Read the passage carefully and select the best answer to each question out of the given four alternatives.
Although most of Japan’s fearsome samurai warriors were men, there were some women who bucked social norms to become skilled and deadly fighters — like the fearsome and infamous 12-century samurai Tomoe Gozen. The story of Tomoe Gozen is shrouded in mystery, but she was known for being both beautiful and terrifying. What’s truly impressive about the legend of Tomoe Gozen is not just that she was a female samurai, but that she was an elite warrior — and one that even other warriors feared.
The term samurai means 'to be on one’s guard' and was initially used to describe a noble caste of aristocratic warriors. Samurai first emerged in the eighth century but it wasn’t until the 11th century that they gained real power. They became loyal fighters for feudal lords called daimyo who were constantly involved in power struggles. After about 1600, the samurai became a social class in their own right and gained certain privileges including being allowed to carry two swords.
Most samurai were men: as in the Western world at the time, women in ancient Japan were expected to get married, have babies, and look after their household while the men went to war — with the exception of women married to samurai. These women were expected to be highly educated, capable of defending their homes and families, and some even carried small swords hidden in their clothes. There were even some women in the 12th through the 19th centuries who became warriors in their own right. Indeed, even before the rise of the samurai, there were Japanese women who trained to protect their homes and families from invading forces. They were known as the onna-bugeisha, which literally means 'woman warrior.'