英語四級閱讀訓練附答案講解

　　More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact thatmarriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after adecline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even thedivorce rate needs to be taken in this pro- marriage context: some 80 percent of divorcedindividuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vastmajority of the people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty- five years ago, the typicalAmerican family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there aremany marriages in whichcouples have decided not to have any children, and there are manymarriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or thehusband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from theformer marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses .

　　Thus, one can find every type of tamely arrangement. There are marriages without children;marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with“full - time”children fromboth the present and former marriages; marriages with“full- time”children from the presentmarriage and“part- time”childrenfrom former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers,half- brothers and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents andeight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. Buteven so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend mostof their adult lives married.

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.

　　A.Americans are more traditional than Europeans

　　B More Americans prefer marriage and at a younger age than European

　　C.most divorced individuals remarry

　　D.marriage is the most important part of American life

　　2.From the first paragraph we can know that ____

　　A.traditional marriage now runs into difficulty

　　B.marriage rate has been rising since the 1970

　　C.marriage rate in Europe is rather low

　　D.European marry when they are quite old

　　3.Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families?

　　A. There are no nuclear families any more.

　　B. A family usually consists of only a husband ,a wife and two or three children

　　C. a child usually has four grandparents

　　D. Many types of family rearrangements have become socially acceptable.

　　4. “Part-time ”children ____

　　A.do part-time job to earn their living

　　B.spend all of their time with one parent from the previous marriage

　　C.are shared between the two former spouses

　　D.are quite unusual even in the U.S.A

　　5.Even though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families, ________ .

　　A. the functions of marriage remain unchanged

　　B. most Americans prefer a second marriage

　　C. the vast majority of Americans still have faith in marriage

　　D. nuclear family is alive and thriving

 

　　1.[B] 事實細節題。本題考查特殊符號處。作者在第1段第2句很清楚地在Americans are a marrying people後面用冒號引出對這一說法的解釋。對比選項A與選項B，就可發現選項A不夠完整。

　　2.[A] 推理判斷題。第1段第1句的主語揭示了答案應為選項A。選項B與原文第1段第3句的陳述不符，選項C和D均無原文依據。

　　3.[D] 推理判斷題。本題涉及第2段的理解，該段第1句是一個主語從句，也可視為該段的主題句，點出了本段的主題是nuclear family，該段其他句子描述了什麼是nuclear family。本題其實考査哪個選項是對nuclearfamily的正確描述，明白了第2段的結構後，找出正確答案就不難了。

　　4.[C] 推理判斷題。在最後一段第1句中，通過對比full-time和part-time的本義，以及聯絡上下文講到的家庭現象，可以推斷出part-time children應是指時不時和父親或母親生活的小孩，由此可見，選項C是正確答案。 選項A毫無原文依據，B明顯錯誤，題幹中問的是part-time children，故顯然不可能spend all of their time,否則修飾語就應該是full-time,選項D與“It is not all that unusual…”相悖。

　　5.[C] 推理判斷題。文章結尾處暗示了答案。原文並未討論婚姻的功能，故選項A不對，選項B並無依據，選項D有悖第2段第1句的意思。

 

 

　　Teenage boys, regardless of race,are more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from allnatural causes combined.

　　By the time the average American child leaves primary school, he or she will witness 8,000murders and more than 100,000 acts of violence on television.

　　Youth are becoming involved in violence at an alarming rate. In fact, the young arrest rate formurder doubled, from 6 arrests per 100,000 youth aged from 10 to 17 to over 12 per 100,000.

　　The American Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth reported on a studyof first and second graders in Washington said they had witnessed muggings ***行凶搶劫***,31 % said they had witnessed shootings, and 39% said they had seen dead bodies.

　　For the many youth who have not been directly exposed to violence in their own communities,the entertainment media ***television, movies, music and video games*** provides manyopportunities for children to see and hear violent exchanges. Research shows that there areabout 5-6 violent acts per hour on prime time and 20-25 violent acts on Saturday morningchildren’s programming. In its report, the American Psychological Association ***APA*** reportedthat viewing violence on television hurts children in many ways. In particular, the APAconcludes that children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others,be morefearful of the world around them,be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful waystoward others, and gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems. The AmericanAcademy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry also cautions that children may imitate theviolence they observe on television.

　　Another form of violence involving youth is physical punishment in the schools. This form ofdiscipline still remains legally supported in 23 nations in America. The Office for Civil Rights inthe Department of Education reported that 555，000 students were physically punished in theschools during this school year. Although such punishment has been regarded as an effectivemethod of discipline by those who apply it, the findings are obvious that physical punishmentdoes not work and that children who are victims of physical punishment are subject topotential long-term physical and emotional damage.

　　練習題：

　　Choose correct answers to the question:

　　1.According to the passage, the American teenage boys，lives are most threatened by______

　　A.gun murders

　　B.natural diseases

　　C.TV violence

　　D. physical punishment

　　2.The author tends to use the fourth paragraph to support the idea that _____

　　A.many youth have watched much violence on TV

　　B.youth violence in Washington D.C.is very serious

　　C.fights may be the most widely-seen youth violence

　　D.American youth have been exposed to much violence

　　3.The APA indicates that too much TV violence may change children ______

　　A.to become separated from the world

　　B.to remain indifferent to others’ pain

　　C.to solve problems only by violence

　　D.to be fearful of aggressive behaviors

　　4.The passage does NOT discus that many youth become victim of ______

　　A.murders B.family violence C. TV violence D.school violence

　　5.The author may most probably agree that physical punishment is _________

　　A. acceptable, though ineffective

　　B. illegal，though effective

　　C. harmful, though legal

　　D. reasonable, though illegal

 

　　1.[A] 事實細節題。本題考查對比處。根據第1段中的more likely…than可知選項A正確，選項B可由此排除。選項C和D雖在文中有提到，但作者並無討論它們是否危及孩子的生命。

　　2.[D] 主旨大意題。文章第1和第2段提出話題:小孩接觸太多暴力。第3段和第4段討論小孩遇到的嚴重暴力，如murder, muggings等，為主題服務，因此本段應支援文章開頭提出的話題。本段說明的是現實生活中的暴力，而非電視上的，故選項A不對,選項B和C都只是對本段中某個現象的描述。

　　3.[B] 推理判斷題。本題考査列舉處。選項B是對第5段倒數第2句中become less sensitive to the painand suffering of others的近義替換，因此正確。選項A中的isolated並不等同於文中的fearful，也不是因為害怕世界必然帶來的結果。選項C中的only過於絕對，文中只說a way。選項D拼湊了原句中的某些詞語，但文中並無此意。

　　4. [B] 主旨大意題。本文結構可分為四部分：第1段和第2段總起，指出論題;第二部分討論murder等嚴重暴力;第三部分即第5段討論TV violence;第四部分即最後一段討論學校裡的體罰，也就是schoolviolence。因此只有選項B沒有在文中討論。

　　5. [C] 觀點態度題。根據最後一段,特別是最後一句，可以推斷作者認為體罰不起作用，並對學生身心產生有害的影響，由此可見，作者不認同體罰，因此選項A和D不正確。選項B中的illegal與文中說法相反，因此也不正確。