2011年英语一阅读理解Text4

第一段

It’s no surprise that Jennifer Senior’s insightful, provocative magazine cover story, “I Love My Children, I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter – nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience. Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy ormiserable, Senior suggests we need to redefine happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-tense condition. Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly hard, Senior writes that “the very things that in the momentdampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification and delight.”

单词&词组

1. insightful [ˈɪnsaɪtfʊl]（出现2次）adj.富有洞察的

2. provocative [prəˈvɑːkətɪv] adj.挑衅的，煽动性的， 激起争端的

3. arouse [əˈraʊz]（出现3次）v.唤醒，使...产生兴趣，激起

4. rear [rɪə(r)]（出现5次）n.后方；v.饲养，抚养，栽培

5. life-enriching（合成词）n.丰富生活

6. miserable [ˈmɪzrəbl]（出现2次）adj.痛苦的

7. soul-crushingly（合成词） adj.令人抓狂般的 ，让人崩溃般的 
   

8. dampen [ˈdæmpən] v.使扫兴，使沮丧

9. gratification [ˌɡrætɪfɪˈkeɪʃn] n.满足

10. delight [dɪˈlaɪt]（出现5次）n.快乐，高兴

11. anything less than（绝不是）
    

本段翻译

珍妮弗见解深刻，颇具挑衅性的杂志封面故事《我爱我的孩子，我讨厌我的生活》引发了热议，这并不意外——没有什么比“育儿绝非完全是成就自我”、丰富生活的体验'这一提议更能引发人们的讨论了。珍尼佛没有对“孩子带给父母的幸福还是痛苦”做出定论，而是提议我们需要重新定义幸福：不应该把它看成可用“即时即刻的快乐”来衡量的东西，而应把感到幸福视为一种过去式状态。尽管日复一日的育儿经历艰难到摧残灵魂的地步，但“恰恰是当下打击我们情绪的事情日后成为我们极度满足和快乐的源泉”，珍尼佛写道。

第二段

The magazine cover showing an attractive mother holding a cute baby is hardly the only Madonna-and-child image on newsstands this week. There are also stories about newly adoptive – and newly single – mom Sandra Bullock, as well as the usual “Jennifer Aniston is pregnant” news. Practically every week features at least one celebrity mom, or mom-to-be, smiling on the newsstands.

单词&词组

1.  image （出现14次）n.形象，声誉
   

2. newsstand n.报摊

3. pregnant [ˈpreɡnənt] （出现1次）adj..怀孕的

4. feature [ˈfiːtʃər] n.特色;，特征， 特点；v.以...为特色

5. celebrity [səˈlebrəti] （出现5 次）n.名人，名流

6. mom-to-be（准妈妈）
   

本段翻译

该杂志封面上的“魅力妈妈怀抱可爱宝宝”绝不是本周报刊亭上唯一的圣母圣子形象。还有关于“最近领养孩子的——且新近单身的——妈妈桑德拉的报道”，以及珍尼佛怀孕了这一常见新闻。几乎每周都会有对至少一名明星妈妈或准妈妈的特别报道，他们在各报刊亭上笑迎读者

第三段

In a society that so persistently celebrates procreation, is it any wonder that admitting you regret having children is equivalent to admitting you support kitten-killing? It doesn’t seem quite fair, then, to compare the regrets of parents to the regrets of the childless. Unhappy parents rarely are provoked to wonder if they shouldn’t have had kids, but unhappy childless folks are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world:obviously their misery must be a direct result of the gaping baby-size holes in their lives.

单词&词组

1. persistently [pərˈsɪstəntli]（出现5次）adv.持续不断第

2. celebrate [ˈselɪbreɪt]（出现5次）v.赞美，庆祝

3. procreation [ˈproʊkriˈeɪʃən] n.生育

4. provoke [prəˈvoʊk]（出现3次）激怒，激起

5. gape [ɡeɪp] v.张开，裂开

6. be equivalent to（等同于）

7. be bothered with（收...困扰）

本段翻译

在一个如此执着于颂扬生育的社会，承认后悔生儿育女就等同于承认赞同残杀小猫又有什么奇怪呢？所以，将“为人父母者的遗憾”同“无子女者的遗憾”相比较似乎有失公平。不幸福的父母很少被激起对“自己是否本不该要孩子”的思考；但不幸福的无子女者会不断被“孩子是世界上唯一最重要的事情”这一信息所烦扰：显然他们的痛苦必定是他们生活中那些豁开的。孩子大小的窟窿所带来的直接后果。

