More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying people: Relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, aster a decline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate needs to be taken in this pro-marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains, by far, the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society.
What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty-five years ago, the typical American family consisted of a husband, a wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children. And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses.
Thus, one can find the very type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriage; marriages with "full-time" children from the present marriage and "part-time" children from former marriages. There are step-fathers, step-mothers, half-brothers, and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: Most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.
Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families

A:A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife. B:Many types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable. C:Americans prefer to have more kids than before. D:There are no nuclear families any mor

The number of pupils in class ______ small.

A:are B:were C:is D:have been

The study of 267 pupils aged 11 to 18 found 63% felt addicted to the internet-Techno Addicts: Young Person Addiction to Technology-was carried out by researchers at Cranfield School of Management, Northampton Business School and academic consultancy AJM Associates.
Researchers used a written questionnaire to examine the nature and the volume of mobile phone calls and text messaging as well as computer use including e-mail, instant messaging and accessing social networking sites.
They found 62% first used or owned a computer before the age of eight, 80% first used the internet between the ages of five and 10,58% first used a mobile phone between the ages of eight and 10 and 58% have had access to a social networking sites between the ages of eleven and 13.
Over 63% felt addicted to the internet. Over 30% reported spending between one to two hours a day using the internet and 26% said they spent up to six or more hours a day. On average, pupils said they spent between one and two hours on social networking sites each day.
Over one in five(20.2%) said they left the phone on in lessons-which is usually forbidden by schools. Over a third(39%)admitted that text shortcuts damaged the quality of their written English, particularly when it came to spelling. And 84% openly admitted copying chunks of information from the internet into their homework or projects on a number of occasions.
Dr Nada Kakabadse from Northampton Business School said modern technology, such as mobile phones and handheld computer games, was having an impact on pupils’ attention levels. "They are hiding these things under the desks so their concentration cannot be equally divided, they are not focusing on what’s going on in class. "
Dr Kakabadse said pupils were also getting into a bad habit of plagiarism. "For their homework, instead of reading the book, they go on the internet and lift it. "
She also raised concerns about the text-messaging abbreviations to which young people had grown accustomed. They have invented a new language. This kind of abbreviation they unconsciously bring into their assignments.
Why did Dr Nada Kakabadse say mobile phones were having an impact on pupils’ attention levels

A:Pupils use abbreviations to write the homework. B:The phones diverted their attention away from the class. C:The phones would rings occasionally during the class. D:The phones have entertainment games to attract pupils.

More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving. As Skolnick notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce rate need to be taken in this pro marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus marriage remains, by far, the preferred way of life for the vast majority of people in our society.
What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty-five years ago, the typical American family consisted of a husband, a wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children. And there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriages, of the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses(配偶).
Thus, one can find every type of family arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriage; marriages with "full-time" children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with "full-time" children from the present marriage and "part-time" children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half-brothers, and half-sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult life married.
Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families ______

A:A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife. B:Many types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable. C:Americans prefer to have more kids than before. D:There are no nuclear families any mor

The study of 267 pupils aged 11 to 18 -Techno Addicts: Young Person Addiction to Technology-was carried out by researchers at Cranfield School of Management. Northampton Business School and academic consultancy AJM Associates.
Researchers used a written questionnaire to examine the nature and the volume of mobile phone calls and text messaging as well as computer use including e - mail, instant messaging and accessing social networking sites.
They found 62% first used or owned a computer before the age of eight, 80% first used the internet between the ages of five and 10,58% first used a mobile Phone between the ages of eight and 10 and 58% have had access to a social networking sites between the ages of eleven and 13.
Over 63% felt addicted to the internet. Over 30% reported spending between one or two hours a day using the internet and 26% said they spent up to six or more hours a day.
On average, pupils said they spent between one and two hours on social networking sites each day.
Over one in five(20.2% )said they left the phone on in lessons—which is usually forbidden by schools.
Over a third (39%) admitted that text shortcuts damaged the quality of their written English, particularly when it came to spelling.
And 84% openly admitted copying chunks of information from the internet into their homework or projects on a number of occasions.
Poor attention levels
Dr Nada Kakabadse from Northampton Business School said modern technology, such as mobile phones and handheld computer games, was having an impact on pupils’ attention levels.
"They are hiding these things under the desks so their concentration cannot be equally divided, they ore not focusing on what’s going on in class."
Dr Kakabadse said pupils were also getting into a bad habit of plagiarism.
"For their homework, instead of reading the book, they go on the internet and lift it. "
She also raised concerns about the text - messaging abbreviations to which young people had grown accustomed.
"They have invented a new language. This kind of abbreviation they unconsciously bring into their assignments. "
"So they will have difficulty communicating with others and making themselves understood. Of course, language should evolve but maybe not so quickly. /
Why did Dr Nada Kakabadse say mobile phones were having an impact on pupils’ attention levels

A:Pupils use abbreviations to write the homework. B:The phones diverted their attention away from the class. C:The phones would rings occasionally during the class. D:The phones have entertainment games to attract pupils.

One-room schools are part of the heritage of the United States, and the mention of them makes people feel a vague long for the way things were. One-room schools are an endangered species. However, for more than a hundred years, one-room schools have been systematically shut down and their students sent away to centralized schools. As recently as 1930, there were 149,000 one-room schools in the United States. By 1970 there were 1,800. Today, of nearly 800 remaining one-room schools more than 350 are in Nebraska. The rest are scattered through a few other states that have on their road maps wide-open spaces between towns.
Now that there are hardly any left, educators are beginning to think that maybe there is something yet to be learned from one-room schools, something that served the pioneers that might serve as well today. Progressive educators have come up with progressive-sounding names like "peer-group teaching" and "multi-age grouping" for educational procedures that occur naturally in the one-room schools. In a one-room school the children teach each other because the teacher is busy part of the time teaching someone else. A fourth grader can work at a fifth-grade level in math and a third-grade level in English without the stigma associated with being left back or the pressures of being skipped ahead. A youngster with a learning disability can find his or her own level without being separated from the other pupils. In larger urban and suburban schools today this is called mainstreaming. A few hours in a small school that has only one classroom and it becomes clear why so many parents feel that one of the advantages of living in Nebraska is that their children have to go to a one-room school.
A major characteristic of the one-room school system is that ______.

A:learning is not limited to one grade level B:pupils mostly study math and English C:some children have to be left back D:teachers are always busy

下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。
{{B}}第一篇{{/B}}

What is mentioned as a major characteristic of the one-room school system in the second paragraph?

A:Some children have to be left back. B:Teachers are always busy. C:Pupils have more freedom. D:Learning is not limited to one grade level at a time.

{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}

A major characteristic of the one-room school system is that

A:learning is not limited to one grade level． B:pupils mostly study math and English． C:some children have to be left back． D:teachers are always busy．