of structuralism, the ‘New Left’, the establishment of sociology departments, particularly in the European universities, and the first limited circulation of the notions of the American Beats. Old racial boundaries were crossed in a much more comprehensive way than ever before as young whites adopted and adapted black rhythm 'n blues.

Questions

Activity 1

Having read the extract in the box above, decide which of the following statements are most appropriate.

Please select either (a) or (b) in each case. You can find the relevant section of the text for each question in the answers at the bottom of the activity.

The first example has been done for you.

a) America became a poor country after the war.

b) America became a rich country after the war.

Answer: b is correct because, ‘affluence’ (line 1) means rich.

a. 

a) There was a growth in trading between countries.


b. 

b) There was a decline in trading between countries.


The correct answer is a.

a. 

a) The population increased in the '50s and '60s.


b. 

b) The population decreased in the '50s and '60s.


The correct answer is a.

a. 

a) The greatest advances were in entertainment.


b. 

b) The greatest advances were in technological developments.


The correct answer is b.

a. 

a) America was becoming more ideolgically traditional.


b. 

b) America was becoming more ideologically liberal.


The correct answer is a.

a. 

a) Everyone approved of the new form of society.


b. 

b) People were begining to be critical of society.


The correct answer is b.

Answer

QuestionOptionComment
2aThere was ‘international exchange’ (paragraph 2)
3aThere was a ‘baby boom’ after the war (paragraph 3)
4bsee paragraph 4
5a‘traditional’ means conservative (paragraph 4)
6b‘critiques’ (paragraph 5) means expressing opposing ideas

အဆင့် ၃ မိမိကိုယ်ကိုယ် စစ်ဆေးအကဲဖြတ်မှု လေ့ကျင့်ခန်းများ - ဖတ်ရှုခြင်းနှင့် နားလည်သဘောပေါက်ခြင်း

၃.၁.၁ Self-assessment