Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
Every people has its own special words and expressions like the American expression "on the wagon". It means a person who no longer drinks whisky, beer or other kinds of alcoholic drinks. The "wagon" is a water wagon. In other words, a drinker has decided to change from alcohol to water. An Oklahoma newspaper wrote about a man who had a history of heavy drinking on America's Fourth of July holiday. "We believed that his experience had lifted him onto the water wagon, but he was even drunker the next Fourth of July." said the newspaper.
Why do people decide to go on the wagon? Wel1, usually because they are alcoholics. They lose control of themselves when they drink. If they take one alcoholic drink, then they want to drink another, and another, until all thought is gone.
Alcoholism is a major social problem in countries throughout the world. The United States is no exception. Experts believe that several million Americans are alcoholics today. Their health care needs, car accidents, reduced job performance and other problems cost thousands of millions of dollars every year. In the early 1900s, many Americans joined in a campaign to make alcohol illegal in the United States. In 1920 an amendment (修正案) was added to the Constitution. It made drinking or selling alcohol a crime. But the new law did not stop people from drinking. Criminals produced or imported alcohol illegally and sold it almost everywhere. After a few years Americans realized the so-called Prohibition Law did not work. So in 1933 another constitutional change was made, canceling the amendment that made alcohol illegal.
In recent years Americans have taken other steps to deal with the problem of alcohol. One important action had been to increase the punishment for people who drive their automobiles after drinking alcohol. Many states now consider this to be a serious crime. Another important step has been to explain to: children and students the dangers of alcohol. Many schools now offer special programmes to teach young people about the problem. Doctors have been working to develop new drugs and treatment programmes to help alcoholics. Finally, alcoholics themselves are dealing with the problem of alcoholism. Many of them have "gone on the wagon" and stopped drinking. They have joined the Alcoholics Anonymous group meeting regularly to discuss their problems and give each other support. "Going on the wagon" is not the only way to conquer alcoholism, but most alcoholic say it is the best way. They must give up alcohol completely so their own body and spirit can survive.
People decide to 29 on the wagon because ______.
A. they like having one drink after another
B. they fear to lose their self-control in drinking again
C. they enjoy the kind of drinks they get on the wagon
D. they are alcoholics and can not control themselves well
The evil consequences for children are not in dispute. The rate of suicide among children aged ten to fourteen is twice as high as it was twenty years ago. For children aged fifteen to nineteen, the rate has tripled.
Since 1983, crimes by children have been rising at a faster rate than the juvenile population. About half of such crimes involve the traditional youthful offenses of theft, breaking and entering, and vandalism, but serious, violent crimes, though still involving a relatively small proportion of children, are going up at a startling rate, The rate of armed robbery, rape, and murder by juveniles has doubled in a decade.
The Senate Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee surveyed 750 school districts and reported the following changes between 1990 and 1993. Dropouts increased by 11 percent. Drug and alcohol offenses on school property were up 37 percent. Burglaries of school buildings were up 11 percent and assaults on teachers up 77 percent.
Among those who are thought of as "normal" children, lower reading scores and scholastic aptitude scores reveal intellectual impoverishment. Beyond all this loom the apathy and waste of the counterculture. Its existence is no longer news, but its ranks are still swelled each year by thousands of pathetic runaways and, dropouts.
What forces are producing the increasingly severe stresses on today's children?
The phenomenon is complex and baffling, but several developments seem to be interacting. Urbanization is a factor. Children who might have made it on a farm or in a village, despite adverse family circumstances such as extreme poverty or a father's desertion, encounter disaster in a big city with its anonymity and diverse temptations.
Births by unwed mothers and divorce, two trends that are both rising steadily, result in depriving children of the stable, two parent support that they need in their growing years. One out of every six children under eighteen today is living in a single-parent family. This is almost double the proportion in 1950.
Many divorced or widowed parents obviously succeed with their children, but ideally, rearing a child is a two-person job. When one parent is missing, the risk of failure increases. Indeed, it is best if a child has grandparents or other supportive relatives on the scene as well. Instead, what has happened is the near disappearance of the extended family and the substitution of television, the hopelessly inadequate electronic baby-sitter.
One study, for example, revealed that fifty years ago half of the households in Massachusetts included at least one adult besides the parents. Today the figure is only 4 percent. In a small child's life, "Captain Kangaroo" is no substitute for a devoted grandmother.
The bad effect of the treatment American children gets today______.
A. are not taken seriously
B. is beginning to be recognized
C. has aroused hot debates
D. is unquestionable
A.Growth of violence on TV.B.Decreasing of moral standards.C.Destructive threat from n
A. Growth of violence on TV.
B. Decreasing of moral standards.
C. Destructive threat from nuclear explosives.
D. All of the above.