单选题 What do you think of when you hear the word motherhood? If you are like most people, you associate motherhood with a number of positive characteristics, such as warmth, selflessness, dutifulness, and tolerance. And though most women expect that motherhood will be happy and fulfilling, the reality is that motherhood had been accorded relatively low prestige in our society. When stacked up against money, power, and achievement, motherhood unfortunately doesn't fare too well, and mothers rarely receive the appreciation they warrant. When children don't succeed or develop problems, our society has had a tendency to attribute the lack of success of the development of problems to a single source — mothers. One of psychology's most important lessons is that behavior is multiply determined. So it is with children's development; when development goes awry, mothers are not the single cause of the problems even though our society stereotypes them in this way. The reality of motherhood in the 1990s is that although fathers have increased their child-rearing responsibilities somewhat, the main responsibility for child-rearing still falls on the mother's shoulders. Mothers do far more family work than fathers do — two to three times more. A few "exceptional" men do as much family work as their wives; in one study the figure was 10 percent of the men. Not only do women do more family work than men, the family work most women do is unrelenting, repetitive, and routine, often involving cleaning, cooking, child care, shopping, laundry, and straightening up. The family work most men do is infrequent, irregular, and non-routine, often involving household repairs, taking out the garbage, and yard work. Women report that they often have to do several tasks at once, which helps to explain why they find domestic work less relaxing and more stressful than men do. Because family work is intertwined with love and embedded in family relations, it has complex and contradictory meanings. Most women feel that family tasks are mindless but essential. They usually enjoy tending to the needs of their loved ones and keeping the family going, even if they do not find the activities themselves enjoyable and fulfilling. Family work is both positive and negative for women. They are unsupervised and rarely criticized, they plan and control their own work, and they have only their own standards to meet. However, women's family work is often worrisome, tiresome, menial, repetitive, isolating, unfinished, inescapable, and often unappreciated. It is not surprising that more men than women report that they are satisfied with their marriage. In sum, the role of the mother brings with it benefits as well as limitations. Although motherhood is not enough to fill most women's entire lives, for most mothers, it is one of the most meaningful experiences in their lives. Father-mother cooperation and mutual respect helps the child to develop positive attitudes toward both males and females. It is much easier for working parents to cope with changing family circumstances and day-care issues then the father and mother equitably share child-rearing responsibilities. Mothers feel less stress and have more positive attitudes toward their husbands when they are supportive partners.
单选题 When children's development goes awry, the cause of problems is usually attributed to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题是细节题。根据文章第1段第5句:“When children don’t…source—mothers.”可知,当孩子没有成功或出现了什么问题时,社会总是倾向于把问题归结于孩子的母亲。
单选题 Men have increased their child-rearing responsibilities, and ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:本题是细节题。根据文章第2段前两句:“The reality of motherhood…to three times more.”可知,虽然父亲比以前承担了抚养孩子的更多责任,但主要还是由母亲承担。母亲承担的家务劳动要比父亲多2到3倍。
单选题 In terms of achievement, motherhood ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:本题是细节题。根据文章第1段第4句:“When stacked up…appreciation they warrant.”可知,母亲所得到的赞誉和尊敬要低于她们应该得到的。
单选题 It is implied in the second paragraph that______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】解析:本题是推理题。第1段提到在孩子出现问题时,社会总是把责任归咎于母亲。接着提到,根据心理学的研究,决定行为的因素很多,孩子出现问题时也一样,母亲并不是唯一的原因。第2段接着提到母亲在家庭生活中承担的重任,母亲做的家务要比父亲多2~3倍,且都是些重复性的、琐碎的工作,并且常常要同时做几项工作。第2段主要叙述了母亲在家庭中的操劳与不易,联系到第1段提到的社会把母亲看作是孩子出现问题的原因,作者的意图是要说明不能就孩子的问题指责母亲。
单选题 More men than women express satisfaction with their marriage because ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:本题是理解分析题。文章第3段最后两句提到母亲做的家务通常是烦人的、乏味的、奴仆式的、重复的等,妇女更多地感到家务的劳顿,因此男人更多地对自己的婚姻感到满意。
单选题 The author concludes the passage by pointing out that ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题是理解分析题。文章最后一段提出,父亲和母亲的合作和相互尊重会使孩子对男人和女人都抱有正面态度,很显然这对孩子的健康成长是有利的。
单选题 This passage is about ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:本题是综合分析题。文章主要是关于妇女在家庭生活中的不平等地位,文章第1段提到了母亲做出的奉献得不到社会应有的承认,接下来的两段义提到妇女在家庭生活中承担了大部分的责任,干最多的家务活,最后一段提出男女在家庭中平等的地位才会有利于孩子的成长。