Passage 1 (2003. 12)

　　I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children aged 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.

　　Why are America's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation-brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things-and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.

　　Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.

　　At the top of the list is nurturing（培育）a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.

　　To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.

　　Limit the amount of virtual（虚拟的）violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.

　　Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.

　　Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life.

　　21. The author thinks that the conclusions of any research about people's state of mind are .

　　A) surprising B) confusing

　　C) illogical D) questionable

　　22. What does the author mean when he says, "we can't turn the clock back" (Line 1, Para. 3)?

　　A) It's impossible to slow down the pace of change.

　　B) The social reality children are facing cannot be changed.

　　C) Lessons learned from the past should not be forgotten.

　　D) It's impossible to forget the past.

　　23. According to an analysis, compared with normal children today, children treated as mentally ill 50 years ago .

　　A) were less isolated physically

　　B) were probably less self-centered

　　C) probably suffered less from anxiety

　　D) were considered less individualistic

　　24. The first and most important thing parents should do to help their children is .

　　A) to provide them with a safer environment

　　B) to lower their expectations for them

　　C) to get them more involved socially

　　D) to set a good model for them to follow

　　25. What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?

　　A) Anxiety, though unavoidable, can be coped with.

　　B) Children's anxiety has been enormously exaggerated.

　　C) Children's anxiety can be eliminated with more parental care.

　　D) Anxiety, if properly controlled, may help children become mature.

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　　【答案解析】 D。选项D中的questionable与文章第一句话I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that...中的be skeptical about是同义替换。

　　22.【题目译文】作者说"我们不能让时光倒流"，意思是__________。

　　【答案解析】B。"we can't turn the clock back"句子本意是"我们不能让时光倒流"，引申义是我们不可能改变既定的事实。

　　23.【题目译文】根据一项研究，与现在的正常孩子相比，50年前被认为有精神疾病的孩子__________。

　　【答案解析】C。文中第一段最后一句In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.（be treated mentally ill意思是be treated for mental illness）告诉我们，答案是C。

　　24.【题目译文】家长帮助孩子的第一而且最重要的事情是__________。

　　【答案解析】C。The first and most important thing意即"首要的是......"，与第四段中的at the top of the list是同义替换。从第四段的内容At the top of the list is nurturing（培育）a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.可以知道：应该让孩子们更多地与他人交往，即C。

　　25.【题目译文】从文章中可以得出什么结论？

　　【答案解析】A。通常文章的开头或结尾部分渗透一篇文章的主旨。最后两句话Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life. 告诉了我们答案。

　　【文章大意】

　　现在的人与50年前的人相比，是更高兴还是更不高兴，是更自信还是更不自信,我对此调查的结果都表示怀疑。然而，这些结果都可能是对的，只是我们无法科学地加以证明。但我始终对一项调查结果记忆犹新：现在的孩子明显比20世纪50年代的孩子更焦虑。实际上，在对9~17岁孩子的调查结果的分析表明，他们比50年前被视为患有精神疾病的孩子的焦虑程度还高。

　　现在为什么美国的孩子这么焦虑呢？报告中列举了两个主要原因：一是由于离婚率增高导致孩子与爸爸或妈妈分开，接触社会的机会减少；二是他们觉得这个世界越来越没有安全感。

　　即使我们不能让时间倒流，我们还是能做很多事来帮助下一代适应社会。

　　首要的是要让他们认识到个人力量的局限性。没有哪一个孩子是孤岛，加强他们与社会的联系有助于建立良好的社会关系，能使他们尽量远离焦虑。

　　你可以通过拔掉电视和电脑的电源插座来加强孩子与他人的联系，全家人都会因此而感激你。这样，他们之间可以有更多面对面的相互交流的机会，也可以得到更多的睡眠。

　　限制一下孩子面对虚拟暴力的机会。虚拟暴力不仅指暴力游戏和暴力录像，还指谋杀及其他有关犯罪的当地新闻。

　　对孩子的期望不应过高。许多非常成功的人士都没进过哈佛大学和耶鲁大学。

　　每天拿出一部分时间来锻炼，这样有助于减少压力，可以为孩子树立良好的榜样。有时，焦虑是不可避免的。但还不至于对我们的生活造成太大的破坏。

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　　About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table. I couldn't help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked: "So, how have you been?" And the boy-who could not have been more than seven or eight years old-replied, "Frankly, I've been feeling a little depressed lately."

