A
LONDON — Life for Cathy Hagner and her three children is set to permanent(永久的) fast-forward.
Their full school day and her job as a lawyer’s assistant are busy enough. But Hagner also has to take the two boys to soccer or hockey or basketball while dropping off her daughter at piano lessons or Girl Scout Club.
Often, the exhausted family doesn’t get home until 7 pm. There is just time for a quick supper before homework. In today’s world, middle-class American and British parents treat their children as if they are competitors racing for some finishing line.
Parents take their children from activity to activity in order to make their future bright. It seems that raising a genius has become a more important goal than raising a happy and well-balanced child.
“Doctors across the country are reporting a growing number of children suffering from stomachaches and headaches due to exhaustion and stress, ” says child expert William Doherty of the University of Minnesota.
Teachers are dealing with exhausted kids in the classroom. It’s a very serious problem. Many children attend after-school clubs by necessity. But competitive pressures also create an explosion of activities. They include sports, language, music and math classes for children as young as four.
“There is a new parenting trend(趋势) under way which says that you have to tap all your child’s potential(潜能) at a young age; otherwise you will let him down, they will be unhappy, ” says Terry Apter, a Cambridge-based child and adolescent psychiatrist(青少年精神病专家).
“It isn’t entirely new: there have always been pushy parents. But what was previously(以前) seen as strange behaviour is now well accepted. ”
【语篇概述】现在的英、美中产家庭的父母让孩子们参加各种课外俱乐部, 学习体育、语言、音乐、数学等, 把孩子们变成了学习的机器, 孩子们感到不幸福。
21. From the second paragraph of this passage we can find that ______.
A. Hagner wastes much time helping her children’s lessons
B. Hagner doesn’t spend much time on her full-time job
C. Hagner is interested in sports and music
D. Hagner busies herself by following a trend
【解析】选D。段落大意题。本段主要说Hagner忙于接送两个儿子和一个女儿去上各种各样的辅导班, 因为这在英国中产家庭中也算一种潮流, 故选D。
22. British parents, as the writer described in this passage, ______.
A. treat their children as sports players
B. pay no attention to their children’s lessons
C. bring up their children in a simple way
D. give their children little time to develop freely
【解析】选D。推理判断题。从文章内容可以看出, 在英国, 孩子们在学校已经够累了, 回到家里, 父母亲还要他们参加课外俱乐部的一个又一个活动, 孩子们自由发展的空间当然没有了。
23. The writer’s opinion about after-school clubs is that ______.
A. activities in the country are too competitive
B. children should attend four clubs at a time
C. some clubs result in competitive pressures
D. clubs should have more subjects for school children
【解析】选C。推理判断题。第 六 段第四句话“ But competitive pressures also create an explosion of activities ”表现了作者的观点。
