The average American child spends three to five hours a day watching TV. In 1961, the average child began to watch television at age three; however, today it is nine months. Yet, most parents think that television has a bad influence on their children. For example, in the early 1970s, my parents believed that my bad eyesight was the result of sitting too close to the screen, and they therefore made my stay at least six feet from it. Today, most people have no such worry, but many new ridiculous (荒谬的) sayings have appeared:

*TV makes kids stupid. Many children watch more educational programs when they are pre-schoolers. When they grow up, they can read more books and have much better ideas to solve difficult problems than other children.

*TV makes kids violent. The real story is not so simple. Hundreds of studies show that watching violence on TV makes children more aggressive (好斗的). But a study of over 5,000 children also finds that some positive programs make children kinder. The problem is that kids are increasingly watching shows with violence instead of those suitable for their age.

*Sitting around watching TV makes kids overweight. An experiment finds that when children watch less television, they do lose extra weight; however, reducing their television time does not make them more active. The real problem lies in snacking (吃零食), a widespread habit for kids, and junk-food advertisements.

*TV helps kids get to sleep. The opposite is true. The more television children watch, the more likely they are to have irregular sleep and nap(小睡) patterns. Allowing kids to watch television is part of the problem, not the solution.

1.Which one is the advantage of educational TV programs?

A. They will make children solve difficult problems better than others.

B. They will improve children’s ability to get along with others.

C. They are likely to make children more aggressive.

D. They will make sure of children’s success in the future.

2.Why are children spending much time watching TV likely to be fat?

A. Watching TV makes children lazy and inactive.

B. Children are attracted by the food advertisement on TV.

C. Watching TV doesn’t burn up as much fat as doing sports.

D. Children like to snack while watching TV.

3.What influence does watching TV have on a child’s sleep?

A. Children are likely to sleep deeper after watching TV.

B. Children’s sleep time will be greatly reduced.

C. It will make children form a bad habit of sleeping.

D. It will make children sleep easier.

4.What is the purpose of this text?

A. To increase people’s knowledge of watching TV.

B. To warn parents of the disadvantages of watching TV.

C. To explain the bad influences that watching TV has on children.

D. To correct parents’ wrong ideas of television’s effect on children.

Is gun play good or bad for children? For many years I emphasized its harmlessness. When concerned parents expressed doubt about letting their children have toy guns, because they didn’t want to encourage them in the slightest degree to become criminals, I would explain how little connection there was. In the course of growing up, children have a natural tendency to bring their aggressiveness more and more under control if their parents encourage this. One- to two-year-olds, when they are angry with another child, may bite the child’s arm without hesitation. But by 3 or 4 they have already learned that aggression is not right. However, they may pretend to shoot their mother or father, but smiling to assure them that the gun and the aggressive behaviour aren’t to be taken seriously.

In the 6- to 12-year-old period, children will play an earnest game of war, but it has lots of rules. There may be arguments, but real fights are relatively rare. At this age children don’t shoot at their mother or father, even in fun. It’s not that the parents have turned stricter; the children’s own conscience has. In adolescence aggressive feelings become much stronger, but well brought-up children can turn them into athletics and other competition or into kidding their friends.

In other words, I’d explain that playing at war is a natural step in the disciplining of the aggression of young children; that a cautious parent doesn’t really need to worry about producing a criminal.

But nowadays I’d give parents much more encouragement to guide their child away from violence. A number of incidents have convinced me of the importance of this.

One of the first things that made me change my mind, several years ago, was an observation that an experienced nursery school teacher told me about. Her children were hitting each other much more than previously, without reason. When she talked to them, they would protest, “But that’s what the Three Stooges do.” (This was a children’s TV program full of violence which immediately became very popular.)

What further shocked me into reconsidering my view was the assassination(暗杀)of the former President, and the fact that some schoolchildren cheered about this. (I didn’t so much blame the children as I blamed the kind of parents who will say about a President they dislike, “I’d shoot him if I got the chance!”)

These incidents made me think of other evidences that Americans often tolerate lawlessness and violence. We were hard on the Indians and the later waves of immigrants. At times we denied justice to groups with different religions or political views. And now a great percentage of our adult as well as our child population has been endlessly fascinated with dramas of Western violence and with cruel crime stories, in movies and on television. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we Americans on the average have more aggressiveness inside us than the people of other nations. I think rather that the aggressiveness we have is less controlled, from childhood on.

