首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Having Kids Makes You Happy? [A]When I was growing up, our former neighbors, whom we’ll call the Sloans, were the only couple on
Having Kids Makes You Happy? [A]When I was growing up, our former neighbors, whom we’ll call the Sloans, were the only couple on
admin
2016-08-25
22
问题
Having Kids Makes You Happy?
[A]When I was growing up, our former neighbors, whom we’ll call the Sloans, were the only couple on the block without kids. It wasn’t that they couldn’t have children: according to Mr. Sloan, they just chose not to. All the other parents, including mine, thought it was odd—even tragic. So any bad luck that happened to the Sloans—the egging of their house one Halloween: the landslide(山崩)that sent their pool careering to the street below—was somehow attributed to that fateful decision they’d made so many years before. "Well," the other adults would say, "you know they never did have kids." Each time I visited the Sloans, I’d search for signs of insanity, misery or even regret in their super clean home, yet I never seemed to find any. From what I could tell, the Sloans were happy, maybe even happier than my parents, despite the fact that they were childless.
[B]My impressions may have been swayed by the fact that their candy dish was always full, but several studies now show that the Sloans could well have been more satisfied than most of the traditional families around them. In Daniel Gilbert’s 2006 book Stumbling on Happiness, the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child—and increases only when the last child has left home. He also finds out that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids. Other data cited by 2008’s Gross National Happiness author, Arthur C. Brooks, finds that parents are about 7 percentage points less likely to report being happy than the childless.
[C]The most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term "bundle of joy" may not be the most accurate way to describe our offspring. "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University’s Robin Simon. "In fact, no group of parents—married, single, step or even empty nest—reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It’s such an unexpected finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they’re not."
[D]Simon received plenty of hate mail in response to her research, which isn’t surprising. Her findings shake the very foundation of what we’ve been raised to believe is true. In a recent Newsweek Poll, 50 percent of Americans said that adding new children to the family tends to increase happiness levels. Only one in six(16 percent)said that adding new children had a negative effect on the parents’ happiness. But which parent is willing to admit that the greatest gift life has to offer has in fact made his or her life less enjoyable?
[E]Parents may openly complain their lack of sleep, busy schedules and difficulty in dealing with their bad-tempered teens, but rarely will they cop to feeling depressed due to the everyday rigors of child rearing. "If you admit that kids and parenthood aren’t making you happy, it’s basically blasphemy(亵渎)," says Jen Singer, a stay-at-home mother of two from New Jersey who runs the popular parenting blog MommaSaid.net. "From baby-cream commercials that make motherhood look happy and well rested, to commercials for Disney World where you’re supposed to feel like a kid because you’re there with your kids, we’ve made parenthood out to be one extremely happy moment after another, and it’s disappointing when you find out it’s not."
[F]Is it possible that American parents have always been this disillusioned? Anecdotal(轶事的)evidence says no. In pre-industrial America, parents certainly loved their children, but their offspring also served a purpose—to work the farm, contribute to the household. Children were a necessity. Today, we have kids more for emotional reasons, but an increasingly complicated work and social environment has made finding satisfaction far more difficult. A key study by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Sara McLanahan and Julia Adams, conducted some 20 years ago, found that parenthood was perceived as significantly more stressful in the 1970s than in the 1950s: the researchers attribute part of that change to major shifts in employment patterns. The majority of American parents now work outside the home, have less support from extended family and face a worsening education and health-care system, so raising children has not only become more complicated—it has become more expensive. Today the U. S. Department of Agriculture estimates that it costs anywhere from $134,370 to $237,520 to raise a child from birth to the age of 17—and that’s not counting school or college tuition. No wonder parents are feeling a little blue.
[G]Societal ills aside, perhaps we also expect too much from the promise of parenting. The National Marriage Project’s 2006 "State of Our Unions" report says that parents have significantly lower marital satisfaction than nonparents because they experienced more single and child-free years than previous generations. Twenty-five years ago, women married around the age of 20, and men at 23. Today both sexes are marrying four to five years later. This means the experience of raising kids is now competing with highs in a parent’s past, like career wins or a carefree social life. Sending bad-tempered kids to school or dashing to work with spit-up on your favorite sweater doesn’t turn out to be romantic.
