While parents, particularly mothers, have always been attached to their infants (婴儿), societal conditions frequently made this attachment difficult to maintain (保持). First of all, the high infant death rate in the premodern times meant that such attachments often ended in hopelessness. Perhaps to prevent the sadness that infant death caused, a number of societal practices developed which worked against early attachment of mother and child.
One of these premodern attachment-discouraging practices was to leave infants unnamed until they had survived into the second year. Another practice that discouraged maternal (母亲的) attachment was tightly wrapping (包裹) infants. Wrapping effectively prevented the close physical interactions like stroking (抚摸) and kissing that are so much a part of modern mothers' and fathers' affection for their infants.
A third practice which had the same distancing effect was wet-nursing. Breast-feeding (母乳哺育) was not popular among the well-to-do in the early modern times; infants were often fed by wet nurses hired for the purpose. In some places, such as nineteenth-century France, city infants were sent to wet nurses in the country. Often a wet nurse would feed her own child first, leaving little milk for the city infant—who, in many cases, died. In Rouen, the death rate for children sent to a wet nurse was 35 percent.
68. Babies were unnamed until they were two so that _______.
A. an old social custom could be kept up B. maternal attachment could be maintained
C. they could have better chances to survive D. their parents would not be too sad if they died
69. Why were babies wrapped?
A. To protect them from the cold. B. To distance their mothers from them.
C. To make them feel more comfortable. D. To make it easy for their mothers to hold them.
70. Wet nurses were women who________.
A. babysat city infants B. fed babies of other families
C. sent their babies to the country D. failed to look after their babies
71. Which is the best title for the passage?
A. Societal Conditions in Premodern Times
B. Practices of Reducing Maternal Attachment
C. Poor Health Service and High Infant Death Rate
D. Differences between Modem and Premodern Parents
