单选题   On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, children's leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%.
    'Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,' says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children's timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and 'male breadwinner' households spent comparable mounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)
    All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. 'Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,' says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.
    The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing 'free time' watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they're spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren't replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let's face it, who's got the time?
单选题     According to T. Berry Brazelton, it's better for a child if ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】推断题。文中第三段提到，Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself，即玩耍是儿童探索世界和了解自己最有效的方式，D选项符合题意，故选D。
单选题     Which is NOT the situation American kids face today?
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。文中第一段提到，现在的孩子每周待在学校的时间比1981年多8个小时，而且参加更多如足球、芭蕾舞等活动，而且在体育运动上花费的时间也更多了；分别对应选项中的A、B、D。最后一句提到children's leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%，即孩子放松、玩耍的时间变少了。所以C选项不是现在孩子面临的情况，故选C。
单选题     According to Sandra Hofferth, the main reason leading to 'the same time crunch' of children is that ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。文中第二段第二句提到，A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home，主要原因是更多的妈妈们在外面工作，故选A。
单选题     Nowadays, the troublesome problem is American kids ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。文中第三段最后一句话提到，Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it，即无拘无束的玩耍可以鼓励孩子的独立思考，但是3到12岁的孩子每周只有12个小时的时间做这些。所以D选项做很多组织有序的活动，是现在孩子的一个很麻烦的问题。
单选题     We can infer from the passage that ______.
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】细节题。文中最后一段提到，如果他们在电视上花费的时间更少的话，他们也不会把时间用来读书Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading，即每个孩子每周在阅读上花费的时间也只是一个多小时，故选项D正确。