Question

Want to be a happy married couple? Consider having kids．

A new study found that having children boosts happiness．And the more, literally, the merrier．

But unmarried couples shouldn’t expect to find greater happiness through child-raising．The study, published in the Oct．14 online edition of the Journal of Happiness Studies, suggests that having children has little or no effect on boosting happiness among couples who aren’t hitched(和諧)．

The findings contradict previous research that suggested that having more offspring doesn't lead to greater happiness and might even make people less satisfied with their lives．One theory behind the conclusion is that parents don’t receive many rewards in return for the hard work of raising children．

The new study, however, notes that parents say children are one of the most important things in their lives, if not the most important．

The study found that life satisfaction for married people -- women especially -- goes up the more kids they have．Single, separated and co-habiting people, by contrast, report negative experiences．

“One is tempted to advance that children make people rich under the ‘right conditions’ -- a time in life when people feel that they are ready, or at least willing, to enter parenthood,” Dr．Luis Angeles, of the University of Glasgow in Scotland, said in a news release from the journal’s publisher．“This time can come at very different moments for different individuals, but a likely signal of its approach may well be the act of marriage．”

1．The underlined word “offspring” in the fourth paragraph can be replaced by _____．

     A．generation              B．children        

       C．mothers          D．marriage

2．The best title of this passage should be _______．

     A．Children Are the Source of Happiness

     B．Are You Happy Married Couple?

     C．Married with Children Paves Way to Happiness

     D．The Right Conditions of Having Children

3．Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

     A．The more children women have, the happier they are．

     B．The more children the married women have, the more unsatisfied they become．

     C．Raising kids can give any person happiness．

     D．Without marriage, one woman had better not raise kids．

4．In the passage, the underlined part ‘right conditions’ refers to _______．

     A．a time when the couple are ready and willing to become parents

     B．the situation where the family is rich enough to raise a child

     C．the situation where the couple are very happy

     D．a time when the couple thinks raising children can boost happiness

Answer 1

1--4    BCDA  

解析:

1．B 詞義猜測題。根據上下文的語境來判斷。由第三段的having children has little or no effect on boosting happiness…可知，養(yǎng)孩子為促進幸福方面沒有什么影響……以及第四段的for the hard work of raising children可推知，B項為最佳答案。

2．C 主旨大意題。由文章第一段可知，想要成為快樂的夫妻嗎？考慮要孩子。以下的文章又介紹了結婚的夫妻有孩子會增加幸福指數(shù)。

3．D 推理判斷題。由倒數(shù)第二段的Single, separated and co-habiting people, by contrast, report negative experiences．知，單身，離異和同居的人，相對比而方，報導出的是消極的經歷。故沒結婚，最好不要養(yǎng)孩子。

4．A 細節(jié)理解題。由最后一段的a time in life when people feel that they are ready, or at least willing, to enter parenthood可知。