Changes in Children Increasing
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 rote 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 (不加區分地), 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 practices. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.
rding to the author, feeling depressed is
A.a sure sign of a psychological problem in a child.
thing hardly to be expected in a young child.
inevitable has of children’s mental development.
D.a mental scale present in all humans, including children.
正確答案:B
解析:問題問的是：哪項是作者對感覺抑鬱的正確觀點?第二段作者提到在他的記憶中，他和他的朋友在上中學之前從來沒有感覺到什麼是抑鬱。因此B正確，很難想象抑鬱發生在小孩身上。
itionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world
ugh contact with society.
ually and under guidance.
rally and by biological instinct.
ugh exposure to social information.
正確答案:B
解析:問題問的是：傳統上，孩子應該怎樣瞭解成人的`世界?第五段結尾提到，傳統的方法是要讓孩子漸漸的，分階段的瞭解成人的世界，後面還舉例說，六年級要教給孩子的東西對五年級的孩子都要保密。因此B正確，即要在指導下循序漸進的瞭解。
phenomenon that today’s children seem adult like is attributed by the author to
widespread influence of television.
poor arrangement of teaching content.
fast pace of human intellectual development.
constantly rising standard of living.
正確答案:A
解析:問題問的是：作者認為現在的孩子更加成人化的原因是什麼?倒數第二段提到了電視打破了傳統的教育模式和年齡的界限，這也成為孩子過早接觸到成人世界的主要原因。因此A正確，即電視的廣泛影響。
is the author in favor of communication through print for children
enables children to gain more social information.
develops children’s interest in reading and writing.
helps children to memorize and practice more.
can control what children are to learn.
正確答案:D
解析:問題問的是：為什麼作者更偏好於通過印刷品向孩子傳播文化?最後一段第一句提到印刷品可以有效的控制孩子接觸社會資訊的渠道。因此D正確，即它能夠控制孩子學習的內容。
does the author think of the change in today’s children
feels amused by chair premature behavior.
thinks it is a phenomenon worthy of note.
considers it a positive development.
seems to be upset about it.
正確答案:B
解析:問題問的是：作者對如今孩子的變化有何看法?縱觀全文不難看出，作者對孩子的這種變化表示了自己的擔憂，並認為這是一個值得關注的現象，因此B正確。AC表示樂觀顯然不符合文意，作者也沒有對這一現象感到生氣，因此D不正確。
