Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.   

    “I would never have said to my mom,’ Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?’” says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”  

    Music was not the only gulf(分歧). From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in separate orbits.   

    Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversations on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent-child activities, from shopping to sports, involve a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue into adulthood.

    No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friends.”   

    But family experts warn that the new equality can also result in less respect for parents.   

    “There’s still a lot of strictness and authority on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,” says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”    

    Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these evolving(演化的) roles and attitudes. They see the 1960s as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic process that encourages everyone to have a say.   

    “My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds,were on the ‘after’ side,” explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily accomplished by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”

Has Tiger Mom gone soft? One year after the release of her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua is back in the spotlight, reflecting on how overnight infamy (恶名) affected her life, her family and her parenting.

“I have changed a lot,” she told the Huffington Post. “In October, we had 30 kids at our house! We have hosted parties with lots of food and music.”

Last January, the Wall Street Journal published an excerpt (节选) from Chua’s book with the headline “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”. In the excerpt, Chua described how her daughters were never allowed to have sleepovers (在外过夜的儿童聚会), appear in school plays, or earn any grade lower than an A. Chua, an author and professor at Yale Law School, spent much of 2011 on the defensive. In fact, many of her interviews seemed to lend fuel to her critics’ fire.

Now, with the book out in paperback, she said, “I put passages in the book and used very harsh words that I regret. Everybody has those moments you wish you could take back.”

For those who still read Battle Hymn as an advice guide, Chua argues that so-called tiger parenting should be employed mainly during a child’s early years, ideally between the ages of 5 and 12. These “super-strict parenting tactics” are not meant for all ages. Remaining strict after middle school makes you a helicopter parent, according to Chua. And she is quick to point out how different that is from being a tiger mom.

“By the time kids get to high school, helicopter parents are hiring all these tutors, carrying their kids’ sports bags. I never checked older daughter Sophia’s papers because I knew she knew how to sit down and focus,” Chua said.

As for younger daughter Lulu, 15, the rebel for whom the book was written, Chua has really backed off. Instead of forcing Lulu to practise violin for hours a day—the source of their biggest fights, Chua “let her give that up”. “My compromise (妥协) is that I’m going to still be as strict academically, but in exchange she has a lot of social freedom. Lulu has had four sleepovers in the last two months!” Chua said. Chua predicts she’ll only get more easygoing with age.

1.What does the passage mainly tell us?

A．Tiger Mom has changed and wants to be soft.

B．Tiger Mom persuaded readers to follow her example.

C．How Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother came out.

D．How Tiger Mom became the worldwide spotlight.

2.From paragraph 1 we can know that after the publication of the book______________.

A．Tiger Mom became stricter with her children

B．Tiger Mom was thought highly by the public

C．Tiger Mom’s life and family were influenced

D．Tiger Mom became wealthy and easygoing

3.Lulu quarreled with her mother mainly over______________.

A．whether she could do well at school

B．when she could have sleepovers

C．what should be written in the book

D．how long she practiced the violin

Someone said that encouragement is simply reminding a person of the “shoulders” he’s standing on, the heritage he’s been given. That’s what happened   36   a young man, the son of a(n)   37   baseball player, was chosen by one of the minor league teams. Hard as he tried, his first season was   38   , and by midseason he expected to be removed   39   day. The coaches were    40   by his failure because he possessed all the characteristics of a superb athlete, but he seemed to have become   41   from his potential.

His   42   seemed darkest one day when he had already struck out his first time at bat. Then he stepped up to the batter’s box again and quickly ran up two strikes. The catcher called a   43   and ran for a conference to discuss strategies. While they were busy, the   44  , standing behind him, spoke casually to the boy.

Then play   45  , the next pitch was thrown and the young man knocked it out of the park. That was the turning   46  . From then on, he played the game with a new confidence and power that quickly   47   the attention of the parent team, and he was called   48   to the majors.

On the day he was leaving for the city, one of his coaches asked him what had caused such a turnaround. The young man replied it was the   49   remark the judge had   50   that day when his baseball career had seemed   51  .

“He told me I reminded him of all the times he had stood   52   my dad in the batter’s box,” the boy explained. “He said I was holding the bat just the way Dad had held it.   53   he told me, ‘I can see his genes in you; you have your father’s   54   .’ After that, whenever I swung the bat, I just   55   I was using Dad’s arms instead of my own.”