首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Having Kids Makes You Happy? [A] When I was growing up, our former neighbors, whom we’ll call the Sloans, were the only couple o
Having Kids Makes You Happy? [A] When I was growing up, our former neighbors, whom we’ll call the Sloans, were the only couple o
admin
2017-06-27
48
问题
Having Kids Makes You Happy?
[A] When I was growing up, our former neighbors, whom we’ll call the Sloans, were the only couple on the block without kids. It wasn’t that they couldn’t have children; according to Mr. Sloan, they just chose not to. All the other parents, including mine, thought it was odd—even tragic. So any bad luck that happened to the Sloans—the egging of their house one Halloween; the landslide (山崩) that sent their pool careering to the street below—was somehow attributed to that fateful decision they’d made so many years before. "Well," the other adults would say, "you know they never did have kids." Each time I visited the Sloans, I’d search for signs of insanity, misery or even regret in their super clean home, yet I never seemed to find any. From what I could tell, the Sloans were happy, maybe even happier than my parents, despite the fact that they were childless.
[B] My impressions may have been swayed by the fact that their candy dish was always full, but several studies now show that the Sloans could well have been more satisfied than most of the traditional families around them. In Daniel Gilbert’s 2006 book Stumbling on Happiness, the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child—and increases only when the last child has left home. He also finds out that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids. Other data cited by 2008’s Gross National Happiness author, Arthur C. Brooks, finds that parents are about 7 percentage points less likely to report being happy than the childless.
[C] The most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term "bundle of joy" may not be the most accurate way to describe our offspring. "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University’s Robin Simon. "In fact, no group of parents—married, single, step or even empty nest—reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It’s such an unexpected finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they’re not."
[D] Simon received plenty of hate mail in response to her research, which isn’t surprising. Her findings shake the very foundation of what we’ve been raised to believe is true. In a recent Newsweek Poll, 50 percent of Americans said that adding new children to the family tends to increase happiness levels. Only one in six (16 percent) said that adding new children had a negative effect on the parents’ happiness. But which parent is willing to admit that the greatest gift life has to offer has in fact made his or her life less enjoyable?
[E] Parents may openly complain their lack of sleep, busy schedules and difficulty in dealing with their bad-tempered teens, but rarely will they cop to feeling depressed due to the everyday rigors of child rearing. "If you admit that kids and parenthood aren’t making you happy, it’s basically blasphemy (亵渎)," says Jen Singer, a stay-at-home mother of two from New Jersey who runs the popular parenting blog MommaSaid.net. "From baby-cream commercials that make motherhood look happy and well rested, to commercials for Disney World where you’re supposed to feel like a kid because you’re there with your kids, we’ve made parenthood out to be one extremely happy moment after another, and it’s disappointing when you find out it’s not."
[F] Is it possible that American parents have always been this disillusioned? Anecdotal (轶事的) evidence says no. In pre-industrial America, parents certainly loved their children, but their offspring also served a purpose—to work the farm, contribute to the household. Children were a necessity. Today, we have kids more for emotional reasons, but an increasingly complicated work and social environment has made finding satisfaction far more difficult. A key study by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Sara McLanahan and Julia Adams, conducted some 20 years ago, found that parenthood was perceived as significantly more stressful in the 1970s than in the 1950s; the researchers attribute part of that change to major shifts in employment patterns. The majority of American parents now work outside the home, have less support from extended family and face a worsening education and health-care system, so raising children has not only become more complicated—it has become more expensive. Today the U. S. Department of Agriculture estimates that it costs anywhere from $134,370 to $237,520 to raise a child from birth to the age of 17—and that’s not counting school or college tuition. No wonder parents are feeling a little blue.
[G] Societal ills aside, perhaps we also expect too much from the promise of parenting. The National Marriage Project’s 2006 "State of Our Unions" report says that parents have significantly lower marital satisfaction than nonparents because they experienced more single and child-free years than previous generations. Twenty-five years ago, women married around the age of 20, and men at 23. Today both sexes are marrying four to five years later. This means the experience of raising kids is now competing with highs in a parent’s past, like career wins or a carefree social life. Sending bad-tempered kids to school or dashing to work with spit-up on your favorite sweater doesn’t turn out to be romantic.
