单选题
I was addressing a small gathering in a suburban Virginia
living room—a women's group that had invited men to join them. Throughout the
evening, one man had been particularly talkative, frequently offering ideas and
anecdotes, while his wife sat silently beside him on the couch. Toward the end
of the evening, I commented that women frequently complain that their husbands
don't talk to them. This man quickly nodded in agreement. He gestured toward his
wife and said, "She's the talker in our family. " The room burst in laughter;
the man looked puzzled and hurt. "It's true," he explained. "When I come home
from work I have nothing to say. If she didn't keep the conversation going, we'd
spend the whole evening in silence. " This episode crystallizes
the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public
situations, they often talk less at home. And this pattern is wreaking havoc
with marriage. The pattern was observed by political scientist
Andrew Hacker in the late 1970s. Sociologist Catherine Kohler Riessman reports
in her book Divorce Talk that most of the women she interviewed-but only a few
of the men-gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces. Given
the current divorce rate of nearly 50 percent, that amounts to millions of cases
in the United States every year--a virtual epidemic of failed
conversation. In my own research, complaints from women about
their husbands most often focused not on tangible inequities such as having
given up the chance for a career to accompany a husband to his, or doing far
more than their share of daily life--support work like cleaning, cooking and
social arrangements. Instead, they focused on communication years before, that
most wives want their husbands to be, first and foremost, conversational
partners, but few husbands share this expectation of their wives.
In short, the image that best represents the current crisis is the
stereotypical cartoon scene of a man sitting at the breakfast table with a
newspaper held up in front of his face, while a woman glares at the back of it,
wanting to talk.
单选题
What is most wives' main expectation of their husbands?
A. Talking to them.
B. Trusting them.
C. Supporting their careers.
D. Sharing housework.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 题干问：大部分的妻子主要渴望她们的丈夫什么?答案在第一段里。根据第一段women frequently complain that their husbands don't talk to them．然后This man quickly nodded in agreement(这个男人快速地点头表示同意)。所以答案选A。
单选题
Judging from the context, the phrase "wreaking havoc" (Line 3, Para 2)
most probably means ______.
B. nearly 50 percent of recent divorces are caused by failed
conversation
C. women attach much importance to communication between couples
D. a female tends to be more talkative at home than her spouse
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 注意本题是选错误选项，ACD都是正确的，A项是第二段第一句的意思；但是B选项错误的原因是偷换了50%的比率对象。文章只说了the current divorce rate of nearly 50 percent，即目前美国离婚率为50%，并没有说50%的离婚率是因为缺乏沟通造成的，B选项的说法大大低于文章前一句话所说的most of the women gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorce。
单选题
Which of the following can best summarize the main idea of this text?
A. The moral decaying deserves more research by sociologists.
B. Marriage break-up stems from sex inequalities.
C. Husband and wife have different expectations from their marriage.
D. Conversational patterns between man and wife are different.