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1 Consider these results from a study released last week by the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based think tank: Two-thirds of suburban and urban 12th-graders have had sex; 43 percent of suburban 12th-graders and 39 percent of urban 12th-graders have had sex during "one-night stands." 74 percent of suburban 12th-graders and 71 percent of urban 12th-graders have tried alcohol more than two or three times. Just over 40 percent of 12th- graders in urban and suburban schools have used illegal drugs. 20 percent of urban 12th grade girls have been pregnant; 14 percent of suburban 12th-grade girls have.
2 The study was conducted via student surveys, and the data were collected from the same group of adolescents in three waves from 1995 to 20O2. The study, which surveyed an estimate of 20,000 students, was sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and other federal agencies. The study's authors, Jay Greene and Greg Forster, concluded that students in suburban high schools consume alcohol, smoke cigarettes and partake in as much illegal drug use as students in urban schools, and sometimes even more than their city counterparts. Students in suburban schools also had about the same levels of sexual behavior. as their urban counterparts. The authors suggest that folks who have been fleeing the city hoping to find a "wholesome" life may just come up wanting.
3 Greene, a senior fellow at the institute, told me that he was surprised that the study showed there isn't too much of a difference between urban and suburban high schoolers
4 Surprised? That's because we continue to idealize the more affluent suburbs and demonize the poorer sections of the city. For decades, "city" has been a euphemism for black and poor and decadent, and "suburbs" synonymous with white and wealthy and puritanical. But, of course, neither has ever been totally true. Yet, we're often still surprised when a group of well-to-do kids do something stupid and not so surprised when poor kids do.
5 Henry Binford, an associate professor of history at Northwestern University, said there's a long history of idealizing suburban life that goes back to the 19th century. "Part of the appeal for people moving out was for them to get away from the dirt and crime, poor services and the hurly-burly of the downtown," he said. "Many imagined that the suburbs would be havens. They thought suburban life was healthier and more moral than city living. But the suburbs were never pure or safe or without difficulty as people thought they would be. " It's fantasy duking it out with reality.
6 Why the similarities despite the differences in ZIP codes and, often, opportunities? For starters—and this is a no-brainer—adolescents will be adolescents no matter where they live. They have to contend with similar peer pressures regarding sex, drugs and alcohol. Other pervasive influences, including various media messages, transcend suburban-urban boundaries.
7 Young people tend to have a high propensity for doing stupid things and getting themselves into sticky situations. How ZIP codes play a role is that some wealthier kids' parents can afford to get them unstuck far better than others. Most of us recognize that there is no hermetically sealed place to rear youngsters. But some people still think so, says Greene, a graduate of New Trier High School on the North Shore. "A lot of the flight to the suburbs is still related to the perception that certain social ills are so concentrated in the city," Greene said. That perception is reinforced by television shows and movies about city life; by the news. It's so ingrained that we tend not to question it. We take it for granted.
8 One of the things that attracted me to this study was not so much the similarities—the "findings" that kids will be kids wherever they live—but the continued shock about the

A. compare the behavior. of urban and suburban kids in terms of some social problems
B. highlight the gravity of some social problems involving kids
C. show the author's well-informedness
D. draw attention to the seriousness of problems with suburban kids

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In the last paragraph, the underlined expression "these developments" refers to all of the

A. the development of science fiction and special effects of films
B. the new concepts about the universe acquired by today's astronomy students
C. the world-wide involvement in space exploration
D. humanity's new achievements in the field of astronomy

The beginning of our sleep-deficit crisis can be traced to the invention of the light bulb a century ago. From diary entries and other personal accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, sleep scientists have reached the conclusion that the average person used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night. "The best sleep habits once were forced on us, when we had nothing to do in the evening down on the farm, and it was dark." By the 1950s and 1960s, that sleep schedule had been reduced dramatically, to between 7.5 and eight hours, and most people had to wake to an alarm clock. "People cheat on their sleep, and they don't even realize they're doing it." says Dr. David. "They think they are okay, because they can get by on 6.5 hours, when they really need 7.5, eight or even more to feel ideally vigorous."
Perhaps the most merciless robber of sleep, researchers say, is the complexity of the day. Whenever pressures from work, family, friends and community mount, many people consider sleep the least expensive item on his program. "In our society, you're considered dynamic if you say you only need 5.5 hours' sleep. If you've got to sleep 8.5 hours, people think you lack drive and ambition."
To determine the consequences of sleep deficit, researchers have put subjects through a set of psychological and performance tests requiring them, for instance, to add columns of numbers or recall a passage read to them only minutes earlier. "We've found that if you're in sleep deficit, performance suffers," says Dr. David. "Short-term memory is weakened, as are abilities to make decisions and to concentrate."
People in the 18th and 19th centuries used to sleep about 9.5 hours a night because they had ______.

A. no drive or ambition
B. no electric light
C. the best sleep habits
D. nothing to do in the evening

While still in its early stages, welfare reform. has already been judged a great success in many states—at least in getting people off welfare. It's estimated that more than 2 million people have left the rolls since 1994.
In the past four years, welfare rolls in Athens County have been cut in half. But 70 per cent of the people who left in the past two years took jobs that paid less than $6 an hour. The result: the Athens County poverty rate still remains at mote than 30 percent-twice the national average.
For advocates for the poor, that's an indication of much more needs to be done.
"More people are getting jobs, but it's not making their lives any better," says Kathy Lairn, a policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
A center analysis of US Census data nationwide found that between 1995 and 1996, a greater percentage of single, female-headed household were earning money on-their own, but that average income for these households actually went down.
But for many, the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well without government aid as they did with it is in itself a huge victory.
"Welfare was a poison. It was a toxin that was poisoning the family," says Robert Rector, a welfare-reform. policy analyst. "The reform. is changing the moral climate in low-income communities. It's beginning to rebuild the work ethic, which is much more important."
Mr. Rector and others argued that once "the habit of dependency is cracked," then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards.
From the passage, it can be seen that the author ______.

A. believes the reform. has reduced the government's burden
B. insists that welfare reform. is doing little good for the poor
C. is over-enthusiastic about the success of welfare reform
D. considers welfare reform. to be fundamentally successful

Old Americans are extremely reluctant to buy on ______ and likely to save as much money as

A. debt
B. credit
C. deposit
D. sale

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