[H] For the childless, all this research must certainly feel redeeming (弥补的). As for those of us with kids, well, the news isn’t all bad. Parents still report feeling a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives than those who’ve never had kids. And there are other rewarding aspects of parenting that are impossible to quantify. For example, I never thought it possible to love someone as deeply as I love my son. As for the Sloans, it’s hard to say whether they had a less meaningful existence than my parents, or if my parents were 7 percent less happy than the Sloans. Perhaps it just comes down to how you see the candy dish—half empty or half full. Or at least as a parent, that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.
According to the Newsweek Poll, half Americans agreed adding a child has a positive effect on happiness levels.
选项
答案
D
解析
根据题目中的专有名词Newsweek Poll定位到D段第3句。该句提到一半的美国人认为孩子的出生会增加幸福感,题目中的has a positive effect on是对原文tends to increase的同义改写,故选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8li7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、Shelikeseatingjunkfood.B、Sheeatslittlebeforeexercising.C、Shehasagooddiet.D、Sheeatsmoreafterexercising.A
A、Mostlyforstudies.B、Bothforstudiesandforfun.C、Mainlyforsocialwork.D、Bothforstudiesandforwork.B
Sportsandgamesmakeourbodiesstrong,【B1】______gettingtoofat,andkeepushealthy.Butthesearenottheironlyuse.They
Peanutsareoneoftheworld’smostnutritiousfoods.Peanutscontainpoundforpoundmoreprotein,vitamins,andmineralsthan
据说《茉莉花》(JasmineFlower)是流传到海外的第一首中国民歌。许多国外学者在研究中国音乐史时都提到了《茉莉花》,不少外国人学唱中文歌时首选这首歌。2004年雅典奥运会(AthensOlympics)闭幕式上,一位中国小姑娘唱起《茉莉花》,给
姚明是中国第一位国际篮球巨星,身价(personalwealth)超过10亿美元。前年,姚明因复发性足部和腿部伤病退出赛场。4个月后,他在上海一知名学府注册入校。学校为他量身定做了学位课程(degreeprogram),并主要采取单独授课的方式。据一家
A、300million.B、3billion.C、Over335million.D、Morethan28million.C短文提到,PAI的研究显示,目前有超过3.35亿人口缺水,因此C正确。
A、Water’sspecificheatishigherthanthatofthesand.B、Water’sspecificheatislowerthanthatofthesand.C、Water’stempe
A、Theydisappearafterthetraining.B、Theyendureforfiveyears.C、Theylastforafulltenyears.D、Theyremainforever.C短文提
A、Havingregularmorningmeetings.B、Goingshoppingwithhiswife.C、Havingeveningdinnerathome.D、Havinginterviewwithjour
随机试题
曲轴箱通风不良将会造成哪些危害?
属于重度睡眠呼吸暂停综合征的诊断指标是
在队列研究中对结果进行假设检验,正确的无效假设是
妊娠期母体变化哪项不对()
治理管涌与流沙(土)的原则是以防为主,大范围的流沙(土)险情出现时,首先应采取的有效措施是()。
2010年3月31日,松南公司有关账户期末余额及相关经济业务如下:(1)“库存现金”账户借方余额2000元,“银行存款”账户借方余额350000元,“其他货币资金”账户借方余额500000元。(2)“应收账款”总账账户借方余额350000元,其
甲于某日清晨使用月票在市公园内露天舞池旁学习跳舞,突然被旁边一棵树上坠落的枯枝砸在后头颈上,随即被他人送到医院诊治。诊断结论为颈椎髓震荡,颈椎过伸性损伤,甲为此花费医药费若干。因损害赔偿与公园发生纠纷,甲诉至法院。对此,下列说法正确的是()。
进行总体参数的点估计时,选择较好的点估计值所依据的标准包括()
如果要在菜单中渤口一个分隔线,则应将其Caption属性设置为______。
Youshould________whatyouoriginallystatedifyouwantyourchildren’srespect.
最新回复
(
0
)