In this century the traditional American family is constantly faced with the thr

In this century the traditional Americanfamily is constantly faced with the threat of breakdown. Some sociologistssuggest that one little-noticed cause may be the introduction of the TV dinner.

     Before theappearance of television sets, the American dinner was a big event for thefamily. In many homes, dinner time may be the only time when everyone gottogether. A typical dinner was usually in three stages. In the preparationstage, the children and Father frequently helped with setting while Mother putthe last touches on the roast. In the eating stage, family members shared theday's experiences and more than food was eaten. In this stage families got toknow one another and made joint decisions around the dinner table, and thus thefamily unit was strengthened. In the cleaning-up stage, children or Fatheragain gave their hands, so that their importance to the home community wasclear. Unfortunately, all of these have been removed by a product---thetelevision set.

     By the beginningof the 1980s, the typical American family dinner was just twenty minutes long.The speed-up of the once-leisurely experiences is clearly connected to the paceof modern life and maybe a model of the modern life is the TV dinners --- mealsdesigned to be eaten from the beginning to the end of a half-hour program. Theonce family affair has now become nothing more than the use of a fork and knife.

64. The underlined word in the secondparagraph can be replaced by ____.

A. big       B.important                 C.combined         D. separate

65. In the past, Americans tended to ____.

A. spend more time eating their food atdinner table

B. eat more food than they have today

C. spend more time talking about theirday's experiences at dinner table

D. talk so much that they forgot to eat

66. The shortening of the dinner time inAmerica is related to ____.

A. the TVprograms                     B. the pace of modern life

C. the wide use of electricalequipment    D. the popularity of fast food

67. The best title for this passage mightbe ____.

  A. Talk at DinnerTable                        B.TV Dinner

  C. Pace of ModernLife                      D.Problems Caused by TV

试题答案

【答案】

 C

 C

 B

【解析】