PASSAGE I When Elizabeth Long began investigating women's book groups in the mid-1980s, her research plan provoked two profoundly different sets of reactions. Women, who had themselves participated in such groups, as well as men whose mothers and grandmothers had done so, immediately grasped the importance of her project : "You will never know what a difference it made" was the phrase she heard again and again. But among her academic colleagues, common readers seemed to be occupying a zone of cultural invisibility. They were not of interest to literature departments, whose major focus is on books and authors, not readers. They were not of interest to sociologists or political scientists because women's reading groups do not pursue activities with any obvious relationship to formal political processes. Long, however, went on to show that such groups had mobilised the women's suffrage and Progressive movements at the grassroots. Scholars of popular culture had not found reading groups interesting because the groups read canonized fiction and did not transform their cultural consumption into a 'resistant' subcultural style. It had not yet occurred to them that the so-called highbrow canonical literature could be immensely popular and devilishly subversive. David Vincent's Bread, Knowledge and Freedom (1981) had already demonstrated the important role of reading in inspiring working-class consciousness in early nineteenth-century Britain. As a sociologist, Long concluded that the really important question that needed answering was why academics did not care about readers.
In this passage, "grassroots" refers to :
The common people at a local level
'Grassroots' describes political or social action organised among ordinary people at a local, community level rather than through elite institutions. The passage uses it to describe such local-level organising, which matches 'the common people at a local level' and rules out the other choices.
Similar Questions
What is the meaning of ‘intrigued’?
What are ice shelves?
What are icebergs?
When the iceberg turns upside down, it appears ________.
The use of science in its simple form has helped man to ____________
Nature now needs to be protected from man because _____________
Forests are being destroyed in order to ________
The evil effect of destroying Nature instead of using it is seen in _________
Climatic changes and soil erosion are results of _____________
Which of the following helps women most to achieve equality with men?
Important Questions from Reading Comprehension
What is the meaning of ‘intrigued’?
What are ice shelves?
What are icebergs?
When the iceberg turns upside down, it appears ________.
The use of science in its simple form has helped man to ____________