第四段

Of course, the image of parenthood that celebrity magazines like Us Weekly and People present is hugely unrealistic, especially when the parents are single mothers like Bullock. According to several studies concluding that parents are less happy than childless couples, single parents are the least happy of all. No shock there, considering how much work it is to raise a kid without a partner to lean on; yet to hear Sandra and Britney tell it, raising a kid on their “own” (read: with round-the-clock help) is a piece of cake.

单词&词组

1. lean on（依靠）

2. on one's“own（独自）

3. a piece of cake（小菜一碟）
   

本段翻译

《我们周刊》、《人物》等名人杂志中呈现出来的为人父母形象当然非常不现实，尤其当母亲是布洛克这样的单亲妈妈时更是如此。数项结论为“为人父母者不如无子女夫妻幸福”的研究表明，单亲父母最不幸福。这并没有什么可震惊的，想想看没有伴侣可依靠，独自一个人养育孩子需要付出多大艰辛；但听听桑德拉怎么说，“独自抚养孩子（解读：24小时有人帮忙）简直就是小菜一碟”。

第五段

It’s hard to imagine that many people are dumb enough to want children just because Reese and Angelina make it look so glamorous: most adults understand that a baby is not a haircut. But it’s interesting to wonder if the images we see every week of stress-free,happiness-enhancing parenthood aren’t in some small, subconscious way contributing to our own dissatisfactions with the actual experience, in the same way that a small part of us hoped getting “the Rachel” might make us look just a little bit like Jennifer Aniston.

单词&词组

1. dumb [dʌm]（出现1次）adj.哑的，愚钝的

2. glamorous [ˈɡlæmərəs]（出现2次）adj.富有魅力的

3. happiness-enhancing （合成词）adj.幸福感的提升

4. contribute to（增加，增进）

本段翻译

难以想象很多人会愚钝到仅仅因为瑞希和安吉丽娜让“要孩子”看起来如此令人向往就决定身体力行：大多数成年人都明白，要孩子不像理发（那么简单）。但思考一下这个问题也很有趣：我们每周看到“毫无压力、为提升幸福感”的为人父母形象也许是在以某种细微的、潜意识的方式造成我们自己对实际体验的不满。就像我们中很少部分人曾希望剪一个“瑞秋”发型使自己看起来有那么一点像珍尼佛。

5道题目

36. Jennifer Senior suggests in her article that raising a childcan bring

[A] temporary delight.

[B] enjoyment in progress.

[C] happiness in retrospect.

[D] lasting reward.

37.We learn from Paragraph 2 that

[A] celebrity moms are a permanent source for gossip.

[B] single mothers with babies deserve greater attention.

[C] news about pregnant celebrities is entertaining.

[D] having children is highly valued by the public.

38. It is suggested in Paragraph 3 that childless folks

[A] are constantly exposed to criticism.

[B] are largely ignored by the media.

[C] fail to fulfill their social responsibilities.

[D] are less likely to be satisfied with their life.

39.According to Paragraph 4, the message conveyed by celebrity magazines is

[A] soothing.

[B] ambiguous.

[C] compensatory.

[D] misleading.

40.Which of the following can be inferred from the last paragraph?

[A] Having children contributes little to the glamour of celebrity moms.

[B] Celebrity moms have influenced our attitude towards child rearing.

[C] Having children intensifies our dissatisfaction with life.

[D] We sometimes neglect the happiness from child rearing.

参考答案

CDADB

选项单词

1. temporary [ˈtempəreri]（出现8次）adj.暂时的

2. retrospect [ˈretrəspekt]（出现1次）n.回想

3. permanent [ˈpɜːrmənənt]（出现4次）adj.永恒的，长久的

4. soothing [ˈsuːðɪŋ] adj.令人宽慰的

5. ambiguous [æmˈbɪɡjuəs]（出现4次）adj.模棱两可的

6. compensatory [kəmˈpensətɔːri]（出现7次）补偿性的

7. intensify [ɪnˈtensɪfaɪ]（出现1次）v.增强