单选题 If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, it may explain at least one of their shared beliefs: Men and women can't be real friends. Many may point to the jealousy that plagues many rational people when a significant other befriends someone of the opposite sex. Boil it down to the inherent differences between the sexes. It just can't be done. Is it right?
Wrong, say relationship experts. "The belief that men and women can't be friends comes from another era in which women were at home and men were in the workplace, and the only way they could get together was for romance," explains Linda Sapadin, Ph. [D], a psychologist in private practice in Valley Stream, New York. "Now they work together and have sports interests together and socialize together." This cultural shift is encouraging psychologists, sociologists and communications experts to put forth a new message: though it may be tricky, men and women can successfully become close friends. What's more, there are good reasons for them to do so.
Society has long singled out romance as the prototypical male-female relationship because it spawns babies and keeps the life cycle going; cross-sex friendship, as researchers call it, has been either ignored or trivialized. We have rules for how to act in romantic relationships (flirt, date, get married, have kids) and even same-sex friendships (boys relate by doing activities together, girls by talking and sharing). But there are so few platonic male-female friendships on display in our culture that we're at a loss even to define these relationships.
A certain 1989 film starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal convinced a nation of moviegoers that romance always comes between men and women, making true friendship impossible. "When Harry Met Sally set the potential for male-female friendship back about 25 years," says Michael Monsour, Ph. D., assistant professor of communications at the University of Colorado at Denver and author of Women and Men as Friends: Relationships across the Life Span in the 21st Century. "Almost every time you see a male-female friendship, it winds up turning into romance."
In 1989, Don O'Meara, Ph. D., a sociology professor at the University of Cincinnati-Raymond Walters College, published a landmark study in the journal Sex Roles on the top impediments to cross-sex friendship. Among several challenges he pointed out in his research, society may not be entirely ready for friendships between men and women that have no sexual subtext. People with close friends of the opposite sex are often barraged with nudging, winking and skepticism: "Are you really just friends?" This is especially true, says O'Meara, of older adults, who grew up when men and women were off-limits to each other until marriage.

单选题 What does the word "befriends" (Line 3, Para. 1 ) most probably mean?
[A] Stop being friends with.
[B] Go on a date with.
[C] Become friends with.
[D] Have a fancy or particular liking or desire for.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 词义题；结合上下文，我们可以知道我们这里需要的意思要满足这样的句子
“Many may point to the jealousy that plagues many rational people when a significant other befriends someone of the opposite sex ”，利用简单的代入的方式，将4个选项进行比较，我们可以知道C选项是符合上下文要求的，是正确答案。

单选题 What do some relationship experts think about male-female friendships?
[A] They can only be friends in the workplace.
[B] Their friendships would finally turn into romances.
[C] It is totally possible that friendships exist between males and females.
[D] Men and women can't be real friends.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 观点态度题；在考研的阅读理解的题目中，除了询问作者的观点和态度之外，也开始考查文章引用的某些人的观点和态度。通过对于原文中这些人际关系专家的说法，我们可以知道，他们认为男女之间是可以成为朋友的。同时他们也分析了在过去为什么男女之间不会有真正的友情的原因。4个选项中，A选项来自原文“another era in which women were at home and men were in the workplace”的说法，但原文这里说的是过去的情况，而且A选项本身的诠释和原文也是有出入的。B选项来自原文“the only way they could get together was for romance”，同样是在讲述之前的事情，而不是现在的情况，也需要排除。C选项符合原文的观点，是正确选项。D选项与C选项观点相反，比较容易排除。

单选题 According to paragraph 3, why is it difficult for men and women to become "just" friends?
[A] Historically, it has been difficult to define this kind of relationship.
[B] It is not as common as same-sex friendships.
[C] Men and women have different rules to act in a relationship.
[D] There haven't been enough rules and examples for cross-sex relationship.

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 段落主旨题；题目直接帮助我们定位到了原文的第三段，需要我们对第三段传递的意思有个全面的把握，才能对这个问题给予正确的解答。归结起来，第三段把男女之间没有办法只是成为朋友归咎到了我们在社会中看不到足够的实例来告诉我们男女之间的朋友是怎么样的。用原文的话说就是“there are so few platonic male-female friendships on display”。A选项将段落中几处不同位置的信息进行拼凑，并未形成对原文信息的正确把握。B选项和C选项其实都是D选项的结果，是题目中所提问题的其他表述方式，而不是题目要求我们寻找的原因。真正的原因在D选项中给出了正确的解释。

单选题 What is the main idea of paragraph 4?
[A] The difficulties of cross-sex friendship stem partly from the media.
[B] Movie and television have set different rules for men and women to interact.
[C] Television has not helped to promote cross-sex friendships.
[D] Some book authors play a negative role in people accepting cross-sex friendships.

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 段落主旨题；提问方式非常直接，我们对第四段进行阅读和归纳就可以选出答案。而这个段落的写作也比较规范，段落的第一句话就直接给出了段落大意。也就是将男女之间成为朋友困难的原因归咎于媒体的责任。在媒体上，我们看不到男女之间纯洁的友谊，自然也就造成了现实生活中男女之间做朋友的难度。比较阅读4个选项，A选项的表达是正确的，是我们需要寻找的答案。B选项将段落所列举的movie和television进行比较，两者都在原段落中出现，但是两者之间的比较关系是不存在的。C选项涉及的是原文的一个方面，是不全面的，属于片面性的干扰选项。D选项对原文的理解出现了偏差，原文引用了一个图书作者，同时也是传播学副教授的意见，而D选项就此做出的对于图书作者的分析是原文中没有出现的，比较容易排除。

单选题 Which one of the following would be the best subtitle for the last paragraph?
[A] Establishing Equality: The power play
[B] The Public Eye: Dealing with doubters
[C] The Meeting Place: Finding friends
[D] Defining the Relationship: Friends or Lovers?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 段落主旨题；题目的问法是要求我们为最后一个段落选择最佳的副标题，实际上就是段落主旨题。分析段落，我们可以看到，段落分析的是公众对于男女之间做朋友的看法，而“society may not be entirely ready for friendships between men and women”则具体表达出了公众对此是持质疑的态度的。B选项与这种说法表达的含义最为贴近，是正确选项。 A、C和D三个选项都貌似和段落主旨有关，其中的A选项排除难度最低，而D选项的排除难度最大。因为公众的质疑内容就是对于男女之间究竟是朋友还是恋人的质疑。但是比较B和D两个选项，结合原文的意思之后，B选项更加直接地点到了公众的质疑这一关键信息，而D选项所说的确定是朋友还是恋人关系，在原文中并没有得到充分的论述。