When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, they usually talk simultaneously（同时的）about a variety of subjects, including children, men, careers and what’ s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen -- they can’ t do both -- and they don’ t understand that women can. Besides, women consider that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships -- not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the subtle body language signals that reveal how the characters are feeling emotionally. Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group,  they developed the ability to communicate successfully in order to maintain relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to relate the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a means of bonding. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls’ mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to and looked at, baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents respond the brain bias of their children. Since a girl’ s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we therefore talk to them more. Consequently, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short grunts in reply.
【小题1】While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they       

About fifty years ago, when television first came out, people thought that radio was no longer useful. Television has both sounds and images（影像）. It is much more real and interesting to watch television than to listen to the radio.

However, fifty years later radio is still very popular and it will be here for a long time. One reason is that we don’t need to see an image when we listen to the music on the radio. In fact, listening with your eyes closed is the best way to listen to a piece of music. You can imagine yourself on a sandy beach or up high on a mountain. In other words, you can create your own images. Moreover, while listening to the radio, you don’t have to take your eyes off your work. For example, you can listen to the radio and drive at the same time. Or you can read a book and listen to the radio. Television, on the other hand, doesn’t have this advantage.

A radio is much smaller than a television. You can take a radio anywhere and turn it on anytime you want. In a quiet place you can use headphones to listen to the news or music on the radio. In this way you won’t disturb anybody.

Moreover, a radio is much cheaper than a television. For less than $ 20 you can buy a small radio and have fun with it.

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A．Music.            B．Radio.            C．Sound.            D．Television.

2.People like to watch TV because _______.

A．it has headphones to listen to the news

B．they can drive while watching TV

C．it has both sounds and images

D．they can watch with their ears

3.We learn from the passage that _______.

A．people can take a radio anywhere and turn it on anytime

B．television came out 50 years ago and it is useless now

C．a radio is more expensive than a television

D．people can use headphones to read books

It’s 10:30 p.m., and 11-year-old Brandon Blanco is sound asleep at home. Suddenly, a loud noise wakes him up. Naturally, Brandon reaches for his cell phone. He blinks twice, and the message on the screen becomes clear: “R U awake?”

But the late-night text does not annoy Brandon. He gets frequent messages and calls, even after bedtime. And he can’t imagine life without them. “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my friends or family as often,” he told the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Brandon’s use of technology doesn’t stop there. He also has a computer, a TV and three video-game consoles（控制台）in his room. With so many devices, it is no surprise that when he is not at school, he spends nearly every waking minute using one or more of these devices. Brandon is hardly alone. According to a recent study by TFK, kids aged 8 to 18 are spending more time than ever before using electronic devices. How much time? More than seven and a half hours a day on average, the study found. That’s about an hour more than just five years ago.

The jump is the result of a huge explosion in mobile devices, says Victoria Rideout, the lead author of the study. “These devices have opened up many more opportunities for young people to use media, whether it’s on the bus, on the way to school or waiting in line at the pizza parlor,” says Rideout.

Often, kids multitask, or use more than one device at a time. “If you’ve got a chance to do something on your computer and take a phone call and have the TV on in the background, why not?” Media expert Cheryl Olson says. Most experts agree technology has much to offer kids. But some worry the kids could be missing out on other activities like playing outside or hanging out with friends. “It’s a matter of balance,” says Olson.

Multitasking while doing homework is another concern. Some kids listen to music, watch TV or use the phone while doing their homework. “It’s important to make sure that you can stop and concentrate on one thing deeply,” says Rideout.

With new and exciting devices hitting stores every year, keeping technology use in check is more important than ever. “Kids should try,” adds Rideout. “But parents might have to step in sometimes.”

1.It can be learned from the text that _________.

A. many teenagers lack friends in their middle school

B. kids have too many electronic devices to choose from

C. Brandon feels annoyed about his late-night message

D. Olson is against teenagers’ using mobile phones

2.Which of the following is an example of multitasking?

A. Watching TV when using the computer.    

B. Talking on the phone when lying on the sofa.

C. Playing video games after having lunch.     

D. Listening to loud music while relaxing.

3.The underlined phrase “in check” in the last paragraph can be replaced by _________.

A. in order         B. in store         C. in control               D. in sight

4.According to the text, Victoria Rideout would probably agree that kids should ______.

A. do homework while watching TV           

B. have less homework

C. spend more time on homework             

D. do homework in a place without disturbance

It’s 10:30 p.m., and 11-year-old Brandon Blanco is sound asleep at home. Suddenly, a loud noise wakes him up. Naturally, Brandon reaches for his cell phone. He blinks twice, and the message on the screen becomes clear: “R U awake?”
But the late-night text does not annoy Brandon. He gets frequent messages and calls, even after bedtime. And he can’t imagine life without them. “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my friends or family as often,” he told the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Brandon’s use of technology doesn’t stop there. He also has a computer, a TV and three video-game consoles（控制台）in his room. With so many devices, it is no surprise that when he is not at school, he spends nearly every waking minute using one or more of these devices. Brandon is hardly alone. According to a recent study by TFK, kids aged 8 to 18 are spending more time than ever before using electronic devices. How much time? More than seven and a half hours a day on average, the study found. That’s about an hour more than just five years ago.
The jump is the result of a huge explosion in mobile devices, says Victoria Rideout, the lead author of the study. “These devices have opened up many more opportunities for young people to use media, whether it’s on the bus, on the way to school or waiting in line at the pizza parlor,” says Rideout.
Often, kids multitask, or use more than one device at a time. “If you’ve got a chance to do something on your computer and take a phone call and have the TV on in the background, why not?” Media expert Cheryl Olson says. Most experts agree technology has much to offer kids. But some worry the kids could be missing out on other activities like playing outside or hanging out with friends. “It’s a matter of balance,” says Olson.
Multitasking while doing homework is another concern. Some kids listen to music, watch TV or use the phone while doing their homework. “It’s important to make sure that you can stop and concentrate on one thing deeply,” says Rideout.
With new and exciting devices hitting stores every year, keeping technology use in check is more important than ever. “Kids should try,” adds Rideout. “But parents might have to step in sometimes.”
【小题1】It can be learned from the text that _________.

PALO AITO, California—“Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter—even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise,” US researchers said last week.

A study of 192 third and fourth grades, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.91 kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.

“The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity,” said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician(儿科专家) at Stanford University.

“American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years,” Robinson said.

In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.

Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continue their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet nor took part in any extra exercise.

“One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around and burning off calories,” Robinson said.

“Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more,” Robinson added.

The purpose of the first two paragraphs is ______.

A. to report the time children spend watching TV

B. to show that more TV time leads to getting fatter

C. to tell us the best way to reduce weight

D. to introduce the background of the research

According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV ____.

A. is more than four hours a day       B. is less than four hours a day

C. doubled in the last twenty years      D. is more than on any other activities

The time the 100 children spend on TV every day is about _______ in the study.

A. a quarter of an hour  B. four hours         C. three hours        D. one hour

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage ?

A. Weight increase owes to the result of a reduction in TV viewing.

B. The percentage of children getting fatter has doubled in the last 20 years.

C. Children usually eat less while watching TV.

D. Children usually eat nothing while watching TV.

The main idea of the passage would be ______.

A. less TV time helps reduce children’s weight

B. fewer meals is a must in reducing children’s weight

C. the less you eat, the thinner you will be

D. more exercise is of great benefit to reduce weight