1
With rapid increase of economic rate in western countries, more and more married young couples tend to have no child or only one. At the meantime, many developing nations adopt family planning policy to get rid of poverty. All these facts result in a world with population growth rate declining. But I myself would like to grow up in a big family.
Of course, a small family had its advantages. Firstly, small family makes it easier for parents to bring up and educate their children. Parents could spend more time and money educating one child than several. The child could grow up in an influential environment. Secondly, the child could learn more survival skills for future success.
However, ______________________. The only child becomes the little emperor. It would make the one child ask more for him and think less of others. Besides, after the child grows up and gets married, the new couple has to take care of four old parents. That means the two children must work hard to support the old parents. At present, many nations are facing the problem of becoming aged society. China will face this situation in a short time to come.
On the contrary, a big family weighs over a small family in many aspects. Firstly, parents could educate several children with almost the same time as they spend with one. Moreover, the old brothers or sisters also could help their parents bring up little children. Secondly, if one of the children turns out to be successful, it may mean he or she is becoming a model for other children to learn from.
Despite the fact that parents have to spend more time and money bringing up several children, it is not as difficult as people think it to be. With the help of good educational system and modern technology, it is becoming easier to afford several children.
1. What is the writer’s attitude whether it is good to grow up in a big family? (Please answer within 10 words.)
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2. Translate the underlined sentence in the first paragraph into Chinese.
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3. What’s the main idea of the second paragraph? (Please answer within 10 words.)
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4. Please fill in the blank with proper words or phrases. (Please answer within 10 words.)
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5. What else do you think will help afford several children besides what is mentioned in the article? (Please answer within 20 words.)
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1. He would like to grow up in a big family. / The writer supports the idea of a big family. / The writer thinks big families have more advantages.
解析：根据文章的最后一段可以判断作者的观点。
2. 同时，许多发展中国家为了摆脱贫困实行了计划生育政策。
解析：adopt family planning是“实施计划生育政策的意思”。
3. A small family had its advantages. / Advantages of small families.
解析：第二段的第一句即为本段的主题句(Topic Sentence)。
4. the small families also have their disadvantages
解析：根据上下文逻辑关系判断，该句应该是说小的家庭的弊端。
5. The better living conditions can also help to afford several children.
解析：本题是开放性试题，可以有多种答案，这里只提供其中一种。
2
Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the learned in the early days of the history, while during the fifteenth century the term “reading” undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century did silent reading become popular.
One should be careful, however, of supposing that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud is distraction to others. Examination of reasons connected with the historical development of silent reading shows that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a gradual increase in literacy (读写能力) and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, the number of listeners dropped, and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the popularity of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, trains and offices, where reading aloud would disturb other readers in a way.
Towards the end of the century there was still heated argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its advantages, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and magazines for a specialized readership _________.
By the end of the century students were being advised to have some new ideas of books and to use skills in reading them which were not proper, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological developments in the century had greatly changed what the term “reading” referred to.
1. What is the writer of this passage attempting to do? (Please answer within 10 words)
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2. Find out the sentence in the passage which can replace the following one.
It shouldn’t be generally considered that it was the disturbance to others that led to the popularity of silent reading.
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3. Please translate the underlined sentence in the passage into Chinese.
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4. Please fill in the blank with proper words and phrases. (Please answer within 10 words)
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5. What did the development of silent reading during the nineteenth century show? (Please answer within 10 words)
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1. To explain how present reading habits developed.
解析：本题属于主旨概括题，作者的目的在于解释现在的阅读习惯