单选题 In the past, young people in Japan were expected to take on responsibilities to support their parents and grandparents. Now they expect to be supported well into young adulthood. The "new breed", born since the 1960s, have never known anything but richness. Youth are seen as resistant to entering society as mature adults to becoming social citizens. Once the great objective of reconstruction after the Second World War was accomplished, a new generation lost the motivating power that had united the nation together.
Japan"s birth rate has been falling rapidly, partly because of the recession, and the job and financial insecurity that it has caused. In 1999, the figure was 1.38 children per woman, the lowest ever recorded. At the same time, youth crime, although still especially low by western standards, rose to its highest level since record-keeping began 32 years ago. Likewise, the proportion of students dropping out before graduating, at 2.5% also very low by western standards, has nevertheless been rising.
Entrepreneurial (企业家的) role models are few and far between. Bill Gates is often mentioned, but a foreign model can only have so much influence. The problem is that Japanese culture discourages people from revealing details of personal life, including such ordeal (考验) as starting a company. In the past, successful companies such as Honda or Hitachi provided role models of a sort. But today they have been faded by the downturn, and few others have risen to take their place.
By the same reason, young people often feel isolated from their fathers who worked too hard at their jobs to establish much of a relationship with their children. "The one thing they"re sure of is that they don"t want to be like their fathers. And the girls don"t want to be with boys who are like their fathers, so the boys are sure not to be," says Professor Morishima.
单选题 According to the passage, former young people were expected to ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。题目问“以前的年轻人被期望如何做”,文章开篇第一句话就对此作了说明,“过去,日本的年轻人很早就要承担起照顾父母和祖父母的责任(were expected to take on responsibilities to support their parents and grandparents)。”由此可知,C选项与文意相符。其他三项在文中均未提及。
单选题 The word "it" (Line 2, Para. 2) most probably refers to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。it可用来指代刚刚提到过的人或事,根据前后文内容,此处应指代recession,即economic depression,这造成了就业和经济的不安定局面,所以A选项是正确答案。
单选题 The author takes the two examples of the youth crime and students" dropping-out before graduating to show ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 推理题。作者在第二段中所列举的犯罪率及辍学率的上升均与道德水平有关系。在首段中已经提到年轻人的负担较之过去已经减轻了,故选D。
单选题 Today, entrepreneurial models are rarely found in Japan because ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。作者在第三段中指出:日本缺少企业家的行为榜样的问题在于“日本的文化阻碍了日本人民揭示个人生活中的细节部分,其中包括创建公司的经验。”所以A选项是正确答案。
单选题 The passage mainly discuss ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题。文章通过年轻人在社会生活中的一些表现,如:日本出生率的下降、少年犯罪率和辍学率的上升等例子说明了日本年轻人的道德观与价值观的变化,所以B选项是正确答案。