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  3. Compared with elderly parents and adult children in five other industrialized nations, Americans are twice as likely to have "di

Compared with elderly parents and adult children in five other industrialized nations, Americans are twice as likely to have "di

admin2012-05-28  44
问题     Compared with elderly parents and adult children in five other industrialized nations, Americans are twice as likely to have "disharmonious" relationships, a new multinational study has found. And we’re correspondingly less likely to have "friendly" relationships marked by strong affection and relatively free of conflict. The study of nearly 2,700 parents over age 65, published recently in The Journal of Marriage and Family, turned up significant national differences. German and Spanish parents described relationships with their adult children as more detached. The English reported the most friendly families. Israelis operated with a high degree of ambivalence, meaning they indicated strong positive and negative emotions. Norwegians placed somewhere in the middle. And Americans took the prize for conflict — defined as a higher incidence of arguing and criticism. "American families can be characterized by greater strain," said Merril Silverstein, a social gerontologist (老年学专家) at the University of Southern California and the study’s lead author.
    Let’s not overstate our conflict. Most American parents — 51 percent of the United States sample — still managed to maintain positive connections with their children, and so did a plurality of(多数) those surveyed in other countries. Though the survey didn’t attempt to point reasons for discord, the researchers have some theories. They chose countries with very different social policies and with a variety of cultural values relating to families, and they believe these play a role.
    "Though it might be invisible, our choices and our emotions are shaped by the options that are available or not available to us," said Dr. Silverstein. "And that’s influenced by where we live." In countries without strong governmental support for the elderly, for example, "families are compelled to care for each other, and it forces them into situations they might not want to be in." Norwegians, for instance, enjoy virtually lifetime state assistance. They don’t have to be as deeply involved in their parents’ care as, say, Spaniards or Americans. "The idea that families should care for their own is deep-rooted in U.S. ideology," Dr. Silverstein said. But government support is weaker, with more gaps, so we frequently feel we have to face the not-always-harmonious consequences.
    Cultural variations also enter the equation. In Spain, a far higher proportion of the elderly participants — 22.5 percent — lived with their children than was the case in the other nations, a situation that might ease feelings of detachment. As for the English, they have strong social supports, but they also have a cultural tendency to inhibit the expression of strong negative emotion. Israelis, on the other hand, let it all hang out.
What do we learn from the second paragraph?
选项 A、The majority of parents in the world keep positive connections with children.
B、Most parents don’t get along well with their adult children, especially in US.
C、American parents are the most successful in dealing with parent-children relationships.
D、Conflict has been a striking theme in the relationships of parents and their children.
答案A
解析 第二段首句提到，我们不要夸大冲突，接着第二句解释原因：大多数美国父母和其他被调查国家中的多数父母仍然做到了与子女之间维持良好的关系。[A]中的keep positive connections with children是对文中的maintainpositive connections with their children的同义转述，故为答案。[B]“大部分父母与孩子相处不好，尤其在美国”与以上的信息相反，故排除；[C]“美国的父母在处理父母与孩子的关系上最成功”是对该段第二句的过度推断，故排除；[D]“冲突是父母与孩子之间的关系的主题”与该段首句说的“不要夸大冲突”矛盾，故排除。
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