Read the excerpt from Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. But the actual unhappiness of the American housewife was suddenly being reported—from The New York Times and Newsweek to Good Housekeeping and CBS television (“The Trapped Housewife”), although almost everybody who talked about it found some superficial reason to dismiss it.Which best describes the connotation of the word “superficial” in the excerpt?
Answer
A
It has a positive connotation, because it suggests that the problem did not actually exist.
B
It has a positive connotation, because it suggests that the problem was actually a minor one.
C
It has a negative connotation, because it suggests that the reasons used to dismiss the problem were not meaningful.
D
It has a negative connotation, because it suggests that the reasons used to explain the problem were not truthful.
Explanation
“Superficial” suggests that the reasons people gave for dismissing the housewives’ unhappiness were shallow or not meaningful. The word has a negative connotation because it criticizes those explanations as inadequate, rather than saying the problem itself was minor or untrue. So the best choice is that the reasons used to dismiss the problem were not meaningful.
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