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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  66
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.
In a disharmonious relationship, Israelis have the cultural tendency to______.
选项 A、swallow their disappointments
B、express their negative emotions
C、live together to ease detachment
D、solve the conflict in public
答案B
解析 根据题干中的Israelis和cultural tendency将本题出处定位到末段末句。该句提到，以色列人却正相反，毫不压抑感情，结合前句提到的“英国人的一个文化特性——倾向于掩盖自身负面情绪的表达”可以得出，以色列人倾向于表达负面情绪，故答案为[B]。[A]“掩盖他们的失望”说的是英国人，而不是以色列人，故排除；[C]“住在一起来缓解疏远”说的是西班牙人，故排除；[D]“在公共场所解决冲突”在文中未提到，故排除。
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