[H]For the childless, all this research must certainly feel redeeming(弥补的). As for those of us with kids, well, the news isn’t all bad. Parents still report feeling a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their lives than those who’ve never had kids. And there are other rewarding aspects of parenting that are impossible to quantify. For example, I never thought it possible to love someone as deeply as I love my son. As for the Sloans, it’s hard to say whether they had a less meaningful existence than my parents, or if my parents were 7 percent less happy than the Sloans. Perhaps it just comes down to how you see the candy dish—half empty or half full. Or at least as a parent, that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.
Parenthood became more stressful in the 1970s partly due to changes in employment patterns.
选项
答案
F
解析
根据题目中的stressful in the 1970s定位到F段第6句。该句用attribute...to…表明为人父母更有压力的部分原因是工作方式的改变,题目用due to引出了相同的原因,因此本题应选F。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/W6pFFFFM
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
PreparingforComputerDisastersSummaryA)Whenhomeofficecomputersgodown,manysmallbusinessesgrindtoahalt.Fortunatel
Inmanycountries,governmentsaretryingtogetcitizenstoeatmorehealthily.Onewayinwhichgovernmentsaretryingtodot
Astheearth’ssurfaceswarm,evaporation(蒸发)isdryingoutforestsandsoils,increasingsusceptibilitytofire.Lastsummer,m
Thesedays,peoplewhodo【C1】______workoftenreceivefarmoremoneythanpeoplewhoworkinoffices.Peoplewhoworkinoffices
Nooneknowsexactlyhowmanydisabledpeoplethereareintheworld,but【C1】______suggestthefigureisover450million.Then
Writeashortessaybasedonthepicturebelow.YoushouldstartyouressaywithabriefaccountofReadingBooks.Youshouldwr
A、Themanisfondoftraveling.B、Thewomanisaphotographer.C、Thewomantookalotofpicturesatthecontest.D、Themanadmi
A、Sayinggoodbyetoafriend.B、Buyingaticketforasportsevent.C、Payingabillatthebank.D、Payingaplanetrip.D女士说要帮男士
A、Heisofferedanewjob.B、Heisgrantedtoleaveforonemonth.C、Heisfiredbythecompany.D、Heisdismissedforhispoor
Childrenmodelthemselveslargelyontheirparents.Theydoso【C1】______throughidentification.Childrenidentifywithaparent
随机试题
患儿,2岁。近来表现为烦躁不安,失眠,食欲减退,夜间磨牙、啼哭,消瘦,睡不安宁,患儿总用手抓肛门。考虑可能是蛲虫感染,采取虫卵标本应该
这批货物的风险自何时起由卖方转移给甲方?()如果中国某公司和法国某公司约定关于合同的一切争议由北京的中国国际经济贸易仲裁委员会进行仲裁,则()。
(2007年)在不同进制的数中,下列最小的数是()。
七宝老街是最能够体现上海古老风韵的街巷。()
张老师用一套试卷对程度相当的两个平行班进行了测试,学生的成绩基本一致,这说明该试卷具有较好()。
【2016上】小明看书时可以“一目十行”,而小华则“一目一行”。这反映了他们在哪种注意品质上存在差异?()
(2006年单选39)唐朝时京城长安某人犯有三种罪,三种罪的处刑分别为徒一年、徒二年和徒三年,依据唐律的规定,该罪犯最终将被处以()。
陈某与李某原系夫妻,后由于感情破裂而离婚,离婚后李某随即与他人结婚,对此陈某一直怀恨在心,并伺机报复。一日,陈某持刀闯入李某家中,口口声声要与李某同归于尽,但在李某的苦苦哀求下,又念及往日事情,陈某最终弃刀而去。本案中,对陈某应当如何处罚?()
JosephMachlissaysthatthebluesisanativeAmericanmusicalandverseform,withnodirectEuropeanandAfricanantecedents
Henningstudiedhow______studentsremembervocabularywhilelearningEnglishasasecondlanguage.
最新回复
(
0
)