TEXT C Elizabeth was fortunate to
be born in the lull flush of Renaissance enthusiasm for education. Women had
always been educated of course, for had not St. Paul said that women were men’ s
equals in the possession of a soul But to the old idea that they should be
trained in Christian manners and thought was now added a new purpose: to quicken
the spirit and train them in the craft and eloquence of the classical authors of
Greece and Rome. Critics were not wanting, morbidly obsessed with the weaknesses
of the sex-- its love of novelty and inborn tendency to vice -- to think women
dangerous enough without adding to their subtlety and forward- ness; but they
were not able to stem the tide. Henry VII’ s mother was one of
the first to indicate the new trend. She knew enough French to translate "The
Mirror of God for the Sinful Soul" and was the patron of Caxton, the first
English printer, and a liberal benefactor to the universities. Sir Thomas More’
s daughters studied Greek, Latin, Philosophy, Astronomy, Physic, Arithmetic,
Logic, Rhetoric and Music. In his household women were treated as men’ s equals
in conversation and wit, and scholars boasted of them in letters to friends
abroad. The movement was strengthened from abroad by Catherine
of Aragon, Henry VIII’ S Spanish Queen. In the Spain of her childhood ladies
were the friends of scholars Vives, one of the most refreshing figures in the
history of education, to write a plan of studies for the education of her
daughter Mary. This was the heritage into which the sharp-witted
child Elizabeth entered. At six years old, it was said, she was precociously
intelligent and had as much gravity as if she had been forty. Little is known of
her education until her tenth year, when she became the pupil of the Cambridge
humanists, Roger Ascham and William Grindall, but she was already learning
French and Italian and must have been well grounded in Lation. Ascham helped her
to form that beautiful Italian hand she wrote on all special occasions and with
him she spent the morning on Greek, first the New Testament and then the
classical authors, translating them first into English and then back into the
original. The afternoons were given over to Latin, and she also studied
Protestant theology, kept up her French and Italian and later learned Spanish.
When she was sixteen Ascham wrote:" Her mind has no womanly weakness, her
perseverance is equal to that of a man, and her memory long keeps what it
quickly picks up." Though it is easy to be cynical about the reputed
accomplishments of the great, Elizabeth was notoriously quick and intelligent
and had a real love of learning. Even as queen she did not abandon her
studies. Women’ s education in the Middle Ages was intended to make them into good Christians, but in theRenaissance the idea was to ______.
A．make them superior to men in religion and intellectual matters B．make them less religious and more rationed and intellectual C．make up for their weaknesses of character and brain D．develop both their religious and their intellectual capacities