2011英语一Text4
It’s no surpri that Jennifer Senior’s insightful1众神的恶作剧动漫, provocative2 magazine cover story, “I love My Children, I Hate My Life,” is arousing much chatter—nothing gets people talking like the suggestion that child rearing3 is anything less than a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience4. Rather than concluding that children make parents either happy or mirable5, Senior suggests we need to redefine6 happiness: instead of thinking of it as something that can be measured7 by moment-to-moment joy, we should consider being happy as a past-ten condition8. Even though the day-to-day experience of raising kids can be soul-crushingly9 hard, Senior writes that “the very things that in the moment dampen10 our moods can later be sources of inten gratificationstyrofoam11 and delight12.”
The magazine cover showing an attractive mother holding a cute13 baby is hardly the only Madonna-and-child image on newsstands14 this week. There are also stories about newly adoptive—and newly single–mom Sandra Bullock, as well as the usual “Jennifer Aniston is pregnant15” news. Practically every week featuresoppo广告歌曲16 at least one celebrity17 mom, or mom-
to-be, smiling on the newsstands.
In a society that so persistently18 celebrates procreation中文翻译成英文19, is it any wonder that admitting you regret having children is equivalent20 to admitting you support kitten-killing? It doesn’t em quite fair, then, to compare the regrets of parents to the regrets of the children. Unhappy parents rarely are provoked21 to wonder if they shouldn’t have had kids, but unhappy childless folks22 are bothered with the message that children are the single most important thing in the world: obviously their miry23 must be a direct result24 of the gaping baby-size holes25 in their lives.
Of cour, the image of parenthood that celebrity magazines like Us Weekly and People prent is hugely unrealistic26, especially when the parents are single mothers like Bullock. According to veral 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 rai a kid without a partner to lean on27; yet to hear Sandra and Britney tell it, raising a kid on their “own” (read: with round-the-clock help) is a piece of ca
ke.
It’s hard to imagine that many people are dumb28 enough to want children just becau Ree and Angelina make it look so glamorous29: most adults understand that a baby is not a haircut. But it’s interesting to wonder if the images we e every week of 英汉互译词典stress-free, happiness-enhancing parenthoodler30 aren’t in some small, subconscious31 way contributing to our own dissatisfactions32 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.
36. Jennifer Senior suggests in her article that raising a child can bring________.
[A] temporary33 delight
[B] enjoyment in progress
[C] happiness in retrospect34
[D] lasting reward35
37. We learn from Paragraph 2 that________.
[A] celebrity moms are a permanent source for gossip36
[B] single mothers with babies derve greater attention
[C] news about pregnant celebrities is entertaining37
[D] having children is highly valued by the public
38. It is suggested in Paragraph 3 that childless folks________.
[A] are constantly expod to38 criticism
[B] are largely ignored by the media
[C] fail to fulfill their social responsibilities
[D] are less likely to be satisfied withwatermelon是什么意思39 their life
39. According to Paragraph 4, the message conveyed by celebrity magazines is________.
[A] soothing40
[B] ambiguous41
[C] ragnarokcompensatory42
[D] misleading
40. Which of the following can be inferred from the last paragraph?
[A] Having children contributes little to the glamour43 of celebrity moms.
[B] Celebrity moms have influenced our attitude towards child rearing.
[C] Having children intensifies44 our dissatisfaction with life.
[D] We sometimes neglect45 the happiness from child rearing.
【干货笔记】
1. insightful adj. 富有洞察力的，有深刻见解的
2. provocative adj. 挑衅的，煽动性的；挑逗的，激发性欲的；引发思考的，启发性的
3. child rearing 育儿
4. a completely fulfilling, life-enriching experience 一个完全令人满意的，丰富的生活经历
5. mirable adj. 痛苦的，使人难受的；（人）乖戾的，总是抱怨的；symantec
少得可怜的，太少的；糟糕的，差劲的
6. redefine v. 重新定义，重新界定
7. measure v. 测量；（指尺寸、长短、数量等）量度为；估量，判定
n. 措施; 方法; (一定的)量; 尺度; 标准; 程度; 判断; 度量单位
8. past-ten condition 过去时条件
towie ten adj. 紧张的; 担心的; 不能松弛的; 令人紧张的
n. (动词的) 时; 时态
9. soul-crushingly 令人抓狂的，让人崩溃的，震撼人心的
crushingly adv. 让人受不了地；过分地
10. dampen v. 使潮湿，弄湿；减弱，抑制
11. gratification n. 满足，令人喜悦的事物
12. delight n. 高兴；令人高兴的人或物，乐事
v. 使高兴；以…为乐
13. cute adj. 可爱的; 漂亮迷人的; 有性吸引力的; 性感的; 精明的
14. newsstand n. 报摊；杂志摊
15. pregnant adj. 怀孕的，妊娠的；意味深长的，意义重大的
16.【特点，特征，特性】
