On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet. Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, children’s leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%.
“Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,” says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children’s timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner” households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.
All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,” says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.
The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing “free time watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they’re spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren’t replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let’s face it, who’s got the time?
1. By mentioning “the same time crunch” (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means ______.
2. According to the author: the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is ______.
3. According to the author a child develops better if ______.
4. The author is concerned about the fact that American kids______.
5. We can infer from the passage that______.
问题1选项
A.children have little time to play with their parents
B.children are not taken good care of by their working parents
C.parents and children suffer from lack of leisure time
D.both parents and children have trouble managing their time
问题2选项
A.quite convincing
B.partially true
C.totally groundless
D.rather confusing
问题3选项
A.he has plenty of time reading and studying
B.he is left to play with his peers in his own way
C.he has more time participating in school activities
D.he is free to interact with his working parents
问题4选项
A.are engaged in more and more structured activities
B.are increasingly neglected by their working mothers
C.are spending more and more time watching TV
D.are involved less and less in household work
问题5选项
A.extracurricular activities promote children’s intelligence
B.most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off
C.efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful
D.most parents believe reading to be beneficial to children
第1题:C
第2题:B
第3题:B
第4题:A
第5题:A
1.【试题答案】C
【试题解析】细节事实题。根据题干，可以定位到文章第二段第一句Children are affected by the same time crunch(危机) that affects their parents.（孩子们和他们的父母一样，也受到时间短缺的影响）。C选项“父母和孩子都因缺乏闲暇时间而受苦”，根据文章内容，C选项符合句意，因此C选项正确。A选项“孩子们几乎没有时间和父母一起玩”，不符合题意，可排除。B选项“孩子们没有得到工作的父母很好的照顾”，文章没有提到这一点，因此可排除。D选项“父母和孩子都在管理他们的时间上有困难”，不符合题意，可排除。因此C选项为正确答案。
2.【试题答案】B
【试题解析】作者意图题。根据题干我们可以定位到文章第二段第一句Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents.（孩子们的影响同时紧缩（危机），影响他们的父母）。B选项“部分正确”，B选项符合句意。A选项“十分信服”，作者并没有认为她给出的理由是十分信服的。C选项“完全没有事实根据”，不符合题意，可排除。D选项“令人困惑的”，不符合题意，可排除。因此B选项为正确答案。
3.【试题答案】B
【试题解析】推理判断题。A选项“他有大量的时间阅读和学习”，文中最后一段所说孩子们每周花在阅读上的时间只有一个多小时，因此A可排除。B选项“他只能以自己的方式和同龄人玩游戏”，这里符合文章倒数第二段内容“自由玩耍鼓励孩子们独立思考，并允许他们与同龄人协商他们的关系”，因此可推测和同龄人玩耍会使孩子发展得更好，因此B选项正确。C选项“他有更多的时间参加学校活动”，参加学校活动，导致儿童的闲暇时间减少，因此不利于儿童发展，C选项可排除。D选项“他可以自由地和他上班的父母交流”，文章所说由于父母上班，导致儿童与父母之间的交流减少，因此D选项可排除。因此B选项为正确答案。
4.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】细节事实题。由题干可以定位到文中第一段第二句They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet.（她们也做更多的家务，参加更多的有组织的活动，如足球和芭蕾舞。）A选项“are engaged in more and more structured activities”（正在参与越来越多的有组织的活动），符合文章所说的内容，儿童参加越来越多有组织的活动，因此A选项正确。B选项“越来越多的小孩被工作的母亲所忽视”，文章所说，只是两者之间交流时间减少，因此不符合题意，可排除B选项。C选项“花越来越多的时间看电视”，文章最后一段所说“孩子们把他们迅速减少的四分之一的空闲时间花在看电视上”，因此C不符合题意，可排除。D选项“家务活越来越少了”，文章第一段所说“她们也做更多的家务”，因此可排除D选项。因此A选项为正确答案。
5.【试题答案】A
【试题解析】推理判断题。通读全文。A选项“课外活动能提高孩子的智力”，符合文章倒数第二段，课外活动可以提高孩子的智力，因此A选项正确。B选项“大多数孩子会在关掉电视的情况下看书”，文章最后一段所说“如果他们在电视机前花的时间减少了，孩子们也不会用阅读来代替”，B选项可排除。C选项“让孩子们对阅读感兴趣的努力取得了丰硕的成果”，文章最后一段所说“尽管努力让孩子们对书籍更感兴趣，孩子们每周花在阅读上的时间只有一个多小时”，不符合题意，可排除。D选项“大多数家长认为读书对孩子有益”，文章没有提到这个内容，因此可排除D。因此A选项为正确答案。
