【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[听力原文]32-35
As any homemaker who has tried to keep order at the dinner table knows, there is far more to a family meal than food. Sociologist Michael Lewis has been studying 50 families to find out just how much more.
Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping the families while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes. They found that parents with small families talk actively with each other and their children. But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents' efforts to control the loud noise they make. That can have an important effect on the children. "In general, the more question asking the parents do, the higher the children's IQ scores," Lewis says. "And the more children there are, the less question-asking there is."
The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to have a harder time in life than their brothers and sisters. Lewis found that in families with three or four children, dinner conversation is likely to center on 'the oldest child, who has the most to talk about, and the youngest, who needs the most attention.
"Middle children are invisible," says Lewis. "When you see someone get up from the table and walk around during dinner, it's often the case that it's middle child." There is, however, one thing that stops all conversation and prevents anyone from having attention: "When the TV is on," Lewis says, "dinner is a non-event."
32．What is the writer's purpose in writing the passage?
[解析] 由选项中的findings of a study，found，family problems，parents，children等词推断，文章很可能是关于家庭问题的一项调查或研究，而且该调查应该是围绕父母和他们的孩子展开的。文章主要介绍了Michael Lewis的研究，故选[A]。文章只涉及到了一种家庭问题，即父母与孩子之间缺乏交流，[D]中的family problems与此矛盾。
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
Why do parents with large families ask fewer questions at dinner?
[解析] 分析选项可知，选项中的they指代的应该是父母，因此父母的行为或做法为听音重点。[A]、[B]、[D]都与food有关，[C]与其他选项明显不同，很可能不是答案。由文中的But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents' efforts to control the loud noise they make可知[B]正确。