Question

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 is certainly different. Children as they once were on longer exists. Why?

Human development is based not only on innate biological states, but also on patterns of access to social knowledge. Movement from one social route 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 machine has been installed in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information indiscriminately 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.

1.According to the author, feeling depressed is ________.

A. a sure sign of a psychological problem in children’s mental development

B. something rarely expected in children’s mental development

C. an inevitable thing in children’s mental development

D. something usually experienced in children’s mental development

2.What does the underlined word innate in Paragraph 4 mean ?

A. something a person is born with

B. something a person is tired of

C. something a person is expected of

D. something a person is dreaming of

3.What of the following statement is NOT true according to the last paragraph?

A. Communication through print helps children develop their reading skills.

B. Communication through print helps children access more social information.

C. Communication through print helps children command a complex code of symbols.

D. Communication through print helps children read different materials at random.

4.What is the attitude of the author about today’s children?

A. He feels shocked by their premature behavior.

B. He thinks it is a phenomenon unworthy of note.

C. He considers it a positive social development.

D. He seems to be concerned about the tendency.

Answer 1

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：文章大意：主要主要介绍了作者对于当前感到压抑人群的年轻化尤其是小孩子的类似问题进行了分析并提出了一定的解决方法与建议。

1. 根据文章第二段“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.“可以判断出感到压抑在小孩身上原本是很罕见的，故选B。

2.中“biological states“以及后面的” on patterns of access to social knowledge“可以推断”innate“是表示”天生的“，故选A。

3. for a great deal of control over the social information“可知这种交流不是随意的而是基于大量的社会信息的，故选D。

4. 依据文章的意思以及最后一段作者对于小孩子感到压抑

考点：考查社会生活类阅读