研究所、轉學考(插大)、學士後-英文題庫下載題庫

Passage 3
        Of all the accessories and adornments to garments one perhaps pays least of all attention to buttons. Functional and often unexciting, replaced by zip fasteners or hooks and eyes there is, one would think, nothing much to be said about the humble button.
        Yet it is very probable that buttons started life as ornaments; certainly it is not known that they had any practical function until the 13th century. By the 14th century buttons were once again ornamental, often lavishly so, to such an extent that it was by no means uncommon for a person of wealth and consequence to have as many as 300 buttons on a single article of dress. Unimaginable as it seems today, sewing superfluous buttons on clothes became a craze—not one that seems harmful to us though some Italians took a different view and a law against buttons was enforced in Florence. No buttons were to be worn on the upper arms; penalty for disobedience—a sound whipping. (How often this had to be carried out, history does not relate!)
        Most of the buttons on modern clothes which could be called decorative once did in fact serve a useful purpose. Buttons on boots are one good example. Sleeve buttons on men's coats are a reminder of the days when the fashion was for wearing shirts with frilly lace cuffs.
        On the tails of a modern tail coat there are indeed buttons which are purely ornamental but in earlier days horsemen used these buttons to keep the tails out of harm's way.
        With regard to the side on which clothes are buttoned, originally both male and female dress was buttoned on the left hand side. Changes came when men had to have access to their swords.
        So perhaps it is worth taking a look at buttons.