Triple Package

Test c1

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READING 1 C1

SECTION 1. Read the following text. Look at the following questions and choose the correct answer.

‘Triple Package’

I do admire Amy Chua’s spirit. Having ignited an international firestorm among the chattering classes with her bestselling book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, the Yale law professor has decided to be just as provocative with her follow up. Tiger Mother was a funny, apologetic, self-knowing memoir recounting Chua’s hyper demanding parenting of her two daughters (sample story: Chua threatening to throw away her seven year-old daughter’s doll’s house because she wasn’t practicing the piano perfectly). Most critics didn’t bother to acknowledge the nuances in her account, nor her eventual realisation that her tiger mothering can go too far. Instead, they responded with horror to her tough-love regime. Some readers even sent death threats. Chua’s philosophy made her unpopular because it ran counter to the current Western belief that childhood should be fun and that parents should praise and encourage their offspring at all times. Her new book, written jointly with fellow law professor, Jed Rubenfeld, is already being denounced across the Atlantic because it challenges another liberal tenet: that exploring the cultural differences between groups amounts to racism. In a lengthy, bitter piece in Time, the writer Suketu Mehta argues that praising the cultural characteristics of any particular group implies that others are inferior, and that Chua and Rubenfeld are thus among “the new racialists”. “The language of racism in America has changed, although the plot remains the same. It’s not about skin colour any more, it’s about cultural traits. And it comes cloaked in a whole lot of social science babble.” The critics have a genuine concern. They worry, understandably, that generalisations about group behaviour can be used as reasons to discriminate against communities. They point out that in the past, Italians, French-Canadians and Hispanics have all been labelled as possessing undesirable, un-American values. In the 1920s racial and cultural prejudice barred Asians from immigrating to America and established quotas for eastern Europeans that were aimed at excluding Jews. But in their rage and anxiety over the issue, these critics are denying the importance of analysing how societies work, and casually misinterpreting what Chua and Rubenfeld actually say. The Triple Package sets out to ask a serious question: why do some groups in America radically outperform others? The authors look beyond the categories of class to identify the group whose income, academic accomplishment, corporate leadership and professional success outperform 5 the norm. “The reality, uncomfortable as it may be to talk about, is that some religious, ethnic and national origin groups are starkly more successful than others. Without looking squarely at such groups, it’s impossible to understand economic mobility in America and what the levers of success in this country really are.” Why, the authors ask, do Nigerian-Americans, less than 1% of the US black population, make up some 10% of black doctors, almost 25% of black students at Harvard Business School and 5% of black lawyers at top law firms? How have the Mormons gone from being outsiders in Wall Street and Washington 30 years ago to stunning numbers at the top of America’s corporate and political spheres? Why do Asian children, many from poor families, make up 5% of college-aged students but almost 20% of those at the top, so called ‘Ivy League’, universities? Chua and Rubenfeld insist that the answer has nothing to do with innate or genetic differences between groups. They are not uncovering in-built superiorities, but identifying belief systems that are encouraging individuals to succeed. They argue that America’s very different and super-achieving subcultures share three critical characteristics – the “Triple Package”. They grow up believing privately that their group is superior, whether for religious, racial, historical, geographical or class reasons. All feel insecure about whether the society around them will recognise and reward that superiority, which makes them desperate to prove their worth. And, importantly, each preaches impulse control to its members, particularly children. Sacrifices of time, happiness and money must be made today in order that parents may be proud and that individuals may have better lives tomorrow. This combination leads to disproportionate levels of worldly success, the authors say because they are no longer values lauded in America. Schools teach that no group is superior, while self esteem and living in the present are supposed to be the key to living the good life. But while America preaches the advantages of being laid-back, society’s rewards go to those who reject those ideas. It is the disciplined and the driven who end up with wealth, prestige and power.

1. We learn from this review that Amy Chua’s second book...

a. is the second part of a three-part trilogy.

b. has proved as controversial as her first book.

c. has provoked numerous death threats.

d. is much admired by the reading public.

2. According to this review, Amy Chua’s first book...

a. provides an honest account of her own upbringing.

b. is a detailed analysis of child upbringing in the West.

c. takes a critical look at her own mothering skills.

d. is a novel about a mother’s love for her daughters.

3. The phrase that is nearest in meaning and could best replace ‘tenet’ (paragraph 3) is:

a. point of principle

b. way of teaching

c. style of writing

d. point of friction

4. We learn from this review that Chua and Rebenfeld have been criticised for...

a. the language they use in their book.

b. their bitterness towards other cultures.

c. advocating views of cultural superiority.

d. their attitude towards those of different skin colour.