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It was graduation day at Etihad Training Academy, where the national airline of the United Arab Emirates
holds a seven-week training course for new flight attendants.
Despite her obvious pride, Ms. Fathi, a 22-year-old from Egypt, was amazed to find herself here. "I never
in my life thought I'd work abroad," said Ms. Fathi, who was a university student in Cairo when she began
noticing newspaper advertisements employing young Egyptians to work at airlines based in the Persian Gulf.
A decade ago, unmarried Arab women like Ms. Fathi, working outside their home countries, were rare.
But just as young men from poor Arab nations poured into the oil-rich Persian Gulf states for jobs, more
young women are doing so.
Flight attendants have become the public face of the new mobility for some young Arab women, just as
they were the face of new freedoms for women in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. They have
become a subject of social anxiety and fascination in much the same way.
For many families, allowing a daughter to work may call her virtue into question. Yet this culture is
changing, said Musa Shteiwi, a sociologist at Jordan University in Amman. "We're noticing more and more
single women going to the gulf these days," he said. "It's still not exactly common, but over the last four or
five years it's become quite an observable phenomenon."
Many of the young Arab women working in the Persian Gulf take delight in their status as pioneers, role
models for their friends and younger female relatives. Young women brought up in a culture that highly values
community, have learned to see themselves as individuals. The experience of living independently and working
hard for high salaries has forever changed their beliefs about themselves, though it can also lead to a painful
sense of separation from their home countries and their families.
-From New York Times (December 22, 2009)
1. It can be inferred from the passage that young Arab women _____. [ ]
A. go to work abroad after American women's example
B. didn't start to work abroad until the late 20th century
C. are commonly used to living and working separately
D. expect to take the same family responsibilities as men
2. According to the passage, the Arab women flight attendants can be described as _____. [ ]
A. proud, homesick or independent
B. honest, outstanding or optimistic
C. mature, enthusiastic or energetic
D. painful, desperate or conservative
3. How do the public respond to young Arab women's new mobility? [ ]
A. The public think highly of it.
B. The public care very little about it.
C. The public show both interest and anxiety.
D. The public are strongly against it.
4. The author intends to tell the readers that _____. [ ]
A. Arab women can hardly find any work
B. flight attendants are badly needed in the gulf
C. flight attendants lead quite a different life
D. young Arab women's values are changing
