Задание 10 из ЕГЭ по английскому языку: задача 49

Установите соответствие между текстами A–G и заголовками 1–8. Запишите свои ответы. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании один заголовок лишний.

What is beauty?

1. A sense of beauty is based on culture
2. Natural unconscious bent
3. Not everyone looks beautiful
4. It belongs to the ages
5. Pay attention to pretty faces
6. Tastes differ
7. Increasing expenses of modern life
8. The male must be bright

A. The search for beauty gets centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over 4, 000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. On the other side of the globe, the ancient Maya of Central America considered crossed eyes beautiful, and hung little balls between children’s eyes to develop this look. In 18th century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs of long, white hair to make themselves attractive. In cultures throughout the world, people have gone to extreme lengths to achieve the goal of beauty.
B. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance. According to a recent report by the Nielsen Company, a global information and marketing corporation, ’one out of three consumers globally say they are spending more money today on beauty and health care products ... than ever before.’ Worldwide, sales of makeup, dieting, hair — and skin — care products, as well as gym memberships and cosmetic surgery, generate billions of dollars every year. And there is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive: beauty is a power. Studies suggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and are perceived as friendlier.
C. But what exactly is beauty? Trying to define it is difficult, and yet we know it when we see it — or so we think. ’Beauty is health,’ says one psychologist. ’It’s a billboard saying ’I’m healthy. I can pass on your genes.’ And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old babies were shown a series of photographs. The faces in the pictures had been rated for attractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more time looking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.
D. The idea that even babies judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. In studies done by psychologists such as Victor Johnston at New Mexico University and David Perrett at St Andrews University in Scotland, men regularly showed a preference for women with certain features: larger eyes, fuller lips and a smaller nose and chin. Another study suggests that women prefer men with large shoulders and a narrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that these traits — full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders — equal health and genetic well-being. In other words, it’s a fundamental part of human nature to look for these qualities in a mate.
E. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look in most Western fashion magazines, for example, and the women on the pages are thin. But is this the ’perfect’ body type for women worldwide? The anthropologists say no; what is considered beautiful is subjective and varies around the world. They found in one study, for example, that native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded as overweight in Western cultures.
F. Take another example: in every culture, one’s hairstyle sends a clear message. In the Huli culture of Papua New Guinea (an island nation north of Australia), men grow their hair long as a symbol of health and strength. Teenage boys in this culture learn from a young age to style and decorate their hair — a behavior more commonly associated with the opposite gender in many cultures. It is also the men (not women) in this culture who are the objects of beauty. For certain festivals and celebrations, men dress up and paint their faces. The more colorful a man is, the more masculine — and attractive — he is considered.
G. For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to define exactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certain physical traits that are considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not always conform to a single, uniform standard. A person’s cultural background, for example, may influence what he or she finds attractive in others. In the end, beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder.