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At the beginning of
the twentieth century, many people thought that
the American family was
falling apart.
A century later, we know that this was not the
case. However, although the family is
still alive in the United States, its
size and shape were very different 100 years ago.
In the late
1800s and early 1900s, there were mainly two types
of families in the United States:
the
extended and the nuclear. The extended family
usually includes grandparents, parents, and
children living under the same roof.
The nuclear family consists of only parents and
children.
Today there are many
different kinds of families. Some people live in
“traditional” families, that is,
a
stay-home mother, a working father, and their own
biological children. Others live in
two-paycheck families, single-parent
families, adoptive or foster families and so on.
What caused the
structure of the family to change? In the 1930s
and 1940s, many families faced
serious
financial problems during the Great Depression and
women were choosing to go to college
and take jobs outside the home. As a
result, the birthrate began to fall and the
divorce rate began to
rise. During
World War II (1939-1945)
，
5
million women were left alone to take care of
their
homes and their e many men were
at war, thousands of their wives had to go to
work outside their home.
During the next ten years,
the situation changed. There were fewer divorces,
and people married
at a younger age and
had more children than the previous generation. It
was unusual for a mother
to work
outside the home during the years when her
children were growing up. The traditional
family seemed to be returning.
In the years
between 1960s and 1990s, there were many important
changes in the structure of
the family.
The divorce rate doubled and the birthrate fell by
half. The number of single-parent
families doubled, and the number of
couples living together without being married
doubled
again.
If we can
judge from history, however, this will probably
change again in the twenty-first
century.
ing to the author,
the American family ______
[A]is
falling apart
[B]is disappearing
gradually
[C]is changing greatly
[D]is dying bit by bit
2.
Tom?s father works for IBM
and his mother works for another big has
_____.
[A]a blended family
[B]a two-paycheck family
[C]an adoptive family
[D]a
traditional family
the main type of
American family is ______.
[A]the
traditional family
[B]the nuclear
family
[C]the single-parent family
[D]the extended family
title of the article is most likely to be_____.
[A]Two Types of American Family
[B]The American Family is Falling Apart
[C]The Structure of the American Family
[D]The Changing Family
All
the World Asks
On my first day in a college Classroom,
I felt like an overgrown child returning to
civilization
after having been lost in
the forest for thirty years. There I sat, old
enough to be a father to most of
the
students in the room, yet insecure enough to be
their baby brother. We were crowded
elbow
（肘）
to elbow, listening
to a professor who looked even younger than the
students. I felt awkward
and out of
place as the professor carefully explained what
she expected us to learn. As I listened, I
couldn?t help but think of my own
oldest daughter who was now beginning
her
freshman year in
college, just like me. I recalled
(
回忆
) how hard I had tried to
instill (
逐步培养
) self-
confidence in
her and my other
children. So why did I suddenly feel like a scared
child myself? When I walked
out of that
classroom, I had serious doubts about my ability
to make it through college. Not until
late that night did my thinking change.
It was a long-distance telephone call from my
daughter, my
fellow college freshman,
that did the trick. She spoke on the phone about
the doubts, worries, and
anxieties she
was experiencing. She was certain that she ?d
never succeed at college. How familiar
her worries sounded! In my most
self-
assured parental voice, I said.
―Doing your best is all the
world
asks.
‖
The
next
day
in
class,
those
words
still
echoed
in
my
head.
When
the
professor
posed(
提出
) a
question for the class, nobody, including me,
dared answer. When I looked around
at
the fear and uncertainty on the young faces in
that room, I knew exactly what I had to do: my
best, That?s all the world asks. So
I raised my hand, and the professor
called on me. I spoke.
main purpose of
the writer in writing the story is to
_______________.
[A]tell us how he
overcame his self-doubt and anxiety as a college
freshman
[B]recall the poor conditions
of the college when he was a student
[C]describe his feeling of being
frightened in class when asked a question
[D]talk about the time when a class had
students of very different ages
have
you learned about the writer as a student?
[A]He was a college freshman who came
from the remote country.
[B]He went to the same college where
his daughter goes.
[C]He was an average
student who continued to study after bringing up
his family.
[D]He was a student and at
the same time a parent taking care of his
children.
3.
When the writer
says ―that did the trick
‖
,
he means_________________.
[A]the
telephone call worked to help him change his
thinking
[B]his daughter played a trick
on him by pretending to leave college
[C] the telephone call reminded him of
his previous school experience
[D]his
daughter?s difficulties made him realize his
parental responsibilities
4
.The underlined word
―echoed
‖
means____________.
[A]understood
[B]repeated
[C]imagined
[D]warned
BALTMORE
—
When
15-year-
old Michael Thomas left home
for school last May, he couldn?t
have
been
prouder.
On
his
feet,
thanks
to
his
mother?s
hard
work
,
wore
a
pair
of
new
Air
Jordans
—
＄
100 worth of leather ,
rubber and status that to today?s youth are the
Mercedes
-Benz
of
athletic(
运动员的
) footwear.
The next day it
was James David Martin, 17 , who was walking down
the street in Thomas?s
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