IMAT 2026 question 2: Reading skills

READING SKILLSIMAT 2026 Q21 / 1

Read the text and answer the question only on the basis of the information it contains explicitly or implicitly and not on what you already know about the topic. Why is it that we worship sacrifice in a mother? Where did this inhuman idea of maternal self-immolation come from? From mother to daughter, for centuries, servitude has been handed on. It is a monstrous chain. At some point in life, all of us become conscious of all that the woman who bore us did for our sake; and with that consciousness comes the remorse of not having adequately repaid her total sacrifice. Then we lavish upon our children all that we did not give our mothers, denying ourselves and offering a fresh example of mortification, of self-annihilation. If only, once and for all, that fatal chain were broken, and a mother did not suppress the woman within herself, and a child were to behold in her an example of dignity. Then one would begin to understand that the duty of parents begins long before the birth of their children, and that their responsibility must be felt beforehand, precisely at that moment when selfish life presses most imperiously, most seductively. Translated from S. Aleramo, Una Donna, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2002 In which of the following does Aleramo identify the reason why mothers' self-sacrifice is perpetuated?

From one generation to the next, women hand down a condition of servitude associated with motherhood

From one generation to the next, parental responsibility, especially that of mothers, begins before a child is born

From one generation to the next, a condition is handed down that leads daughters to rebel against their mothers

From one generation to the next, children learn from their mothers an example of dignity

From one generation to the next, women deny their own children and offer an example of mortification

Keyboard: A–E to choose, Shift + letter to cross out, Enter to confirm.

IMAT 2026 · Question 2