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About six years ago I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table, I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked, “So, how have you been?” And the boy — who could not have been more than seven or eight years old — replied. “Frankly, I’ve been feeling a little depressed lately.”

       This incident stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I didn’t find out we were “depressed”, that is, in low spirits, until we were in high school.

       Undoubtedly a change in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don’t seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to.

       Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists. Why?

       Human development is based not only on born biological states, but also on patterns of gaining social knowledge. Movement from one social role to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new social positions. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in stages; traditionally, we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.

       In the last 30 years, however, a secret-revelation (揭示) machine has been equipped in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information to all viewers alike, whether they are children or adults. Unable to resist the temptation (诱惑) , many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more attractive moving pictures.

       Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information which children will gain. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.

72. According to the author, feeling depressed is ________.

      A. a sure sign of a mental problem in a child

    B. a mental state present in all humans, including children

    C. something hardly to be expected in a young child

    D. something that cannot be avoided in children’s mental development

73. Traditionally, a child is supposed to learn about the adult world _________.

    A. through connection with society           B. gradually and under guidance

    C. naturally without being taught D. through watching television

74. According to the author, that today’s children seem adultlike results from _________.

    A. the poor arrangement of teaching content

    B. the fast pace of human scientific development

    C. the widespread influence of television

    D. the rising standard of living

75. What does the author think of communication through print for children?

A. It enables children to gain more social information.

B. It can control what children are to learn.

C. It helps children to read and write well.

D. It develops children’s interest in reading and writing.
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