单选题 On average, American kids aged 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 amounts 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 Brazel-ton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids aged 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? (310 words)

单选题 By mentioning "the same time crunch" (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：本题属于词义理解题。要知道“the same time crunch”的所指，就应回到第一段去寻找答案。第一段的数据提供了1981年到1997年美国儿童时间安排的变化，但最关键的是最后一句话：“All in all，however，children’s leisure time dropped from 40％ of the day in 1981 to 25%．”由此可知，这里的时间危机实际上就是指闲暇时间的缺乏。选项D是个强干扰项，但文中只谈及时间的紧张，对于父母和孩子能否安排好自己的时间未作评价。

单选题 According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：本题属于细节理解题。理解该细节的关键是第二段中括号中的句子：“(然而，父母都工作和只有父亲出去工作的家庭的孩子都花相当多的时间和他们的父母交流：分别是平均每周19小时和22小时。相比之下，单亲母亲的孩子平均每周只花9小时与其母亲交流。)”这是作者针对桑多拉·霍夫思前一、二句话观点所举的例子。显然，B“部分真实”为正确答案。

单选题 According to the author a child develops better if______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：本题属于细节理解题。该题的关键是理解第三段，尤其是“玩是一个孩子探索世界和了解自己最有力的方式”以及“自由地玩耍能激发孩子独立的思考并能让他们与同龄人和谐相处”。可见，B“让他以自己的方式和同龄人玩”为正确答案。

单选题 The author is concerned about the fact that American kids______.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：本题属于主旨题。文章第一段说：“平均来说，美国3到12岁的孩子一周有29个小时在学校度过，这比1981年要多8个小时。他们还要多做家庭作业、多参加一些像足球和芭蕾一样有组织的活动。尤其是，参加运动的人数从1981年到1997年间上升到了50%。”文章第一段最后一句话“然而，总的说来，孩子们的空闲时间从1981年每天40％下降到每天25％。”第三段又认为“玩是一个孩子探索世界和了解自己最有力的方式”以及“自由地玩耍能激发孩子独立的思考并能让他们与同龄人和谐相处”，因此A“都忙于越来越多有组织的活动”为正确答案。

单选题 We can infer from the passage that______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：本题属于细节推理题。可从两方面思考：一方面排除A，文中没有提到；B与文中最后一段描述相反；D文中也没有提到；父母发现孩子用空闲时间看电视才是好消息。另一方面，仔细思考文章倒数第二句话：“尽管作出了各种努力，让孩子对阅读书籍产生更大的兴趣，然而孩子们还是一周只花个把小时来阅读”。可见，答案是C“为使孩子对读书感兴趣而作的努力是有效果的”。