2012年GCT考试英语阅精练（六）

On average, American kids ages 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and participated in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet (芭蕾舞). Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 1997: boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls log half that time. All in all, however, children’s leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%.

“Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents,” says Sandra Hofferth, who headed the recent study of children’s timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. (Nevertheless, children in both double-income and “male breadwinner” households spent comparable amounts of time interacting with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.)

All work and no play could make for some very messed-up kids. “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself,” says T. Berry Brazelton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, but kids ages 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.

The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing “free time” watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents might regard as good news. If they’re spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren’t replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let’s face it, who’s got the time?

1. By mentioning “the same time crunch” (Line 1, Para. 2) Sandra Hofferth means

A. children have little time to play with their parents

B. children are not taken good care of by their working parents

C. both parents and children suffer from lack of leisure time

D. both parents and children have trouble managing their time

2. According to the author, the reason given by Sandra Hofferth for the time crunch is

A. quite convincing B. totally groundless

C. partially true D. rather confusing

3. According to the author a child develops better if

A. he has plenty of time reading and studying

B. he is left to play with his peers in his own way

C. he has more time participating in school activities

D. he is free to interact with his working parents

4. The author is concerned about the fact that American kids

A. are engaged in more and more structured activities

B. are increasingly neglected by their working mothers

C. are spending more and more time watching TV

D. are involved less and less in household work

5. We can infer from the passage that

A. extracurricular activities promote children’s intelligence

B. most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off

C. efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful

D. most parents believe reading to be beneficial to children