3. Beauty Contestant Fights For Right of Self. Improvement

美女杨媛——争取自我权利斗争

背景知识

本文选自2004年6月17日版《纽约时报》，作者Jim Yardley。中国第一人造美女杨媛报名参加33届环球洲国际小姐北京大赛，闯进决赛后被组委会以“人造美女不能参赛”为由扫地出门。再媒体的关注下，组委会恢复参赛的通知书被杨媛撕成雪花，组委会还因此坐上了被告席。

BEIJNG, June 11 – In the struggle for individual rights in China, a young woman named Yang Yuan is creating a new 1）______of enticement that falls somewhere down the list from freedom of speech and voting. She is fighting for her right to enter a beauty contest after having had plastic surgery. Ms. Yang’s plight, not likely to inspire outrage among international human rights 2）______, has titillated the Chinese media as she has become the latest in a growing 3）______of young women who have become instant celebrities after undergoing 4）______cosmetic surgery.

Beauty pageants, once banned as bourgeois “spiritual pollution” are now held across the country, among them the Miss World pageant. Shopping malls now hold 5）______fashion shows. And the cosmetics giant L’Oreal saw sales in China jump by 70 percent last year.

Hung Huang, chief 6)______of a media group that publishes Chinese lifestyle magazines, said Chinese women had always 7)______appearance and beauty. She said the loosening of social controls, along with rising incomes, had unleashed pent – up demand and fueled a consumer boom. 8)______“In China, being well groomed isa wellness factor women, and probably stronger than anything else,” Ms. Hung said. “They feel good when they look good.”

For many women, the decision to have cosmetic surgery is less about vanity than practicality, 9）______.

Ms. Yang, who is 19, was tall and striking before her surgery, and had started a modeling career after graduating from high school. 10）______. “I wanted to be equal to other beautiful women, ” Ms. Yang said. “That’s why I had plastic surgery.”

Key words

1. entitlement n. 权利，资格

2. plight n. 情况，状态，困境

3. titillate v. 搔痒，刺激使有愉快的感觉

4. celebrities n. 名人

5. pageant n. 壮丽的场面，盛装游行，庆典

6. bourgeois adj. 市侩的 ;鄙俗的，资产阶级的

7. underwear n. 内衣裤

8. pent – up adj.幽闭的，被压抑的

9. groom v. 使……整洁，打扮，注意外表

10. vanity n.名声，名利