阅读理解 Too many vulnerable child-free adults are being ruthlessly(无情的)manipulated into parent-hood by their parents, who think that happiness among older people depends on having a grand-child to spoil. We need an organization to help beat down the persistent campaigns of grandchildless parents. It''s time to establish Planned Grandparenthood, which would have many global and local benefits. Part of its mission would be to promote the risks and realities associated with being a grandparent. The staff would include depressed grandparents who would explain how grandkids break lamps, bite, scream and kick. Others would detail how an hour of baby-sitting often turns into a crying marathon. More grandparents would testify that they had to pay for their grandchild''s expensive college education. Planned grandparenthood''s carefully written literature would detail all the joys of life grand-child-free a calm living room, extra money for luxuries during the golden years, etc. Potential grandparents would be reminded that, without grandchildren around, it''s possible to have a conversation with your kids, who — incidentally — would have more time for their own parents. Meanwhile, most children are vulnerable to the enormous influence exerted by grandchildless parents aiming to persuade their kids to produce children. They will take a call from a persistent parent, even if they''re loaded with works. In addition, some parents make handsome money offers payable upon the grandchild''s birth. Sometimes these gifts not only cover expenses associated with the infant''s birth, but extras, too, like a vacation. In any case, cash gifts can weaken the resolve of even the noblest person. At Planned Grandparenthood, children targeted by their parents to reproduce could obtain non-biased information about the insanity of having their own kids. The catastrophic psychological and economic costs of childbearing would be emphasized. The symptoms of morning sickness would be listed and horrors of childbirth pictured. A monthly newsletter would contain stories about overwhelmed parents and offer guidance on how childless adults can respond to the different lobbying tactics that would-be grandparents employ. When I think about all the problems of our overpopulated world and look at our boy grabbing at the lamp by the sofa, I wish I could have turned to Planned Grandparenthood when my parents were putting the grandchild squeeze on me. If I could have, I might not be in this parenthood predicament( 窘境). But here''s the crazy irony, I don''t want my child-free life back. Dylan''s too much fun. Too many vulnerable child-free adults are being ruthlessly(无情的)manipulated into parent-hood by their parents, who think that happiness among older people depends on having a grand-child to spoil. We need an organization to help beat down the persistent campaigns of grandchildless parents. It''s time to establish Planned Grandparenthood, which would have many global and local benefits. Part of its mission would be to promote the risks and realities associated with being a grandparent. The staff would include depressed grandparents who would explain how grandkids break lamps, bite, scream and kick. Others would detail how an hour of baby-sitting often turns into a crying marathon. More grandparents would testify that they had to pay for their grandchild''s expensive college education. Planned grandparenthood''s carefully written literature would detail all the joys of life grand-child-free a calm living room, extra money for luxuries during the golden years, etc. Potential grandparents would be reminded that, without grandchildren around, it''s possible to have a conversation with your kids, who — incidentally — would have more time for their own parents. Meanwhile, most children are vulnerable to the enormous influence exerted by grandchildless parents aiming to persuade their kids to produce children. They will take a call from a persistent parent, even if they''re loaded with works. In addition, some parents make handsome money offers payable upon the grandchild''s birth. Sometimes these gifts not only cover expenses associated with the infant''s birth, but extras, too, like a vacation. In any case, cash gifts can weaken the resolve of even the noblest person. At Planned Grandparenthood, children targeted by their parents to reproduce could obtain non-biased information about the insanity of having their own kids. The catastrophic psychological and economic costs of childbearing would be emphasized. The symptoms of morning sickness would be listed and horrors of childbirth pictured. A monthly newsletter would contain stories about overwhelmed parents and offer guidance on how childless adults can respond to the different lobbying tactics that would-be grandparents employ. When I think about all the problems of our overpopulated world and look at our boy grabbing at the lamp by the sofa, I wish I could have turned to Planned Grandparenthood when my parents were putting the grandchild squeeze on me. If I could have, I might not be in this parenthood predicament( 窘境). But here''s the crazy irony, I don''t want my child-free life back. Dylan''s too much fun.
文章大意：议论文。文章首段提出中心论点，即反对父母催促自己的子女要孩子，而且为了实现这一点，还需建立一个组织。第二段和第三段介绍了这个组织的任务是让父母明白，有孙子的麻烦和没孙子的好处。第四段和第五段采用对比的手法说明：在通常情况下，许多人要孩子是因为父母使用软硬兼施的手段进行催促；而在这个组织里，人们则会得到和要孩子有关的客观信息从而自行选择。文章结尾，作者表白了自己矛盾的心理，虽然要孩子很麻烦，但自己的孩子确实给她带来了很多快乐。
单选题 What''s the purpose of the proposed organization Planned Grandparenthood?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】事实细节题。这里，Planned Grandparenthood是organization的名称，organization后面的不定式结构说明了建立这样一个组织的目的。该句中的grandchildless parents就是上文提到的那些喜欢弄“孙”为乐却还没有孙子的parents。此处使用了暗喻的修辞，campaign(战役)的双方是child-free adults和their parents，要打赢这场战役，就是要驳倒这些parents的观点，beat down和选项[D]中的discourage在本文语境中具有相近的含义。
单选题 Planned Grandparenthood would include depressed grandparents on its staff in order to________.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】事实细节题。本段首句提出，该组织的一部分任务是让更多人知道作为祖父母的风险和现实。这也就是这个组织吸收这些depressed grandparents为会员的原因。接下来的内容则具体说明了祖父母的风险和实际情况是，要处理由孙子引发的一系列麻烦事，如break lamps…，a crying marathon，expensive college education。
单选题 According to the passage, some couples may eventually choose to have children because________.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推理判断题。虽然在原文里找不到和此题题干中相同的词，但是第四段首句可以说明，在父母的影响下，许多夫妻还是要了孩子。本段从两个方面讲了父母的影响：一方面是压力，因为即使他们有很多工作，也得接听他们父母催他们要孩子的电话；另一方面是诱惑，因为有些父母为了让子女要孩子，会给他们一些钱作为孩子降生的相关费用。选项[A]中的the carrot-and-stick(软硬兼施的)approach则形象地描述了上述情况，carrot是诱惑，stick是压力。
单选题 By saying “… my parents were putting the grandchild squeeze on me” (Line 2-3,Para. 6), the author means that ________.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】推理判断题。这段是说，当作者看着她的儿子的时候，她就希望如果当初她的父母putting the grandchild squeeze on her之时，她可以求助于Planned Grandparenthood组织就好了。而文章开始就提到了建立这个组织是为了“保护”那些不要孩子的年轻父母。由以上可以推断，作者的意思是她的父母当时一直给她加压，让她要孩子。当然，如果知道put the squeeze on…的意思是“给…施加压力”，答案就一目了然了。
单选题 What does the author really of the idea of having children?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】推理判断题。乍一看，文章似乎通篇都在反对老人催促自己的子女要孩子，因为处理与孩子相关的问题是很麻烦的事情。但是直到文章的最后两句，作者用转折语气说出了一个几乎与全文思想相矛盾的观点，即“具有讽刺意味的是，我再也不想回到没有孩子的日子”，原因是Dylan可以给她带来很多快乐。留意上段中的our boy，就不难推断出Dylan是作者的儿子。