　　This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn't find out we were "depressed" until we were in high school.

　　The evidence of a change in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don't seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to.

　　Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists. Why?

　　Human development is based not only on innate（天生的）biological states, but also on patterns of access to social knowledge. Movement from one social role to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new status. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in stages: traditionally, we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.

　　In the last 30 years, however, a secret-revelation（揭示）machine has been installed in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information, and indiscriminately（不加区分地）, to all viewers alike, be they children or adults. Unable to resist the temptation, many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more vivid moving pictures.

　　Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information to which children have access. Reading and writing involve a complex code of symbols that must be memorized and practiced. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.

　　31. According to the author, feeling depressed is _______.

　　A) a sure sign of a psychological problem in a child

　　B) something hardly to be expected in a young child

　　C) an inevitable phase of children's mental development

　　D) a mental scale present in all humans, including children

　　32. Traditionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world _______.

　　A) through contact with society

　　B) gradually and under guidance

　　C) naturally and by biological instinct

　　D) through exposure to social information

　　33. The phenomenon that today's children seem adultlike is attributed by the author to _______.

　　A) the widespread influence of television

　　B) the poor arrangement of teaching content

　　C) the fast pace of human intellectual development

　　D) the constantly rising standard of living

　　34. Why is the author in favor of communication through print for children?

　　A) It enables children to gain more social information.

　　B) It develops children's interest in reading and writing.

　　C) It helps children to memorize and practice more.

　　D) It can control what children are to learn.

　　35. What does the author think of the change in today's children?

　　A) He feels amused by chair premature behavior.

　　B) He thinks it is a phenomenon worthy of note.

　　C) He considers it a positive development.

　　D) He seems to be upset about it.

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　　【答案解析】B。前四段作者都在讲现在的孩子跟过去不一样了，跟其他成人似的行为一样，感到沮丧也是成人的行为。说明他认为孩子不应该感到沮丧。

　　32.【题目译文】过去孩子通过 获得关于成人世界的知识。

　　【答案解析】 B。根据文章第五段，可知他们是被成人逐渐告知的。文中的slowly and in stages与选项B中的gradually意义相同。

　　33.【题目译文】作者将孩子成人化的现象归咎于 。

　　【答案解析】A。答案来自文章第六段：近30年来，孩子通过电视，不加区分地获得各种信息，包括孩子不该获得的信息。

　　34.【题目译文】作者为什么赞成通过印刷品交流沟通？

　　【答案解析】D。文章最后一段说明了印刷品可以控制孩子获取社会信息的内容。

　　35.【题目译文】作者如何看待当今孩子的变化？

　　【答案解析】B。整篇文章表现了作者对孩子成人化的关注，并探讨其中的原因。文章第四段表明了作者的态度，即这种现象不好说是好是坏，没有否定也没有肯定。

　　【文章大意】

　　（这篇文章主要讨论儿童的过早成人化问题。）

　　六年前，我在纽约市一家饭店吃饭时，一个小男孩和一名妇女坐在我旁边的桌上。我听到了他们的部分谈话。那妇女问："你怎么啦？"那个不过七八岁的男孩答道："坦率地说，我感到有点压抑。"

　　这件事印在我的脑海里，因为它确证了我的一个日益增强的观念：孩子们在发生变化。在我的记忆中，我和我的朋友们在上高中之前还没感到过"压抑"。

　　近年来，孩子们发生变化的迹象越来越多。他们看起来不再像孩子。他们说话、穿衣、举止比过去的孩子更像成人。

　　很难说这是好是坏，但这确实与以前不一样。童年不再存在了。为什么？

　　人的成长不仅是基于他天生的生物本性，同时也基于他们得以能学到社会知识的伙伴。从一种社会角色转变为另一种角色通常涉及到学习新角色的秘密。孩子们一直在被教会成人的秘密，但那是慢慢地、分阶段地。通常我们对六年级小孩说的事情就不会让五年级的孩子知道。

　　但在近30年，98%的美国家庭中都有了一种揭示秘密的机器--那就是电视。它传送信息，不管观众是成人还是儿童，都不加以区分。孩子们不能抵抗诱惑，将注意力从书本上转移到这种更生动、易懂的动画上。

　　事实上，通过印刷品来交流，在很大程度上能控制孩子对社会信息的接触。读、写涉及到一系列复杂的必须加以记忆和实践的编码。孩子们在读复杂的读物之前必须先阅读简单的书本。

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