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英语阅读理解!It is not often realized that women held a high place

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英语阅读理解!
It is not often realized that women held a high place in southern European societies in the 10th and 11th centuries.As a wife,she was protected by what we call the setting up of a dowry (嫁妆)or decimum.At first,a dowry or decimum was to protect her against the risk of desertion,but later its function in the social and family life of the time was much more improtant.The decimum was the wife’s right to receive a tenth of all her husband’s property.The wife had the right to withhold consent in all transactions (交易)the husband would make.And more than just a right:the documents showed that she enjoyed a real power of decision,equal to that of her husband.In no case did the documents indicate any degree of difference in the legal status of husband and wife.
The wife shared in the management of her husband’s personal property,but the opposite was not always true.Women seemed perfectly prepared to defend their own inheritance (继承物) against husbands who tried to exceed their rights,and on occasion they showed a fine fighting spirit.A case in point is that of Maria Vicas,a Catalan woman of Barcelona.Having agreed with her husband Miro to sell a field she had inherited,for the needs of the household,she insisted on compensation.None being offered,she succeeded in dragging her husband to the scribe (抄写员) to have a contract duly drawn up giving her a piece of land from Miro’s personal inheritance.The unfortunate husband was obliged to agree,as the contract says,“for the sake of peace.” Either through the dowry of through being hot-tempered,the Catalan wife knew how to win herself,within the family,a powerful economic position.
What was the original purpose of setting up a dowry of decimum?
What is a decimum?
According to the documents at that time,did husbands enjoy higher legal status than wives?
What compensation
did Maria Vivas get for the field sold by her husband?
From the example of the Catalan wife,at that time,how could the wife win a powerful economic position in her family?
1.to protect a wife against the risk of desertion
2.documents that show a wife’s right
3.yes
4.a piece of land from Miro’s personal inheritance
5.through the dowry or decimum