To me it seems very clear that in order to have a more stable and civilized national life we must bring up the next generation of Americans with a greater respect for law and for other people’s rights than in the past. There are many ways in which we could and should teach these attitudes. One simple opportunity we could seize in the first half of childhood is to show our disapproval of lawlessness and violence in television programs and in children’s gun play.

I also believe that the survival of the world now depends on a much greater awareness of the need to avoid war and to actively seek peaceful agreements. There are enough nuclear arms to completely destroy all civilization. This terrifying situation demands a much greater stability and self-control on the part of national leaders and citizens than they have ever shown in the past. We owe it to our children to prepare them deliberately for this awesome responsibility.

1.The underlined word “this” in Paragraph 1 refers to______.

A. controlling their aggressiveness

B. playing with toy guns

C. aggressive behavior

D. the course of growing up

2.Based on the author’s view about the relationship between children’s aggressiveness and their age, which of the following is true?

A. A 2-year old boy knows that it is not correct to behave aggressively.

B. The older children become, the less aggressive they will be.

C. 6- to 12-year-olds enjoy war games but develop them into argument and serious fights.

D. Adolescents’ aggressiveness is often displayed in the form of competition.

3.What conclusion does the author intend to draw from the story told by the nursery school teacher?

A. Watching violence can lower a child’s standard of behaviour.

B. Violent TV programs should be banned in nursery schools.

C. Children are generally lawless or violent nowadays. I

D. It is acceptable to let children have toy guns

4.What does Paragraph 7 mainly talk about?

A. Examples showing that Americans are more aggressive than other nations.

B. Evidences proving that America has a long history of lawlessness and violence.

C. The idea that children are less able to put their aggressiveness under control.

D. More reasons why the author changed his view on the main issue of the article.

5.What is a must if people intend to enjoy stability and civilized national life?

A. To show disapproval of gun play in television programs.

B. To make people aware that there are already enough nuclear arms.

C. To elect national leaders with greater stability and self-control.

D. To bring up children who show more respect for the law and others’ rights.

6.Which of the following serves best as the title of the article?

A. How Does Age Influence Aggressiveness?

B. Are American Children Becoming More Aggressive?

C. Should Children Play With Guns?

D. What Should Parents Teach Their Children

B

We answer some questions this week in our series on getting into an American college or university.

The first question is about our recent discussion of English language test. Vo Ngoc from Vietnam would like to know about the TOEIC, which is designed to measure skills of English as spoken in the workplace.

The Educational Testing Service administers the TOEIC. It says the test measures the language skills of people working in an international environment. American colleges and universities accept scores from the TOFEL and often the IELTS. If you miss our report on these tests, you can find it at our website www. unsv. com..

Tahir Mahood from Pakistan asks how to improve his English before taking these kinds of tests. Well, you can start by looking for ways to use English as much as you can Watch American movies and TV shows and read books in English Look for English speakers to talk to.

The Internet has many free materials for Engiish learners. Visitors to www. unsv. com. for example, can read, listen and watch programmes on many different subjects. The U.S. Department of Education recent launched a free website designed to help immigrants learn English.

The site is called USA Learns at www. usalearns, org, like www. chinadaily. cn, intended for English learners in China

Next,a question from Turkey:Hasan Eker asks about getting a postdoctoral position in the U. S. This is work generally done by a person who recently earned a PhD. The National Post-doctoral Association in Washington has information about international postdocs on its website www. Nationalpostal.org.

And, finally, we have questions from Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia about how to pay an education through jobs. There’re rules that restrict the kinds of jobs that foreign students

can have while studying in the U. S.

1.What-s the purpose of the passage?

A. To attract more people to the website.

B. To introduce the TOEIC to readers.

C. To ask questions on entering American universities.

D. To help deal with some puzzles on entering American colleges.

2.According to the passage, TOEIC is .

A. a must for those who go to American universities

B. designed for whoever apply for a job with companies

C.to test a student’s language skills in the workplace

D. a test for students to graduate from universities

3.A person wb.o wants to learn. English can go to the following EXCEPT.

A. www. unsv. Com

B. www. national postdoc. org

C. www. usalearns. Org

D.www chinadaily. cn,

4.What can we know from the passage?

A. Foreign students are not allowed to do whatever jobs they like in the U. S.

B. Every graduate from colleges can get a postdoctoral position if they want to.

C. The IELTS is also necessary for job application like the TOEIC.

D. Students from Iran aren’t allowed to have jobs in the U. S.

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