[单项选择] It is hard to get any agreement on the accurate meaning of the term "social class". In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to those they consider their equals from that which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use to "place" a new acquaintance(熟人) , however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a part. In Greece, after the sixth-century B. C. , there was a growing conflict between the peasants and the landed aristocrats (贵族) , and a gradual decrease in the power of the aristocracy when a kind of "middle class" of traders and skilled workers grew up. The population of Athens, for example, was divided into three main classes which were politically and legally distinct. About one-third of the total were slaves, who did not count politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise At
A. standards of judgement
B. ways
C. criticism
D. characteristic