unit3阅读资料2篇

Passage 1.

Bringing up children is a hard work, and you are often to blame for any bad behavior of your children. If so, Judith Rich Harris has good news for you. Parents, she argues, have no important long-term effects on the development of the personality of their children. Far more important are their playground friends and neighborhood. Ms. Harris takes to hitting the assumption, which has dominated developmental psychology for almost half a century.

Ms. Harris's attack on the developmentalists' "nature" argument looks likely to reinforce doubts that the profession was already having. If parents matter, why is it that two adopted children, reared in the same home, are no more similar in personality than two adopted children reared in separate homes? Or that a pair of identical twins, reared in the same home, are no more alike than a pair of identical twins reared in different homes?

Difficult as it is to track the precise effects of parental upbringing, it may be harder to measure the exact influence of the peer（同龄人）group in childhood and adolescence. Ms. Harris points to how children from immigrant homes soon learn not to speak at school in the way their parents speak. But acquiring a language is surely a skill, rather than a characteristic of the sort developmental psychologists hunt for. Certainly it is different from growing up tensely or relaxed, or from learning to be honest or hard-working or generous. Easy though it may be to prove that parents have little impact on those qualities, it will be hard to prove that peers have vastly more.

Moreover, mum and dad surely cannot be ditched completely. Young adults may, as Ms. Harris argues, be keen to appear like their peers. But even in those early years, parents have the power to open doors: they may initially choose the peers with whom their young associate, and pick that influential neighborhood. Moreover, most people suspect that they come to resemble their parents more in middle age, and that people's child bearing habits may be formed partly by what their parents did. So the balance of influences is probably complicated, as most parents already suspected without being able to demonstrate it scientifically. Even if it turns out that the genes they pass on and the friends their children play with matter as much as affection, discipline and good example, parents are not completely off the hook.

26. According to Ms. Harris, ____.

A) parents are to blame for any bad behavior of their children

B) parents will affect greatly the children's life in the long run

C) nature rather than nurture has a significant effect on children's personality development

D) children's personality is shaped by their friends and neighbors

27.Which of the following views is consistent with what the developmentalists hold?

A) Children are more influenced by their peers than by their parents.

B) Twins are quite different if they are reared in two separate families.

C) Identical twins reared in the same home are different in personality.

D) Nurture has a less significant effect on children's personality development.

28.According to Para. 3, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A) It is harder to track the precise effects of parental upbringing than the exact influence of the peer group in children.

B) Immigrant children tend to discard the way their parents speak quickly when they go to school.

C) It has been proved that peers have more impact on children's qualities such as to be honest

or hard-working or generous.

D) It is easier for children to acquire a language at school than at home.

29.The word "ditched" ( Line 1,Para. 4) could best be replaced by ____.

A) proved B) emphasized

C) compared D) ignored

30. What is the author's main purpose?

A) To highly praise Ms. Harris's work.

B) To counter Ms. Harris's work.

C) To objectively report on Ms. Harris's work.

D) To critically comment on Ms. Harris's work.

答案:BDCCD

Passage 2.

After watching my mother deal with our family of five, I can’t understand why her answer to the question, “What do you do?” is always, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.” JUST a housewife?” Anyone who spends most of her time in meal preparation and cleanup, washing and drying clothes, keeping the house clean, leading a scout troop, playing taxi driver to us kids when it’s time for school, music lessons or the dentist, doing volunteer work for her favorite charity, and making sure that all our family needs are met is not JUST a housewife. She’ s the real Wonder Woman.

Why is it that so many mothers like mine think of themselves as second-class or something similar? Where has this notion come from? Have we males made them feel this way? Has our society made “going to work” outside the home seem more important than what a housewife must face each day?

I would be very curious to see what would happen if a housewife went on strike. Dishes would pile up. Food in the house would run out. No meals would appear on the table. There would be no clean clothes when needed. High boots would be required just to make it through the house scattered with garbage. Walking and bus riding would increase. Those scout troops would have to break up. Charities would suffer.

I doubt if the man of the house would be able to take over. Oh, he might start out with the attitude that he can do just as good a job, but how long would that last? Not long, once he had to come home each night after work to more household duties. There would be no more coming home to a prepared meal; he’d have to fix it himself. The kids would all be screaming for something to eat, clean clothes and more bus fare money. Once he quieted the kids, he’d have to clean the house, go shopping, make sure that kids got a bath, and fix lunches for the next day. Once the kids were down for the night, he might be able to crawl into an unmade bed and try to read the morning newspaper.

No, I don’t think many males are going to volunteer for the job. I know I don’t want it. So, thanks, mom! I’ll do what I can to create a national holid ay for housewives. It could be appropriately called Wonder Woman Day.

1.By what means do the children of the author’s family go to school?

A) They take school bus. B) They take a taxi.

C) Their mother drives for them. D) Scout troop sends them to school.

2.If a housewife went on strike, which one of the following statements is NOT true?

A) Children would scream for something to eat.

B) No meals would appear on the table.

C) The scout troops would have a wonderful time.

D) The man of the house wouldn’t be able to take over.

3.In the author’s opinion, ____.

A) many males are going to volunteer for housewives’ work

B) housewives deserve a national holiday named Wonder Woman Day

C) the man of the house would be able to take over the housewives’ work

D) housewives are second-class citizens or something similar

4.The author’s attitude toward housewives’ work is ____.

A) critical B) indifferent C) ironical D) appreciative

5.The main idea of the passage is about ____.

A) housewives, the wonder women

B) what would happen if housewives went on strike

C) the replacement of women by men as housewives

D) the setting up of a national holiday for housewives

答案：CCBDA