阅读理解  Directions: In this section there are reading passages followed by multiple-choice questions. Read the passages and then mark your answers on your answer sheet.

Passage one.

What makes Americans spend nearly half their food dollars on meals away from home？ The answers lie in the way Americans live today. During the first few decades of the twentieth century, canned and other convenience foods freed the family cook from full-time duty at the kitchen range. Then, in the 1940s, work in the wartime defense plants took more women out of the home than ever before, setting the pattern of the working wife and mother. Unless family members pitch in with food preparation, women are not fully liberated from that chore.

It’ s easier to pick up a bucket of fried chicken on the way home from work or take the family out for pizzas or burgers than to start opening cans or heating up frozen dinners after a long, hard day. Also nowadays, the rising divorce rate means that there are more single working parents with children to feed. And many young adults and elderly people, as well as unmarried and divorced mature people, live alone rather than as a part of a family unit and don’ t want to bother cooking for one. Fast food is appealing because it is fast, it doesn’ t require tiny dressing up, it offers a “fun” break in the daily routine, and the outlay of money seems small. It can be eaten in the car — sometimes picked up at a drive-in window without even getting out — or on the run. Even if it is brought home to eat, there will never be any dirty dishes to wash because of the handy disposable wrappings. Children, especially, love fast food because it’ s finger food, no struggling with knives and forks, no annoying instructions from adults about table manners. 

单选题 Americans enjoy fast food mainly because ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】原文最后一段中后部“Fast food is appealing because it is fast . . . no struggling with knives and forks, no annoying instructions from adults about table manners. ” 表明快餐方便、 省时省力， 故D项为正确答案。
单选题 It can be inferred that children ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】原文最后一句话“Children, especially, love fast food because it’ s finger food, no struggling with knives and forks, no annoying instructions from adults about table manners. ” 提到孩子喜欢快餐的原因是不用使用刀叉， 家长不会令人厌烦地指导他们餐桌礼仪， 可以推断出孩子们喜欢在进餐时有自由， 故A项为正确答案。
单选题 Many Americans are eating out and not cooking at home nowadays because ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】原文最后一段第三句话“And many young adults and elderly people, as well as unmarried and divorced mature people, live alone rather than as a part of a family unit and don’ t want to bother cooking for one. ” 表明许多美国人自己住， 懒得为一个人做饭， 故C项为正确答案。
单选题 According to the text, a drive-in window is a ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】原文倒数第三句“It can be eaten in the car--sometimes picked up at a drive-in window without even getting out--or on the run. ” 可以看出人们可以从drive-in window拿到食物而不需下车， 故B项为正确答案。
单选题 The expression “pitch in with” (Line 2, Para. 2)probably means ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】pitch in意为“投入； 做出贡献” 。 该词所在原句的意思为“如果家庭成员不帮忙准备食物， 女性就不能从这项家务中彻底解放” ， help（帮助） 最为贴切， 故C项为正确答案。